DP4
Individual
aa67560c
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/136#DP4
Properties
Parent
Decision Point Id
DP4
Decision Question
Should Engineer A comply with the attorney's confidentiality instruction and suppress the structural safety findings, or disclose those findings to the tenants and public authorities in fulfillment of the forensic expert's independent public safety obligation?
Focus
Engineer A, retained as a forensic expert in active tenant litigation, discovers imminent structural defects and reports them to the retaining attorney, who then orders confidentiality. The core decision is whether Engineer A should comply with the attorney's suppression instruction or fulfill the independent public safety and non-advocate objectivity obligations that forensic expert status imposes.
Option1
Refuse the attorney's confidentiality instruction as applied to imminent safety findings and notify the tenants and relevant public authorities directly, invoking the NSPE Code's Section II.1.c. public safety exception as the basis for overriding the litigation confidentiality constraint.
Option2
Accept the attorney's assertion that attorney-client confidentiality legally binds Engineer A's findings and maintain silence, treating the attorney's legal instruction as a sufficient basis for deferring the independent public safety disclosure obligation pending resolution of the litigation.
Option3
Rather than disclosing directly to tenants or unilaterally breaching litigation confidentiality, seek leave to notify the presiding judge through appropriate procedural channels of the imminent structural danger, placing the disclosure decision within the judicial system's authority while preserving Engineer A's non-advocate status.
Role Label
Engineer
TTL
@prefix rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proethica_case_136: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/136> .
<http://proethica.org/ontology/case/136#DP4> a owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "DP4" ;
rdfs:subClassOf <http://proethica.org/ontology/cases#DecisionPoint> .
Metadata
Ontology
Type
Individual
Content Hash
aa67560cabca952b...Last Updated
2026-03-08 16:29
Extraction Provenance
Generated
2026-03-01T13:28:58.792025
Generated By
ProEthica Case 136 Extraction