<p>I have been thinking about majoring in civil engineering, but I have heard that there can be liability issues with civil engineers. If there is structural failure or an accident then the civil engineer could be liable and have serious legal issues. This career path seems great for me, but I am hesitant about it now that I know about these risks. Should I let this affect my decision about being a civil engineer?</p>
<p>For mistakes, you’d be covered under professional liability insurance. If there’s a failure because of negligence on your behalf, then that’s a different story.</p>
<p>If you’re a structural engineer employed by a company, you will be covered by their insurance. If you own your own company, you get the privilege of paying for the insurance. Ours, for a two-person firm, cost us $5,800 this year. Owning your own business is not cheap! Health insurance is more than twice as expensive, too. Someday I should add up how much our family pays for insurance - it would be scary.</p>
<p>It’s not like Civies have the monopoly- I have done software for NHTSA / DOT regulated environments (electronics that interface with transportation related equipment) and there’s liability there as well. My wife has spent part of her career writing software that controls machines that make medicines… Enough regulations there to last a few lifetimes. The difference is whom they come after, and liability is always an issue. I’ve worked on a couple liability cases actually… Not fun.</p>
<p>If you’re a small outfit you will have liability issues to deal with, and insurance. In a larger place insurance exists, but a lot more resources exist to test or validate the designs to ensure they’re sound.</p>