Engineering entails highly technical concepts, products, and designs, and is one of the professions guided by law. The laws surrounding an engineers’ work are as complex as the work itself.
As an engineer, you must (and should) devote time and effort to study and understand the laws affecting your profession. This helps you to prevent certain challenges, liabilities, and problems related to your work.
In a litigious country, such as the US, engineers who own and manage engineering firms should understand the importance of the rule of law.
Laws that every engineer should keep in mind
Contract laws
A contract is a legal agreement between two or more people/parties, where each party assumes a legal commitment that must be completed. Contract law governs the legality of contracts between parties. They will have to do everything from removing screws to decorating the terrace.
The engineering profession involves dealing with a lot of clients and contracts. If you’re an engineer, you must have a legal agreement binding you to your client. Therefore, it’s important for every engineer to understand contract laws.
Contract laws outline the scope of work, the conditions of the agreement, and help regulate the relationship between parties.
For instance, if you’re a structural engineer tasked with designing a building, you must first enter into an agreement/contract with the client before proceeding with your work. Contract law forms the basis for most engineering projects.
Key elements of a contract
Understanding contract law will help protect your rights and outline your obligations as an engineer. It’s essential to understand the key elements of a contract. These include;
- Offer
- Acceptance
- Adequate consideration
- Capacity and competency
- Legality
Tort law
This type of law assigns blame and penalties after engineering failures.
Tort laws mainly deal with civil injuries that occur as a result of negligence from either party. When a matter is taken to court involving tort law, the court will measure all injuries and damages in monetary amounts.
Examples of torts engineers should understand
- Damage to personal property
- Trespass to land
- Invasion of privacy
- Fraud
You need to understand tort laws in order to protect yourself and your company.
For instance, fraud can be understood as providing false information about a product or service that, in turn, causes legal harm to them. In tort law, harm may be described as physical injury, loss of earnings, damage to reputation, or loss of money someone spends buying your product or service.
Intellectual property laws
Intellectual property laws are a major aspect and area of concern, especially for software engineers. The laws include;
- Patents
- Proprietary designs
- Copyrights
- Trade secrets
Many businesses and firms, especially in technology and research, vigorously defend their intellectual property because of the impact it could have on their business interests. For instance, Therma tru doors will protect their designs so that they don’t get duplicated by other companies.
As an engineer, working directly or contracted by these companies, it can be challenging to navigate through the intellectual property laws and one can easily land on the wrong side of the law.
Therefore, you must understand intellectual property laws to protect yourself, your products, services, ideas, and your business in general.
Standards and certifications
Engineering is one of the most regulated professions due to its complexity. There are numerous stipulations, including rigorous materials standards and testing processes.
These standards are imposed for health and safety reasons. Therefore, every engineer must understand all the required work standards before embarking on a project.
It’s worth noting that the standards may vary from one region to another.
In addition to the standards, engineers must seek certification from the necessary bodies before working on projects. Ideally, one of the things every client will consider when hiring an engineer for a project is up to date certification.
Tips on Becoming a Successful Engineer
Apart from understanding the laws of engineering, there are a few things that can help an engineer become successful.
Aim for excellence
Sometimes, engineers sacrifice quality for quantity in their hunt for better opportunities and more money.
However, if you want to be an excellent engineer, focus on exceeding your client’s expectations and making them happy.
For instance, you shouldn’t rush a home improvement project for one client, just because you have others lined up.
Take your time to work on one project and move to the next as soon as you’re done. If you do this, without a doubt, your clients will value you and your work, and will happily recommend you to others. You will always be busy and fully engaged, with the added bonus of a stellar reputation.
Learn new things
As an engineer, every project you work on will come with certain challenges. You must learn how to tackle each challenge by acquiring new skills each day. Your productivity depends entirely on your ability to take in new information, and use it to offer solutions.
If you want to be successful as an engineer, treat failure as an opportunity to learn something new.
Look out for new professional development opportunities to help you stand out in the ever-changing industry. At each stage of your career, work on improving your problem-solving skills.
Additionally, don’t dwell much on professional development and forget to work on your soft skills. Communication and collaboration skills are essential for a successful engineer.
Embrace change
How you execute projects and the tools you use will define the kind of engineer you are. You need to adapt to changes in technology to be an excellent engineer.
Use state-of-the-art tools and equipment to speed up your projects and to increase efficiency.
Expand your mind to deal with problems in a modern way. That’s how you become a competent engineer.
Last word
Becoming an excellent engineer isn’t all about learning the technical concepts, designs, and products related to your profession. It also entails understanding laws that affect engineering.
An excellent engineer is one who understands contract laws, tort laws, and intellectual property laws, among others. When working on projects and dealing with different clients, these laws are your guide. In addition, engineers should always do good work, learn new skills and embrace technological change.
Author’s Bio
Nick Bravin is a freelance writer who works with businesses to increase their online presence by creating informative, engaging, and shareable web content. He works closely with New Jersey based real estate lawyers, Aiello Harris, as a content creator. Bravin loves the hustle and owns several businesses. During his free time, you will find him traveling, reading marketing books, playing football, or listening to jazz.
