STANDARD OF PRACTICE

STANDARD OF PRACTICE What does it mean for there to be a standard of practice or a violation of the standard of practice? The standard of practice is the exercise of ordinary skill and care common to the professional under the circumstances. It is not the average performance of all professionals or the best performance of professionals. The standard of practice can relate to any aspect of a design professional’s work, from design to construction administration. Just because a majority of professionals would do a task a certain way or that the claimant’s expert would do it differently does not mean that the way that the design professional performed the task is wrong or was a violation of the standard of practice. Professional negligence must be contrasted with ordinary negligence. Professionals, like any other person, can be sued for ordinary negligence for matters not relating to their professional duties and practice. For example, if a person slips and falls on ice on their property of the professional, in the course of driving to or from a construction site, negligently causes a motor vehicle accident, those claims would be ordinary negligence claims where the standard of practice would not be applicable. The design professional does not guaranty success (unless the design professional contractually or expressly makes a guaranty or warranty), and a bad result does not necessarily constitute a violation of the standard of practice. Ordinarily, a claimant must present expert testimony to support a claim of professional negligence. There is an exception where the alleged professional negligence is a matter of common knowledge, or if the defendant professional establishes by his/her own testimony the standard of practice and breach.