Undisclosed Preliminary Risk State
Class
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#UndisclosedPreliminaryRiskState
Definition
State in which a professional has identified a preliminary concern about a potential risk to public safety or welfare during the course of contracted work, but has not disclosed that concern to the client or affected parties before a work suspension or other interruption occurs, leaving the client without information needed to make informed decisions during the intervening period.
Inherited from UnverifiedRiskConcernState
State in which a professional has a concern or suspicion about a potential risk but has not yet developed the analysis to a point where the concern constitutes a technical or factual finding. The concern is real but unquantified, creating an intermediate epistemic condition that does not yet trigger mandatory disclosure obligations but may support prudent voluntary disclosure.
Properties
Subclass of
Action Constraints
Professional should communicate preliminary concerns even when unquantified
Professional should not allow work suspension to serve as a reason to defer disclosure of a known risk concern
Activation Conditions
Client is not informed of the concern at the time of suspension
Professional identifies a preliminary risk concern during contracted work
Work is suspended or interrupted before the concern is disclosed
Confidence
0.82
Obligation Activation
Duty to disclose material risk concerns to the client
Duty to protect public health and safety
Obligation not to withhold information material to the client's decisions
Persistence Type
inertial
Principle Transformation
Transforms the general duty of honest communication into a specific obligation to disclose preliminary risk findings before or at the time of any work suspension, so that the client can make informed decisions during the interruption.
State Category
information
Termination Conditions
Professional discloses the concern to the client
Risk is formally assessed and communicated
Work resumes and disclosure is made
Match Confidence
0.72
Match Reasoning
The existing Unverified Risk Concern State captures the intermediate epistemic condition where a professional has a concern but not yet a confirmed finding. However, the distinctive feature here is that the concern was not disclosed at the time of work suspension, creating a transparency deficit that persists through the interruption. The existing class does not specifically capture the non-disclosure dimension during a work suspension. A medium-confidence match is appropriate, but the non-disclosure aspect during suspension is a meaningful additional element.
Matched Ontology Label
Unverified Risk Concern State
Matches Existing
true
Source Evidence
Text references
Engineer L becomes concerned that the risk of impact to the community drinking water source will potentially increase
Engineer L does not mention to Client X the potential increased risk of impact to the community drinking water source
Source text
Engineer L becomes concerned that the risk of impact to the community drinking water source will potentially increase
Used in cases 1
Case ontologies that instantiate this class. Computed from each individual's type, so the list stays current as cases are extracted. The originating case is shown under Extraction details.
Case 8TTL
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix proeth-prov: <http://proethica.org/provenance#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
proeth:UndisclosedPreliminaryRiskState a owl:Class ;
rdfs:label "Undisclosed Preliminary Risk State" ;
proeth:actionConstraints "Professional should communicate preliminary concerns even when unquantified",
"Professional should not allow work suspension to serve as a reason to defer disclosure of a known risk concern" ;
proeth:activationConditions "Client is not informed of the concern at the time of suspension",
"Professional identifies a preliminary risk concern during contracted work",
"Work is suspended or interrupted before the concern is disclosed" ;
proeth:confidence "0.82" ;
proeth:obligationActivation "Duty to disclose material risk concerns to the client",
"Duty to protect public health and safety",
"Obligation not to withhold information material to the client's decisions" ;
proeth:persistenceType "inertial" ;
proeth:principleTransformation "Transforms the general duty of honest communication into a specific obligation to disclose preliminary risk findings before or at the time of any work suspension, so that the client can make informed decisions during the interruption." ;
proeth:stateCategory "information" ;
proeth:terminationConditions "Professional discloses the concern to the client",
"Risk is formally assessed and communicated",
"Work resumes and disclosure is made" ;
proeth:textReferences "Engineer L becomes concerned that the risk of impact to the community drinking water source will potentially increase",
"Engineer L does not mention to Client X the potential increased risk of impact to the community drinking water source" ;
proeth-prov:discoveredInCase 8 ;
proeth-prov:discoveredInPass 1 ;
proeth-prov:discoveredInSection "facts" ;
proeth-prov:firstDiscoveredAt "2026-06-05T02:15:59.482935+00:00"^^xsd:dateTime ;
proeth-prov:firstDiscoveredInCase 8 ;
proeth-prov:matchConfidence 0.72 ;
proeth-prov:matchReasoning "The existing Unverified Risk Concern State captures the intermediate epistemic condition where a professional has a concern but not yet a confirmed finding. However, the distinctive feature here is that the concern was not disclosed at the time of work suspension, creating a transparency deficit that persists through the interruption. The existing class does not specifically capture the non-disclosure dimension during a work suspension. A medium-confidence match is appropriate, but the non-disclosure aspect during suspension is a meaningful additional element." ;
proeth-prov:matchedOntologyClass proeth:UnverifiedRiskConcernState ;
proeth-prov:matchedOntologyLabel "Unverified Risk Concern State" ;
proeth-prov:matchesExisting true ;
proeth-prov:sourceText "Engineer L becomes concerned that the risk of impact to the community drinking water source will potentially increase" ;
rdfs:comment "State in which a professional has identified a preliminary concern about a potential risk to public safety or welfare during the course of contracted work, but has not disclosed that concern to the client or affected parties before a work suspension or other interruption occurs, leaving the client without information needed to make informed decisions during the intervening period." ;
rdfs:subClassOf proeth:InformationState ;
skos:definition "State in which a professional has identified a preliminary concern about a potential risk to public safety or welfare during the course of contracted work, but has not disclosed that concern to the client or affected parties before a work suspension or other interruption occurs, leaving the client without information needed to make informed decisions during the intervening period." ;
skos:scopeNote "[UnverifiedRiskConcernState] State in which a professional has a concern or suspicion about a potential risk but has not yet developed the analysis to a point where the concern constitutes a technical or factual finding. The concern is real but unquantified, creating an intermediate epistemic condition that does not yet trigger mandatory disclosure obligations but may support prudent voluntary disclosure." ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-06-05T02:15:59.482935+00:00"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasAttributedTo "Case 8 Extraction",
"claude-sonnet-4-6" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
8
Discovered in pass
1
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-06-05T02:15:59.482935+00:00
First case
8
Generated
2026-06-05T02:15:59.482935+00:00
Attributed to
['Case 8 Extraction', 'claude-sonnet-4-6']