Meeting the Challenges of Transportation Liability and Risk Management
Description Transportation entities face conflicting and intersecting priorities - they must provide safe, efficient, equitable, m ulti-modal transportation projects while mitigating financial, legal and operational risk. Legal risk should be addressed by transportation entities early and often, not just after lawsuits have been filed. Employees and officials planning, designing, maintaining and operating their entity's transportation infrastructure need to understand the major legal principles governing roadway litigation. An understanding of the legal statutes, cases, principles and outcomes will help all transportation employees, from engineers, to planners, to maintenance crews understand how to conduct their operations to minimize or reduce legal risk. The intent of this course is to help transportation practitioners understand what claims can be brought against a transportation entity for crashes, how the lawyers representing those entities manage and defend those cases, and how the non-legal transportation professional can actively reduce or manage litigation risks using engineering judgment, proper documentation, and collaboration with legal and non-legal professionals. The training will cover legal concepts related to unsafe condition claims in California, investigation of collisions from a litigation perspective \(vs. from a purely operational perspective\), and will focus on tort liability litigation practices. This course will cover planning and design elements that provide context sensitive solutions based on the unique geometrics of a given facility while reducing legal risk through proper documentation and engineering judgment. We will discuss legal cases and court decisions that provide the framework for transportation entities to defend against unsafe condition cases. The various defenses available to the transportation entities will be covered, along with practical information for transportation employees to build into their workflow that minimize or reduce legal risk while allowing for creative, innovative design solutions for transportation infrastructure projects. Although the cases discussed will involve lawsuits resulting from highway design, the information provided will help civil engineers involved as witnesses in various types of litigation. Topics Include The course will provide transportation personnel with an understanding of the following:litigation process, including the legal concepts for unsafe condition claims the concept of joint and several liability the available defenses the need for early investigation in some collision cases and the process of providing information \(called discovery\) during a lawsuit various types of written discovery, oral testimony typically done in these cases, as well as the necessary preparation and assistance needed by employees involved in the litigation matters how to respond to questions from attorneys and become an effective witness in depositions and at trial how to prepare for deposition testimony \(and the importance of doing so\) how to testify in a trial interaction discussion and pointers on preparing for testimony dispositive motions that can end a case short of a jury several motions, including demurrers, motions to strike, motions for design immunity, and a trial on affirmative defenses explain these motions, and the non-legal transportation official's critical role in successful outcomes to these motions for transportation entities focus on emerging trends in transportation engineering that affect tort liability and risk management. This will include a history of safety programs federally and in California, including the Highway Safety Act, various spot programs, as well as the evolution of corridor safety programs, and the transitions with reactive/proactive safety operations challenges of innovative transportation initiatives when juxtaposed with the tort liability scheme in California What You Will Learn The intent of the course is to improve public agency practices to effectively manage and reduce tort liability. The following learning objectives are primary for this course:Understand the nature of roadway litigation against transportation entities Understand the litigation process in tort liability litigation Familiarize non-legal transportation personnel with the litigation process and their role in that process: Helping them to proactively manage or reduce liability, while Helping the legal team defend litigation matters effectively Help participants with the process of deposition and trial testimony by helping them understand how to approach witness testimony Address current trends in road liability litigation and how those trends can be positively or negatively affected by the transportation employee's work Use real world case examples to teach transportation employees how to use liability neutral documentation Understand the importance of balancing factors in addressing the needs of all road users Who Should Attend This course will benefit transportation professionals \(engineers and planners\) who work for consultants, cities, counties, and state agencies involved in designing roadway projects. This course is designed for individuals with some background and training in designing streets and intersections who are interested in learning more about tort liability and how it relates to the highway design process. The course may also be helpful to the staff of public agencies who are involved with street and roadway maintenance on a day-to-day basis.h an understanding of the following:
litigation process, including the legal concepts for unsafe condition claims
the concept of joint and several liability
the available defenses
the need for early investigation in some collision cases and the process of providing information \(called discovery\) during a lawsuit
various types of written discovery, oral testimony typically done in these cases, as well as the necessary preparation and assistance needed by employees involved in the litigation matters
how to respond to questions from attorneys and become an effective witness in depositions and at trial
how to prepare for deposition testimony \(and the importance of doing so\)
how to testify in a trial
interaction discussion and pointers on preparing for testimony
dispositive motions that can end a case short of a jury
several motions, including demurrers, motions to strike, motions for design immun ity, and a trial on affirmative defenses
explain these motions, and the non-legal transportation official's critical role in successful outcomes to these motions for transportation entities
focus on emerging trends in transportation engineering that affect tort liability and risk management. This will include a history of safety programs federally and in California, including the Highway Safety Act, various spot programs, as well as the evolution of corridor safety programs, and the transitions with reactive/proactive safety operations
challenges of innovative transportation initiatives when juxtaposed with the tort liability scheme in California
What You Will Learn
The intent of the course is to improve public agency practices to effectively manage and reduce tort liability. The following learning objectives are primary for this course:
Understand the nature of roadway litigation against transportation entities
Understand the litigation process in tort liability litigation
Familiarize non-legal transportation personnel with the litigation process and their role in that process:
Helping them to proactively manage or reduce liability, while
Helping the legal team defend litigation matters effectively
Help participants with the process of deposition and trial testimony by helping them understand how to approach witness testimony
Address current trends in road liability litigation and how those trends can be positively or negatively affected by the transportation employee's work
Use real world case examples to teach transportation employees how to use liability neutral documentation
Understand the importance of balancing factors in addressing the needs of all road users
Who Should Attend
This course will benefit transportation professionals \(engineers and planners\) who work for consultants, cities, counties, and st ate agencies involved in designing roadway projects. This course is designed for individuals with some background and training in designing streets and intersections who are interested in learning more about tort liability and how it relates to the highway design process. The course may also be helpful to the staff of public agencies who are involved with street and roadway maintenance on a day-to-day basis.