The following statement was provided by a fellow colleague.
The term “professional” has specific legal connotations. A plumber, for example, cannot be a professional. The reason is in the definition for “professional.”
Law relies on a “prudent man” standard in many cases. To meet the “prudent” standard, the law asks about the circumstances of the relationship or transaction. An ordinary transaction standard may be for a person to use an ordinary degree of care and caution in the completion of duties, possession, or security. Anything less than an ordinary degree of care and caution may constitute negligence, and leave a person or entity liable.
In the case of professionals (“true” professionals), there is a bit of a difference. A professional possesses unique skills that non-professionals do not. Because of the specialized knowledge professionals possess, they receive education or training not universally available to others, and are often licensed to indicate the completion of this specialized knowledge (other, non-professional people may be required to be licensed as a matter of public protection). As such such a person must complete their responsible duties employing an “extraordinarily high degree” of care and caution. Anything less constitutes negligence, and again, may put that professional person in a position of liability. In addition, professionals are held to this care and caution standard in specific areas. Medical doctors, for example, might only be held to the standard for diagnosis, prognosis and treatment. Nurses have two professional duties: to carry out medical orders and to prevent errors in treatment. CPAs have professional duties only regarding the “attest” function (audit, compilation and review in the fair presentation of financial statements, completed with the application of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) audited under Generally Accepted Auditing Standards (GAAS)). This means that if I’m a CPA, and I express an opinion on the quality of a house-painting job, and I’m wrong, I’m not held liable for that opinion if it’s in error (simply an ordinary degree of care and caution).
Anyway, that’s the nutshell. An attorney may find fault with my logic, but the above is a kernel around which a lot of tort arguments are based. If you ever see a lawsuit where this logic is invoked, try to understand the arguments if they differ. There are a LOT of considerations regarding status, but the concept of “professional” is a standard with supporting definitions.
-Dr. MTK
