A standard of care is used by people not necessarily familiar with a profession to learn what members of that profession expect of their colleagues. For example, courts could look to a particular document like the National Fuel Gas Code to see what expectations exist for installation of gas burning appliances. The National Electrical Code would be another standard of care for the installation of electrical systems or the manufacture of electrical products. One could also look to UL tests as a standard. A manufacturer whose product does not meet UL requirements could be said to have failed to live up to the standard of care.

Another kind of standard is embodied in certification requirements. If you are going to be certified to do something, you must demonstrate that you have certain knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs). If you do your job in a way that does not reflect those KSAs, and that results in economic damage to another person, they may sue you for negligence. The court will look to the certification requirements as a standard of care.

In fire investigation, courts look to NFPA 921 as the standard of care, as do insurance companies and the USDOJ. According to their publication, NFPA 921 “has become a benchmark for the training and expertise of everyone who purports to be an expert in the origin and cause determination of fires.” Copy this post into a word document; highlight the word “benchmark,” then click on tools/language/thesaurus.

You don’t have to like it, but we should probably move on to another topic.

John Lentini, CFI, D-ABC
Fire Investigation Consultant
Florida Keys
[www.firescientist.com]