Re: Safety manuals and credentials

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

Amen.

The normal procedure would be for the client to hire a consulting safety 
engineer with a PE license and whatever other certs are required to 
"stand up in court."  The safety consultant would review the company's 
processes and documents (at a rate anywhere from 2X to 5X that of a 
technical writer) and depending on the consultant's capabilities and 
workload and the client's budget, would either write or revise the 
company's documents (no writer gig here) or deliver a set of markups of 
existing documents for the company's less expensive writer/s to revise 
and then review and sign off on them prior to release.  Safety engineers 
who lack the time or talent to do the writing but have good contacts and 
clients with deep pockets might sub out the writing at writer's rates 
and then bill it to their clients with a markup.

My answer to thg question of whether I as a writer have any 
safety-related credentials that would stand up in a court of law is an 
automatic 'no," If I did have them, I'd be hanging out my shingle at 
consulting engineer rates and wouldn't go anywhere near a contract at 
writer rates, and if writer gigs were all there were likely to be, I'd 
let my certs lapse before taking any.  In most states, just having the 
credentials opens you up to all the associated liabilities whether they 
are a part of your contracts or not.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
 Do I hear an "amen" from all the editors and engineers on the list?

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