DP2

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

DP2

Should Engineer A first contact Engineer X directly to counsel him about the certificate of authority deficiency and afford an opportunity to remedy it, or should Engineer A proceed immediately to file a report with the State P licensing board?

Having verified that XYZ Engineering lacks a certificate of authority in State P, Engineer A must decide how to respond to the discovered violation. The central tension is between the collegial pre-reporting engagement norm — which requires Engineer A to first contact Engineer X directly and afford an opportunity to remedy the apparent inadvertent violation — and the mandatory reporting obligation, which requires eventual escalation to the State P licensing board. Engineer A's status as a direct competitor of Engineer X, having lost Client L to XYZ Engineering, creates a structural conflict of interest that requires him to scrutinize his own motivations before acting.

Engineer A reaches out directly to Engineer X to advise him of the certificate of authority deficiency, explain the substantive reasons for the requirement and its legal consequences, and afford Engineer X a reasonable opportunity to obtain the certificate before any formal report is filed — consistent with the graduated-duty framework and the professional reciprocity norm.

Engineer A bypasses collegial contact and files a report directly with the State P licensing board upon confirming the violation, treating the mandatory reporting obligation as unconditional and immediate — but risking violation of the collegial pre-reporting engagement norm and potentially exposing the report to scrutiny as competitively motivated.

Engineer A concludes that his competitive interest in the outcome — having lost Client L to XYZ Engineering — is so substantial that he cannot act without the appearance of self-interest, and therefore takes no action, neither contacting Engineer X nor reporting to the board — but risks suppressing a legitimate reporting obligation through competitive self-interest, which itself constitutes an ethics violation.

Engineer A Collegial Counsel to Engineer X Before Board Report