Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with liability

Is my apartment company liable for my shorted-out laptop?

iamisaid — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:12:03 -0800

Is my apartment management company responsible for water damage to my laptop that occurred as a result of their lack of maintenance? Excuse me if this a common-sense question that I should already know the answer to, but IANAL, etc.

I live in a ground-floor apartment, and over the past several months there have been multiple ceiling leaks coming into my living room from the bathroom of the apartment above mine. I have informed the apartment manager of this on multiple occasions, but it continues to be an issue. On one occasion they patched and repainted a spot on my ceiling where a leak had occurred. And they say they have told my upstairs neighbors not to be so "messy" when they shower.

But as far as I know, that's the extent of maintenance action they've taken, despite the fact that this has happened more than half a dozen times. When I've spoken to them about it, they've claimed that there's really nothing else they can do to prevent future leaks, which does not seem like an acceptable answer to me.

So there was a leak once again last night while I was sleeping, and the water got into my laptop. Now my laptop won't boot up, and it was working fine yesterday.

Does this mean the apartment owners are liable for damage to my laptop? If so, what are the chances of actually getting them to pay up, and what's the best way to go about that?

Company bike fleet?

greggish — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 07:04:20 -0800

My organization is interested in providing a small fleet of bicycles for employees to use for meetings, workday errands, etc. The only reason *not* to do this that comes to mind is liability—although we could provide waivers, right? One way or the other, I haven't yet found examples of other companies doing this. What do you know about it?

Is my house seller trying to jerk me around?

bkhahn — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:53:35 -0800

Is my house seller trying to jerk me around? Specific liability legalese inside. I (the buyer) have an accepted offer on a house, and we've moved the closing date up 2 days in order to get a better interest rate. We're scheduled to close on a wednesday. We're renting the house back to the sellers until that friday at 5pm. We're in Wisconsin, so we're using the standard addendum O to handle the rent back agreement. The sellers want to add the following language.

"Occupant shall only be responsible for liability claims resulting directly from occupant's direct actions or negligence. All other liabilty claims resulting from anything other than the occupant's negligence shall be the responibility of the owner"

I know you are not my lawyer but:
It seems to me that this wording opens me up to a ton of liability issue. For instance, what if the movers damage something while moving the sellers out. What if they have their friends over the last night and trash the place?

Thanks for your opinions.

Public Liability Insurance

ninazer0 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:46:57 -0800

I need public liability insurance for a 1 day stall at a country church fete. Is there any Australian insurer who does this? The shortest term I can find is 3 months at $110 via AAMI. I have been given the run around all day and I'm at the end of my tether. All that I seem to have done today is write complaint letters about being given wrong info.

Any suggestions? $110 to run a jam stall at a tiny Church Fete seems utterly ridiculous. What are they going to do? Put an eye out with an exceptionally sharp marmalade?

Any suggestions? Because at this rate I'm ready to throw in the towel.

Selling a bike: can I safely allow people to test-ride it?

fermata — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:01:50 -0800

Selling a bike: can I safely allow people to test-ride it? (I could have sworn I've seen this question covered, but I couldn't find it.)

I'm planning to sell a bicycle, and potential buyers may want to take it for a spin. I assume I can protect myself by holding their driver's license or something, but do I have to worry about liability issues? Is it safe for me to allow them to take test rides?

I Wanna Be Protected!

fourcheesemac — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:52:15 -0800

Can one buy a personal auto liability policy for rental cars that replaces or supplements LDW or liability supplement coverage offered by the rental agency? I travel constantly, and rent cars 20+ times per year as a result. However, I live in New York City and do not own a car, and hence possess no personal auto policy. Prior to moving here, I owned cars and trucks for 15 years, and have an extensive and good driving record across multiple states. I am, of course, licensed to drive in New York.

My credit card (Visa) covers the collision damage liability for the rental car itself as primary insurance in this situation, so I typically decline the CDW. In any case, it wouldn't break me to pay cash to replace the economy or compact cars I usually rent. So to be clear, this is not a question about coverage for damage to the rental vehicle itself. As far as I know, credit cards do not offer liability coverage at all (and many people are misinformed about this, in my experience, including some rental agents).

