Landscape Architects

The profession of landscape architecture combines common skills from multiple professions including architecture for designing structures, engineering for designing drainage and dealing with water, horticulture for proper plant selection, as well as elements of planning and irrigation design. Landscape architects are licensed in nearly all states. Most major universities offer undergraduate degrees in the profession of landscape architecture with many offering advanced degrees as well.

Professional liability (E&O) insurance exposures for landscape architects include designing playgrounds, tot-lots, commercial common areas, streetscapes, parks, and upscale residential projects. Landscape architects may offer varied services including concept plans, planting plans, construction documents, construction observation, and design-build services.

Landscape architects typically get lumped in with architects and engineers when being underwritten for professional liability. This causes them to be wrongly overcharged since their exposures are unique, different from A&E firms and often of dramatically less exposure.

The Leatzow Insurance program of professional liability for landscape architects recognizes these differences and rewards landscape architects with their own professional liability program with the broadest coverage at substantial savings when compared to the E&O marketplace. Moreover Leatzow Insurance offers unique risk management services and information to this profession to help them become more profitable and reduce their exposures to risk. This is the ONLY E&O program presently recognized by the 14,000 member American Society of Landscape Architects for its members.

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Irrigation design has become considerably more visible and important in all areas of the United States because of the diminished water supplies and increasing demand. There is hardly a development of any kind today that does not incorporate some degree of irrigation design and planning. Because of this increased exposure as a design professional, irrigation designers are being exposed to increased litigation.

Claims typically are made years after a design has been constructed, implemented and operational. It is commonplace for an irrigation system to develop problems over the years especially when it has been inadequately or inappropriately maintained. We typically receive claims against irrigation designers from several areas. The most common source of claims is specifically caused by irrigation maintenance contractors who remove original equipment heads and replace them with inappropriate ones. This often causes the effected plant material to change it's root growth habit which can heave sidewalks or even cause the plants to die. Another source of claims is the "set once and forget" mentality pertaining to the controller panel. Because of changing climatic conditions, the owner and their maintenance firms need to reprogram controllers with reasonable frequency. Many of the landslide claims in California historically have been caused by soils becoming super-saturated from irrigation systems that are not being properly maintained and varied based upon the seasons and climatic changes. Appropriate contract language utilized on each project can protect the irrigation designer from these exposures.

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The work products generated by planners are utilized by nearly every level of government from local to national, as well as by developers and other members of the private sector. Planning utilizes various data to forecast the future needs for infrastructure and other similar support facilities. Planning can be further broken down into the subspecialties of Comprehensive Planning, Urban Planning, Site/Master Planning, Economic Planning, Traffic/ Transportation Planning, Zoning and Permitting, Land Use Planning, Environmental Planning and Historical Preservation.

As seen above, planning combines many varied talents which bring together statistical and other information which is often repackaged for utilization by the ultimate customer of the planner. There has been a tremendous increase in the use of planners for environmental auditing, environmental impact reports, as well as economic feasibility reports and studies. All of these areas are important sources of litigation against planners who need adequate protection through professional liability.

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Arborists are practitioners of arborculture which is essentially the preservation and care of trees, shrubs and other woody plant material. These professionals are skilled in the identification, evaluation, diagnosis, pathology and value of woody plants.

Arborists are called upon to evaluate prospective land developments for preservation of existing trees, recommend new and most suitable trees and shrubs for a given site, establish dollar values of trees for appraisals, litigation and condemnation proceedings, provide court testimony, diagnose damage to trees from environmental sources, survey hazardous conditions, as well as recommend remedial courses of action.

Professional liability claims against arborists typically come about from their rendering their professional opinion especially regarding the specific health of a given tree and that tree's potential for remaining safe. Since there is no way anyone can "guarantee" that a tree is not going to drop limbs or in some other manner injure the public, it is very important that an arborist utilize specific contract language with appropriate disclaimers on each project, in addition to properly insuring with professional liability to cover the arborist's defense if and when they get sued.

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