(144b) Chemical Engineering & the Law --Case Examples in Industrial Litigation

 Chemical Engineering & the Law---Case Examples in Industrial Litigation

Chemical, petroleum and allied manufacturing sectors involved in research, technologies, engineering and project management often encounter issues and problems in successfully meeting the intended financial, technical, and operational goals and expectations. Significant deviations from goals and expectations result in law suits between involved parties.  Alternatively parties file insurance claims which can then result in law suits.

Research and technology issues usually result in patent and intellectual property legal cases while other matters can arise from diverse aspects such as engineering design, licensing, product liability, safety, regulatory compliance, construction & operational deficiency and, inability to meet contractual and performance warranty promises.  Accidents and incidents at manufacturing or other facilities can result in damage to property & the environment, injuries and/or death as well as interruption to normal operation causing business loss. Such damages and losses also result in law suits and claims.

The need for collaboration between lawyers, scientists, engineers and technical specialists is obvious in conducting legal, technical and business analysis to get to the root cause of the matter to support or defend a legal complaint or a claim.

This paper presents a brief introduction to claims and law suits and how legal and technical teams collaborate with their respective experience and expertise in handling a law suit either as a plaintiff’s or a defendant’s team.        

The main focus of the presentation will be case examples that demonstrate how principles of science, engineering and law play their part in litigation and insurance claims involving diverse issues in the chemical, refining and allied sectors.