Disclaimer Mods please take note

[Agile]

Chairman of the CORGI Council last week but the figure comes from the HSE stats.

 

[Trevor1957]

If you offer advice on a forum like this you are leaving yourself wide open. If you give advice to someone who follows it and as a result a fatality occurs, when it gets to court, and it will, you will be expected to qualify your advice and prove your experience and expertise in the subject you are advising on. If you can't do that then it is likely that you will become someone's girlfriend very soon.

Just remember that when your new cell mate (and his buddy's) bend you over and slam in the lamb

 

[Maxxy]

Its a DIY site though. People shouldnt expect their advice to come from professionals.

 

[ollski]

If you offer advice on a forum like this you are leaving yourself wide open. If you give advice to someone who follows it and as a result a fatality occurs, when it gets to court, and it will, you will be expected to qualify your advice and prove your experience and expertise in the subject you are advising on. If you can't do that then it is likely that you will become someone's girlfriend very soon.

Just remember that when your new cell mate (and his buddy's) bend you over and slam in the lamb

Trevor does this follow a legal precednt then?, I would be very surprised if a diy internet forum can possibly be mistaken for professional advise.....as my mother used to say "if someone told you to jump in the river would you do it?". Lets get a grip and put it in perspective.

 

[Trevor1957]

I see your point Ollski

I don't really care who follows my advice on oil heating issues, that's up to them but one thing is for sure, My back is covered, and I am an oil heating professional. There is a strong culture of blame these days and it doesn't hurt for us all to be aware of it.

My point is - why does this thread exist if nobody is worried about blame !

Be cool

 

[Agile]

Ollski, but if you advise a "defective" to jump into a river then they probably will.

Thats the point you dont know anything much about the person you are giving "advice to". They may be totally incompetent or a defective.

Therefore I would always err on the side of caution.

Rather that risk a DIY explosion, get a professional in to do it for you properly.

Tony

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

My point is - why does this thread exist if nobody is worried about blame !

The thread exists because I am concerned about Safety and Freedom of information

It is not illegal for a person to fix their own boiler or that of their friends and relatives so long as no money changes hands.

I will try to help whoever comes to this forum wherever I feel they have the ability to follow the instructions or stop short at the limit of their ability.

I dont want to be sued by some wreckless numbnut or hustler, out to make a quick buck out of an inadvertant ambiguity or perhaps a legitimate error through misunderstanding or mis-representation. Sometimes I have seen sarcastic comments that if followed to the letter would result in disaster.

 

[Softus]

why are you giving out gas technical advice as you are well aware a diy cannot do it.

Nonsense.

Why do you spend all your time going on courses and registering with corgi for diyers to get the info and do it themselves talk about shooting yourself in the foot

You don't know what you're talking about.

dont give out gas advice on a diy not forum dont be a know all

Don't be a know nothing.

If you offer advice on a forum like this you are leaving yourself wide open.

Rubbish.

Just remember that when your new cell mate (and his buddy's) bend you over and slam in the lamb.

Offensive rubbish.

_______________________________

There's a lot of paranoia going on here. I really wonder if anyone knows of a documented case where forum advice led to liability on the part of the advice giver.

There are two important elements:

1. Everyone is expected to know their statotory obligation and responsibility in the context of what they're doing - ignorance is no defence. If DIYer installs a gas valve without being competent, it's his/her own look out.

2. Everyone has a general duty of care towards everyone else, and lack of due care amounts to negligence. As Agile pointed out, you can't contract out of this, but the site owner has taken sufficient care in leaving warnings lying around, and the advice givers need only to be cautious in giving advice to incompetents to meet their duty.

A warning that appears regularly will be ignored regularly - to experience an example of this go stand by a tobacco kiosk and read out the government health warning to each person who buys cigarettes. Like an expensive blunt pencil, it's pointless.

 

[Agile]

The site Owners advice is more angled towards realising that any advice given may not necessarily be correct.

It needs to be be more prominent and to display a warning that anyone undertaking tasks needs to be sure that they are totally competent to undertake them safely.

Its essential to clearly display the warning to every site visitor. Not just burried in the T & C. If the reader then chooses to ignore it thats at their peril.

The Government has discharged its duty of care by prominently displaying the health warning on fags. If you then smoke its at your own risk.

Tony

 

[sm1thson]

- ignorance is no defence. If DIYer installs a gas valve without being competent, it's his/her own look out.

-but a lot of people are ignorant to the requirement to be competent before staarting a job on gas, i think it would help to have such infomation clearly written somewhere to avoid repetition and or accidents. (ok it probably is clearly written somewhere i dont do gas so Ive not looked!)

as to the original talk about a general disclamer, i dont think it would hurt, but i dont think things are that bad that anyones going to end up in jail over advise on a diy forum.

 

[Agile]

If I were to give advice that encouraged someone to do something they are clearly not competent to do then I have not fulfilled my duty of care and I would be sued for negligence.

The mere fact that I was giving free advice makes no difference!

Tony

 

[Softus]

If I were to give advice that encouraged someone to do something they are clearly not competent to do

You're failing to distinguish between advising and encouraging - they're different and distinct.

... then I have not fulfilled my duty of care and I would be sued for negligence.

Not would, but might.

The mere fact that I was giving free advice makes no difference!

I disagree.

If you're being paid to give advice then it is for professional services, and the duty of care changes from being general to being specific in the context of that advice, which is why service providers provide disclaimers and have indemnity insurance.

The reasonable view of free advice is that the recipient cannot hold the giver liable for mistakes, since there is no consideration for that advice, hence no contract in which the giver undertakes to rectify any mistakes that get made.

 

[Agile]

I agree that its unreasonable to sue anyone who has only given free advice.

Unfortunately some people are unreasonable.

If you marry a woman and things dont go so well I would say its unreasonable to try to make loads of money out of the unfortunate situation.

A certain beetle is now finding himself in that position. I am sure he would never have married her if he had know her true colours!

Never marry a beautiful woman! Ugly ones are more grateful!

Tony

 

[Softus]

I agree that its unreasonable to sue anyone who has only given free advice.

That's not what I wrote, or what I meant. And you know it, otherwise you'd have just written "I agree".

The reasonable view of free advice is: the recipient cannot hold the giver liable for mistakes...

When I used the term "reasonable view" I was implicitly referring to the criteria that would be used by a court (lowercase c) of law to determine liability in the context of someone taking free advice and using it incompetently.

Ugly ones are more grateful!

That's what your wife said about you.