Poole Professional Companies

The insured, a principal of an architectural firm that focused primarily on commercial projects, was approached by one of its largest clients to design his personal residence. The client was a friend of the principal and both the client and the insured served on the board of a charitable organization in their local community. The insured had no experience in residential design work but took this project as a “favor” for his friend and top client. Prior to the project starting

Often, the biggest challenge in taking on a public project isn't the project itself, but the owner—the city, school district, state, etc. In addition to the normal pressures that confront any project, public projects have their own. Pressures like having every politician and taxpayer in town scrutinize the budget, timeline, design and environmental impact. As if that weren't enough to make an A/E question whether public projects are really worth the risk, public entities are

Anyone who's ever let a favorite niece or nephew sneak an extra slice of birthday cake knows what it's like to play favorites. But when design firms set aside principles of good management or relax their normally stringent contract requirements for the sake of a favorite client, such actions can backfire in a variety of unfortunate ways. In this case, the insured was retained by a long-time client to render an opinion on structural issues prior to acquisition of a large comme

Insurance information on sub-consultants had not been verified and there were no certificates of insurance on file – sound familiar? The insured was a multi-disciplined design firm, which contracted with a regional airport authority, a quasi-governmental entity. The project was part of a $41M expansion to the airport and included the removal of the existing baggage handling system and the design and installation of a new, state of the art baggage screening and handling system

The project was an addition and renovation to a residence hall of a private school. The building involved was over 70 years old at the time. The insured was retained as a sub-consultant to the architect to provide the structural engineering designs. During the design phase of the project the architect informed the owner it would be necessary for both he and the insured to investigate the existing conditions present in this old building. The owners however decided they would n