Voluntary Standard
Definition
A consensus document representing best practice at the time of publication, departure from which is relevant but not conclusive evidence of negligence. The engineer must still have had reason to know of the standard.
- Document type
- Consensus best-practice standard
- Field
- Engineering, failure analysis
- Legal weight
- Relevant but not conclusive evidence of negligence
- Key qualifier
- Engineer must have had reason to know of it
Common questions
Why isn't departing from a voluntary standard automatically negligence?+
Voluntary standards represent consensus practice at publication, but engineering judgment can justify a different approach for a specific situation, and the standard itself may be outdated, inapplicable to the case, or simply unknown to a reasonably competent engineer in that niche at the time, so courts weigh departure rather than treating it as automatic fault.
What makes a standard voluntary rather than mandatory in this context?+
A voluntary standard, unlike a building code or regulation adopted into law, has no independent legal force; it becomes evidence of the expected standard of care only through expert testimony connecting it to what a reasonably prudent engineer would have known and done.
Related terms
- Mandatory Code
- A standard incorporated by reference into statute or regulation, such that violation constitutes a legal breach and may support negligence per se...
- Negligence per Se
- A common law doctrine under which violation of a statute or mandatory code is treated as automatic breach of the duty of...
- NFPA 921
- US National Fire Protection Association Guide for Fire and Explosion Investigations. The internationally accepted methodology Indian fire investigators and SFSL fire divisions...
- Standard of Care
- The level of skill, knowledge, and practice that a reasonably competent engineer in the same discipline and jurisdiction would have exercised under...
- State of the Art
- The level of technical knowledge and practice available at the time of design or construction, used in some jurisdictions as a defence...