Every construction professional makes mistakes, some of which result in legal disputes. What is disheartening as attorneys who routinely represent architects, engineers and other construction professionals, is to see the same firm make the same mistake more than once. It happens more often than you would think. If you have issues on a project, there are practical ways that your firm can avoid making the same mistake in the future that will save you time, money and stress.
Identify the issue. This sounds easy, but sometimes the cause of a particular delay, error or cost overrun can be difficult to accurately assess, particularly in the heat of trying to resolve the issue. It is also tempting to move onto the next project and breathe a sigh of relief that the prior project is over. Do not avoid thinking about your difficult projects. After a project is over, your project team should sit down and review the project. Identify all of the areas where mistakes occurred that are attributable to the work of your company.
Assess the reason that the error occurred. Ask your team members for their assessment. If someone on the team just made a mistake, she is likely to identify it themselves. If you do not ask team members to identify the cause of the mistake, they are less likely to make a true self-assessment. There may be multiple errors, some of which may be caused in part by other project participants. Be careful not to blame others to avoid assessment of your firm’s role in the mistake.
Determine how the mistake could have been avoided. For example, perhaps someone more senior should have reviewed a junior engineer’s work. Perhaps, an architect in your company needs additional training about a specific type of project. It is also possible that your company undertook a project that it should not have because it was outside of your expertise, the schedule was too compressed, or you simply had too much work.
Develop a plan of corrective action. It is great to identify an issue and why it happened, but you must actually correct it. If you had to hire an attorney because of a dispute on the project or a lawsuit (or your insurer got involved), ask the attorney and the insurer for ideas about how the issue can be resolved in the future. Ask your team members for their ideas. Develop a plan to implement the ideas that will help your next project run more smoothly.
Implement the plan. Once you have determined the best way to avoid the mistake in the future, you must follow through with the plan. If an issue repeats itself and there is litigation, you can bet that the Plaintiff will be looking for other times when a similar problem occurred and they will argue that the failure to correct the issue justifies a greater damages award, including punitive damages. If you fix the problem, your future projects will run far more smoothly.
If you have any questions concerning risk management issues, we would be glad to help you. The attorneys of Gibbes Burton are passionate about helping professionals and businesses to minimize risk and build success.