Court rules that a person’s submission of expert reports and testimony on alleged stormwater management negligence claims did not violate North Carolina’s statutory prohibition against the unlicensed practice of engineering.

In Nutt v. Andrew L. Ritter, in his official capacity as Executive Director of the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors, et al, 2023 WL 9067799 (E.D.N.C.  December 20, 2023), the Court found that an individual not licensed as an engineer did not run afoul of North Carolina’s prohibition against the unlicensed practice of engineering by preparing expert reports and providing expert testimony in an underlying lawsuit involving allegations of negligence in the management of stormwater.  Left unaddressed and unresolved was whether a trial court could exclude the testimony of an unlicensed expert witness under the Rules of Evidence.