Standard of Care in Civil Litigation

There have been different standards of care throughout history. Hammurabi's legal standard was that if a house collapsed and killed the owner, then the builder would be killed. The Napoleonic code stated that if a structure had a serviceability problem within 10 years of its completion, the builder would be sent to prison. The contemporary standard of care is commonly defined as that level of skill and competence ordinarily and contemporaneously demonstrated by professionals of the same discipline, practicing in the same locale, and faced with the same or similar facts and circumstances. This standard must take into account the engineer's learning and skill, the location where the engineer practices, the availability of facilities, and whether the civil engineer qualifies as a specialist, in which case the standard of care may be higher. In a court of law an expert witness determines the standard of care based on investigations, a review of reports and records, or opinions of other professionals performing the same or similar services at the time in question.