This section requires engineers and licensees to use approved seals on covered documents, limits seal/signature use after a license ends, and gives rules for successor engineers reusing sealed work.
471.025 Seals.—(1) The board shall prescribe, by rule, one or more forms of seal to be used by licensees. Each licensee shall obtain at least one seal in the form approved by rule of the board and may, in addition, register his or her seal electronically in accordance with ss. 668.001-668.006. All final drawings, specifications, plans, reports, or documents prepared or issued by the licensee and being filed for public record and all final documents provided to the owner or the owner’s representative shall be signed by the licensee, dated, and sealed with said seal. Such signature, date, and seal shall be evidence of the authenticity of that to which they are affixed. Drawings, specifications, plans, reports, final documents, or documents prepared or issued by a licensee may be transmitted electronically and may be signed by the licensee, dated, and sealed electronically with said seal in accordance with ss. 668.001-668.006. (2) It is unlawful for any person to seal or digitally sign any document with a seal or digital signature after his or her license has expired or been revoked or suspended, unless such license has been reinstated or reissued. When an engineer’s license has been revoked or suspended by the board, the licensee shall, within a period of 30 days after the revocation or suspension has become effective, surrender his or her seal to the executive director of the board and confirm to the executive director the cancellation of the licensee’s digital signature in accordance with ss. 668.001-668.006. In the event the engineer’s license has been suspended for a period of time, his or her seal shall be returned to him or her upon expiration of the suspension period. (3) No licensee shall affix or permit to be affixed his or her seal, name, or digital signature to any plan, specification, drawing, final bid document, or other document that depicts work which he or she is not licensed to perform or which is beyond his or her profession or specialty therein. (4) A successor engineer seeking to reuse documents previously sealed by another engineer must be able to independently re-create all of the work done by the original engineer. A successor engineer assumes full professional and legal responsibility by signing and affixing his or her seal to the assumed documents. Such documents must be treated as though they were the successor engineer’s original product, and the original engineer is released from any professional responsibility or civil liability for prior work assumed by the successor engineer. For the purposes of this subsection, the term “successor engineer” means an engineer who is using or relying upon the work, findings, or recommendations of the engineer who previously sealed the pertinent documents.