DP3

DecisionPoint
http://proethica.org/ontology/cases#DecisionPoint

DP3

Should Engineer A, when contacting former clients to reassure them of Firm A's continued capacity, confine his communications to affirmative representations about Firm A's qualifications, or may he also cast doubt on Firm B's ability to provide quality services as part of that reassurance?

Upon learning that Firm B had cast doubt on his ability to provide quality services to former clients, Engineer A contacted those clients to reassure them of Firm A's continued capacity — and in doing so, indicated doubt that Firm B was qualified to provide quality services. The question is whether Engineer A's reactive disparagement of Firm B, framed as defensive client reassurance rather than offensive competitive attack, is ethically distinguishable from Firm B's proactive disparagement, or whether the same prohibition applies symmetrically regardless of the speaker's defensive posture.

Contact former clients to affirm Firm A's continued staffing, capacity, and commitment to their projects, without making any adverse statements about Firm B's qualifications or ability to provide quality services, recognizing that the same prohibition that applies to Firm B's disparagement applies symmetrically to Engineer A.

Counter Firm B's adverse statements about Firm A's capacity by informing clients of Firm B's status as a newly formed firm lacking the established track record, institutional knowledge, and project continuity of Firm A, on the ground that clients are entitled to a complete picture and that Engineer A's defensive response is ethically distinguishable from Firm B's offensive attack.

Confine adverse assessments of Firm B's qualifications exclusively to the formal ethics complaint process rather than communicating them directly to clients, on the ground that the ethics process is the appropriate channel for professional qualification concerns while client communications should be limited to affirmative representations about Firm A.

Engineer A Incumbent Firm Principal