Synopsis

Engineers are involved in, one way or another, various areas of law such as the law of contract, employment law etc in their work. For example an engineer working in a consulting firm or a construction company will have to deal with tender documents, the Letter of Award, delay, liquidated ascertained damages and so many more almost every day in their work. An engineer working in a factory may need to deal with suppliers and contractors in regards to quality of equipment, service level required in which case he has to be wellversed in supply contracts, service level agreement and at times too, construction contract. As employers and clients are becoming more litigious now, the potential of engineers facing a claim for breach of contract or breach of the duty of care under the tort of negligence has increased accordingly. The basic doctrine of contract law is that the contracting parties should keep their promises whilst for the law of tort; the gist is essentially that people should conduct themselves so as to avoid inflicting injury on others. The rights and liabilities of parties under a contract can be established based on the contract that parties have entered into. However in the absence of an agreement, one party may still be held liable to another under the law of tort; notwithstanding that parties have never executed any agreement between them. Apart from that, engineers are involved frequently with land issue in their work; hence need to be familiar with land law. There are also much legislations that affect engineering profession such as Uniform Building By-Law, Street, Drainage and Building Act, CIDB Act etc. Disputes are inevitable in engineering works, be it a construction contract or a simple renovation or supply contract. Besides litigating the disputes in Courts of law, the parties may now opt to resolve via various dispute resolution methods such as adjudication and arbitration. This seminar aims to provide an overview of the laws which are relevant to engineers in executing their works.

Benefits
· Gain a better understanding of formation of contract
· Able to avoid pit fall in managing construction and other types of contracts
· Understand the remedies available upon breach of contract
· Appreciate law of tort relating to engineering work
· Understand dispute resolution methods commonly used such as arbitration
· Learn the impact of impending statutory adjudication
· Learn and be able to avoid problems in employment of workers
· Gain some knowledge on the basic law related to land and its dealing


About The Course Leader

Ir. Lai Sze Ching graduated as a Mechanical Engineer from the University of Malaya. He also holds LL.B degree from the University of London and LL.M from the University of Malaya, majoring in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Arbitration Law, Remedy, Civil Procedure and Construction Law. In addition he also holds a Certificate of Legal Practice from the Qualifying Board of Malaysia. Ir. Lai has more than 30 years working experience in the field of water supply, wastewater treatment and infrastructure work. He is currently the Managing Director of an engineering firm. Ir. Lai had been invited to deliver papers on water supply and sewage treatment in various international seminars and conferences. He has also written articles on ADR, Arbitration and Construction disputes and has conducted talks on engineers and the law and various issues of Construction Law to local companies and Universities. Being an accreditor of Engineering Accreditation Council Malaysia, he is also actively involved in the accreditation of local engineering programmes. He is currently a member of the Industry Advisory Panel for University Malaysia Pahang and Multimedia University. Ir Lai is also a member of the Board of Studies for University of Pahang Malaysia and the Student Ambassador for the External Law Programme of University of London.