Key Takeaways

• The standard of care is about reasonable professional judgment, not perfection.
• Contract language such as “best in class,” “guaranteed performance,” or “free from defects” can create significant uninsured risk.
• Strong documentation and professional communication are among the most effective defenses against liability claims.
• Recognizing warning signs early and proactively managing risk can help prevent project issues from becoming claims.

What Design Professionals Need to Know About the Standard of Care

As I work with design professionals, one topic continues to surface in contract reviews, claims discussions, and risk management conversations: the standard of care.

It’s one of the most important concepts in professional practice, yet it’s also one of the most misunderstood.

Too often, project stakeholders equate the standard of care with perfection. They assume that if a project experiences a problem, delay, or design issue, someone must have failed. But that’s not how the standard of care works, and misunderstanding that distinction can create significant risk for design firms.

Misunderstanding the standard of care can affect everything from contract negotiations to professional liability insurance coverage and claims outcomes. Understanding the standard of care, and knowing how to protect it, is one of the most effective ways architects and engineers can strengthen their risk management strategy.

What Is the Standard of Care?

For design professionals, the standard of care is the legal benchmark used to determine whether professional services were performed with reasonable skill and competence under similar circumstances.

In simple terms, it means providing services in a manner consistent with that degree of care and skill ordinarily exercised by members of the same profession currently practicing under similar circumstances at the same time and in the same or similar locality. It doesn’t require perfection, flawless documents, or guaranteed project outcomes.

Project complexity, site conditions, available information, client objectives, geographic considerations, and industry practices all influence how professional performance is evaluated. The standard of care recognizes that design professionals apply judgment, experience, and technical expertise—not guarantees.

This distinction is critical because many professional liability claims stem from mismatched expectations rather than actual negligence.

Why the Standard of Care Matters for Professional Liability

Professional liability claims generally focus on whether a design professional met the applicable standard of care.

A mistake alone does not automatically mean negligence occurred. To establish liability, there must generally be evidence that the professional failed to exercise the level of care that a reasonably competent peer would have exercised under similar circumstances.

This is an important protection for architects and engineers. The law recognizes that complex projects involve professional judgment, evolving conditions, and inherent uncertainty. That’s why maintaining an appropriate standard of care is so important from both a legal and risk management perspective.

How Contract Language Can Increase Risk

One of the most common challenges I see is contract language that unintentionally elevates the standard of care.

Have you seen these phrases? Does your firm use them?

• “Highest professional standards”
• “Best in class”
• “Free from defects”
• “Guaranteed performance”
• “Cutting-edge solutions”
• “Any and all services required for project success”

These may sound harmless at first glance, but these terms can create obligations that go beyond the traditional professional standard of care.

When we push back on this language during contract negotiations, clients occasionally respond with, “Can’t you just buy insurance for that?”

This isn’t primarily an insurance issue. There isn’t a professional liability policy that transforms guarantees or warranties into ordinary professional services.

The better option is helping clients understand that architects and engineers should be measured against a reasonable professional standard, not perfection. In many cases, this learning opportunity creates a much more productive negotiation.

How Contracts Impact Professional Liability Insurance Coverage

One of the biggest misconceptions in the design industry is that every contractual obligation is insurable.

Professional liability insurance is generally designed to respond to allegations of negligent acts, errors, or omissions arising from professional services. It’s not intended to cover every promise a firm agrees to make in a contract. In fact, professional liability policies typically include a Contractual Liability Exclusion, which excludes coverage for liability that would not exist but for the contract.

Provisions like this deserve careful review:

• Warranties
• Guarantees
• Broad indemnification obligations
• Defense requirements
• Outcome-based performance commitments

These can create exposures that extend beyond the professional standard of care and what professional liability coverage is designed to address.

Why Documentation Is One of Your Best Risk Management Tools

When a professional liability claim arises, defending the work often comes down to one thing: the story the project record tells.

Meeting minutes, project correspondence, field reports, emails, and internal documentation help demonstrate a consistent pattern of professional judgment and reasonable care.

The firms that are best positioned during a claim aren’t necessarily the firms that never experience problems. They’re often the firms that can clearly show how decisions were made and how risks were managed throughout the life of the project.

Good documentation is more than a project management best practice. It’s one of the most effective professional liability risk management tools available to design professionals.

Just as importantly, communications should remain professional and factual. Emails, text messages, Teams chats, and other project communications can become discoverable during litigation. This includes internal communications! How teams communicate can become nearly as important as the technical decisions they document.

When Good Intentions Create Additional Exposure

Design professionals are natural problem-solvers. Unfortunately, some of the greatest risks arise when teams try to be too helpful. Construction site safety is a common example of this conundrum.

Most design agreements appropriately place responsibility for job site safety, means, and methods on the contractor. However, when architects or engineers begin directing how a safety issue should be corrected, they may inadvertently assume responsibilities beyond their contracted role.

The same principle applies to undocumented additional services, informal project favors, and scope changes that are never formally memorialized through a contract amendment. While these requests may feel minor at the time, they can create uncertainty about responsibilities if a dispute develops later.

The lesson isn’t to stop helping clients. Instead, it’s about ensuring expectations, responsibilities, and scope changes are clearly documented.

Early Warning Signs of a Potential Claim

Claims rarely appear out of nowhere. In my experience, projects often present warning signs long before a formal demand arrives.

Common indicators include:

• Budget overruns
• Significant RFI activity
• Schedule delays
• Communication breakdowns
• Job site accidents
• Project subpoenas
• Turnover among key project stakeholders
• Increasingly adversarial project relationships

When these warning signs begin to accumulate, firms should follow established reporting procedures and consider engaging available loss prevention resources as early as possible.

Early action often improves outcomes and helps firms navigate challenges before they escalate into claims.

Protecting Your Firm Starts with Understanding the Standard of Care

The standard of care is the foundation of professional practice for design professionals. Protecting it requires more than contract review or insurance coverage. It requires thoughtful communication, strong documentation, clearly defined scopes of service, disciplined project management, and a clear understanding of professional responsibilities.

At Holmes Murphy, we believe the most effective risk management strategies are proactive, practical, and educational. The more design professionals understand the standard of care, the better positioned they are to negotiate contracts confidently, manage professional liability exposures, strengthen client relationships, and protect the long-term success of their firms.

If you’re ready to strengthen your risk management strategy, review contract language, or better understand how the standard of care impacts professional liability exposure, reach out to our team today.