Code of Massachusetts Regulations
250 CMR - BOARD OF REGISTRATION OF PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS AND LAND SURVEYORS
Title 250 CMR 5.00 - Professional Practice
Section 5.03 - Professional Seal
Current through Register 1531, September 27, 2024
(1) Format.
(2) The seal must be a symbol or image in the form of a rubber stamp, embossed seal or digitized seal (computer generated image), or other form approved by the Board. The outside diameter of the depicted image must be approximately one and one half inches.
(3) A Registrant shall affix his or her seal only to Instruments of Service produced by the Registrant personally or under the Registrant's Direct Charge and Supervision, except as provided in 250 CMR 5.03(4).
(4) A Registrant may review and adopt work started by or under another Registrant's Direct Charge and Supervision provided the adopting Registrant has performed a detailed and thoroughly documented review and will assume complete responsibility for the work of that previous Registrant.
(5) Under no circumstances shall a Registrant adopt the Work Products developed by unregistered persons who themselves were not working under the Direct Charge and Supervision of a Registrant.
(6) Any document bearing the Registrant's seal must also be appropriately dated and signed with either a legible hand written Signature adjacent to (not obscuring) the seal or a properly encrypted digital Signature, in compliance with 250 CMR.
(7) The Registrant shall not affix his or her seal to stickers, decals, cards, stationery, advertising, or any other such material.
(8) The Registrant must take reasonable steps to prevent the Registrant's seal or digital Signature encryption key from being lost, stolen or out of the Registrant's personal possession or control.
(9) The Registrant shall not allow another person to use the Registrant's seal or digital Signature encryption key.
(10) A Registrant whose License has lapsed shall not use his or her professional seal.
(11) When a digital Signature is applied to an Instrument of Service, it must have an electronic authentication process attached to it that is uniquely associated with the Registrant, can be authenticated by the recipient, and is uniquely linked to the underlying documents in a manner that will invalidate the digital Signature if any part of the document is changed.
(12) A Registrant is responsible for all work on any plan that bears the Registrant's professional seal unless the Registrant expressly and properly limits the Registrant's responsibility as set forth in 250 CMR 5.03(13).
(13) If a Registrant does not take responsibility for all of the work on an Instrument of Service, the Registrant shall add any suitable comments near, but not through the seal to limit their responsibility. Such comments might limit responsibility to such things as electrical design, structural design, property boundaries, a specified portion of the document, or a specified change.
(14) A Registrant may assume responsibility for coordination of an entire project and sign and seal the Instruments of Service for the entire project, provided that the Instruments of Service for each technical segment are signed and sealed by the qualified Registrant who either prepared or directly supervised the preparation of said technical segment.
(15) A Registrant shall sign, date and seal Instruments of Service prepared by the Registrant, when those documents are filed with public authorities. If the Instrument of Service is a set of printed plans, each sheet must be individually signed and sealed and appropriately dated, unless otherwise authorized by statute.
