Rusty, 
 
I think liability protection for designer/consultants is a good idea... 
 
I know that even though you are doing work as a consultant, that if you were
designing a building and the building fell down.. their lawyers would come
looking for you... 
 
This is a special area of interest of mine even though I am no expert in the
field... 
 
I typically sign non-disclosure agreements and some of the language in them
is 'suspect' when they talk about liability... 
I chose to put a 'disclaimer' on my invoices when I do occasional consulting
work to basically absolve myself of anything they do with the data I supply
to them and limit my liability to just the materials supplied... Gerbers and
board data only... guaranteeing that the correctness of the design must be
verified by them and payment to me is acceptance of its correctness and
declaring an end to any liability I have for the correctness of the data or
its use beyond that point or something to that effect...
 
Often you as a designer know little about the application of the board you
are working on if you are contracting... some things may even be part of DOD
projects and they can let you work on them with limited knowledge about the
design on a 'need to know basis' with a signed agreement covering their
contract requirements... You may not know how the board gets used or how it
will interact with other boards in a project... you are only able to work
with the data they supply you.
 
I really think it would be wise to get some guidance on this subject from a
lawyer who deals in business law and contract law... 
 
It's a good subject for more research... and would help other contractors to
think about their potential liability when designing boards... 
 
Thanks for bringing it up... I will repost it on the Designers Council forum
for more comments from other designers in the community... They may have run
into this and can add some advice on their approach to dealing with this
subject.. 
 
 
Best regards,
Bill Brooks, CID+

-----Original Message-----
From: Rusty Land [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Thursday, March 31, 2005 9:29 AM
To: DXP Technical Forum
Subject: [dxp] Question To PCB Designers On Liability
 
    This question does not pertain to Protel but I thought it may be of
interest to all PCB designers, particularly consultants. Do any of you sign
agreements with your customers limiting your liability in the event of
errors and omissions on your part? Are you aware of any suits being brought
against PCB designers due to errors and omissions? 
    I haven't had any problems in the years that I have been consulting but
a customer recently told me they were skipping the prototype stage on a
couple of my boards and going straight into production. This has caused me
to look closely at liability issues. I could also see the case where someone
was injured or equipment damaged due to a failure of the board.
    I'm trying to decide now if I should formulate such an agreement or
whether it would scare off more customers than it's worth.
 
                Thanks, Rusty Land
    
 

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