ABSTRACT
The specifier, as part of the design team and as an employee of the company that may have contracted with the client to provide a service, owes the client a duty to act as a competent member of his or her profession. The notion of competence is not limited to the avoidance of mistakes-even competent people are allowed to make mistakes. But the duty implies that the specifier has a competence in all areas of the discipline in which he or she is offering services to the client. But what of related areas outside the expertise of the specifier? These are very varied, but usually include insurance, economics, law and the definition of legal liabilities, as well as other areas of technology which may themselves be highly specialized. It is necessary for specifiers to be aware of their limitations and to seek specialist advice for those aspects of the work outside their competence. The specifier’s employer still carries the responsibility for the advice obtained from others, but is usually able to fall back on a similar duty owed to him or her by those advisers. Of course, if the specifier is an employee of the client, then the specifier owes no further duty than that contained in the contract of service with the employer, namely to act in a responsible fashion as an employee.
