| Author |
Message
|
| PeterPotkay |
 Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2004 11:37 am Post subject: Legal Liability |
 |
|
Poobah
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 7722
|
I was thinking. There is no disclaimer anywhere here saying "Use the advice giving here at your own risk."
How does the legal community view this issue? Could one of us (and/or Brandon) be sued when advice we have given with the best intentions causes some company some loss of business?
_________________
Peter Potkay
Keep Calm and MQ On |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
| JLRowe |
| Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 4:49 am Post subject: |
|
|
Yatiri
Joined: 25 May 2002
Posts: 664
Location: South East London
|
| Uhm, kind of like "Warning! Contents are hot" on a coffee cup? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| kingsley |
| Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:21 am Post subject: |
|
|
Disciple
Joined: 30 Sep 2001
Posts: 175
Location: Hursley
|
MQ community in this forum are very nice and pleasant so far. I hope we have a good and safe community.
Majority use the forums for knowledge sharing and learning purpose.
I don't perceive anything like this. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| PeterPotkay |
| Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:25 am Post subject: |
|
|
Poobah
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 7722
|
I never thought someone would sue because their coffe was hot.....
Just saying it might be worthwile for Brandon to put some text somewhere with a disclaimer. Who knows, maybe it will save everyone involved some grief.
On the flip side, nowadays you can sue no matter what disclaimers you agreed to. You may not have a chance of winning, but the sued party still has to defend themselves.
_________________
Peter Potkay
Keep Calm and MQ On |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| bduncan |
| Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Padawan
Joined: 11 Apr 2001
Posts: 1554
Location: Silicon Valley
|
Yeah, I've read news articles about cases where a company would actually make someone sign a disclaimer stating the company was indemnified from any damages arising from the customer's actions, and that customer was still able to take the company to court and successfully sue them. And does anyone remember the lady that won $4 million from McDonalds when she spilled hot coffee she had tried to balance on her knees while driving? That's why McDonalds brews their coffee at a lower temperature now, as well writing "CAUTION - CONTENTS HOT!" all over the cup...
So as far as I'm concerned no matter what I do someone can drag me to court. My hope is I'll get a jury that has some common sense and realizes that people are responsible for their own actions...
_________________
Brandon Duncan
IBM Certified MQSeries Specialist
MQSeries.net forum moderator |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| bduncan |
| Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 1:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Padawan
Joined: 11 Apr 2001
Posts: 1554
Location: Silicon Valley
|
BTW, have you guys heard the statistic that the United States comprises 5% of the world's population, yet 95% of the world's lawyers are in the United States? 
_________________
Brandon Duncan
IBM Certified MQSeries Specialist
MQSeries.net forum moderator |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| jefflowrey |
| Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2004 5:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Grand Poobah
Joined: 16 Oct 2002
Posts: 19981
|
Brandon, the thing that people fail to understand about the McDonald's coffee incident is that this woman got THIRD DEGREE BURNS.
As in, she got burned so badly she needed skin grafts!
From a cup of coffee!
What if she'd tried to drink it?
But, yes, I hereby deny all legal liability for any actions taken as a result of my postings to this message board.
_________________
I am *not* the model of the modern major general. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| bduncan |
| Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2004 11:19 am Post subject: |
|
|
Padawan
Joined: 11 Apr 2001
Posts: 1554
Location: Silicon Valley
|
Jeff,
I definitely have sympathy for that woman. I did read about the extent of her injuries. What I was trying to convey was that as a result of that lawsuit, McDonalds now has to print a warning label on every coffee cup, something that every coffee drinker (and someone with any common sense) knows - coffee is HOT! Now, of course that lady knew the coffee was hot as well - but that didn't prevent her from getting hurt - nor would it prevent you or I from getting hurt if we spilled it all over ourselves. So, it seems to me that there's no point in them printing such a label. Inevitably someone is going to burn themselves again, and sue McDonalds again, and probably win quite a bit of money. McDonalds isn't going to be able to hide behind the fact that they printed a caution label on the coffee. Case in point, McDonalds defense in the trial revolved around the fact that they serve billions of cups of coffee each year, and yet only a few people get burned. Statistically speaking, it was trivial. Of course, the jury took this a different way - they felt that by reducing everyone to numbers, McDonalds was being callous. They saw a person sitting there - who got burned, while McDonalds saw her as a statistical anomoly. McDonalds was using the "Shit Happens" defense.
But what I find unfortunate about it all is that after a few more lawsuits, McDonalds coffee is going to be so cold when you get it that it's going to taste even crappier than it already does
_________________
Brandon Duncan
IBM Certified MQSeries Specialist
MQSeries.net forum moderator |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| zpat |
| Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2004 2:36 am Post subject: |
|
|
Jedi Council
Joined: 19 May 2001
Posts: 5866
Location: UK
|
Most BBs can have a page footer text inserted automatically on every generated page which can include a disclaimer.
With IT advice, in most cases the actual action taken is so customised that it would be hard to prove the action was directly related to the advice, or that the advice had been followed correctly.
Also everyone expects IT implementations to have problems and generally tests out solutions before them using in production. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