In some states in which I rent, the rental agency claims not to carry any liability insurance (in Indiana, Alamo and National have told me they are exempt from state minimums and that, in essence, a renter is required to either possess an auto liability policy or buy their liability supplement). In other cases, even where there is some liability coverage (ie, for damage done to other people and property in a hypothetical accident in which I was at fault), it's pathetically low given the risks one takes by pulling out of the airport parking area. So I usually buy whatever additional liability coverage is offered by the agency (still not great -- usually a 100K-200K overall limit). Tends to run 12-15 bucks per rental day. Usually you have to persist in asking for the liability coverage alone, and not as part of a package with the CDW and veterinary coverage for the family pet and every other little ripoff option.

I would like to buy my own policy that would simply cover me in any rental car in the US to the tune of half a million to a million bucks. Does such a policy exist? I've heard about general personal liability policies, but that seems like overkill to me.

I am having a devil of a time searching for this on the net because any combination of keywords pulls up endless bitching about the CDW/LDW policies of the various rental agencies.

Even when I travel on business and supp. insurance is covered by my employer, I'd love to have a personal policy for increased protection. Like I said, it's pretty easy to imagine doing 100K worth of hurt backing into someone's outside wall, for crying out loud.

Seems like an obvious product for business travelers, no?

Fixing a hole where the rain gets in...

eunoia — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:41:58 -0800

Do you think my boyfriend and I are liable for water damage to our downstairs neighbors ceiling caused by our air conditioner ? My boyfriend and I just moved into an amazing 3rd floor apartment in New Haven, CT. There are a few issues with upkeep, but overall it's in okay shape. Most of the windows are either narrow casement windows (too narrow for vertical air conditioners) or giant picture windows. The one set of windows that can accommodate an air conditioner is in our study. We were pretty psyched when we realized this as portable A/Cs are insanely expensive. So we put a portable unit in the bedroom and a window air conditioner in the study, paying little mind to the small ledge under it...

Two days go by and the people who live in the apartment downstairs invite us in to see the large water spot and trickling water coming in through their ceiling. We figure out that this small ledge under our air conditioner is actually a portion of their ceiling and not an outcropping of the house. We immediately turn off the air conditioner and they contact the landlord.

The landlord is now saying that we are not able to have ANY air conditioners. He claims that because electricity is part of our rent, we have to get permission from him to run any major electrical appliances. This is obviously not true, unless spelled out in the lease or verbally agreed to (he and my boyfriend made a verbal agreement that we would not use space heaters during winter), and I have absolutely no intention of getting rid of the portable A/C that we have in the bedroom. But he also wants us to pay for the water damage from our window air conditioner to the ceiling downstairs.

My initial reaction would be that if anything, we would be liable for a portion of it, but not the whole amount. The ledge in question is overrun by rust ("overrun" not being an exaggeration) and pretty obviously in disrepair. It's also been raining off & on for weeks and if the condensation from an air conditioner can supposedly cause this kind of damage, how could rain not cause the same (it obviously gets pretty wet considering the fact that it's rusted over)? According to state law, it seems that we would be liable for these damages if we were either "reckless" or "negligent." I personally don't believe that we were either, but I'm not exactly objective or impartial. What do you think?

How can I get someone to pay off a loan that I co-signed for?

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:43:38 -0800

What is the next step in getting someone to pay off a loan that I co-signed for? 5 years ago I co-signed a private loan (through Citibank) for a (former) friend who is an international student (and this is in the United States). (Not a great idea, I know.) I became worried about his intention to pay a year ago and had him sign a statement that he would pay down the loan by $1500 by September 2008, which he did and would pay off the remaining balance (~$5000) by September 2009.

I sent him an email reminding him about this upcoming payment, as we haven't spoken for a year, and he hasn't replied.

More details that may be useful:
- I'm concerned because he may be leaving the country by the end of the year when his student visa and OPT are up. He may also be trying to overstay his visa.
- He had been paying ~$25/month on this loan while he was in school. He was pretty flaky about paying on time and regularly though.
- He has also racked up quite a bit of credit card debt and has co-signed loans with other people. He has also been bad about paying bills on time. I am most concerned about getting my co-signed loan paid off.
- I have mentioned to him that incurring debt in the U.S. and then leaving the country will possibly put his ability to get a visa - work, tourist or otherwise - in jeopardy.
- He is now out of school and is currently working and making decent money, according to mutual friends and Facebook. I don't think that paying off this loan would be difficult if he is living frugally.
- Waiting for him to pay it more slowly is a possibility, but not a route that I'd like to go, as he is from a country with low salaries (~US$200-400/month for someone with his English skills and degree) and little/insecure Internet, and money transfers are expensive.

If he does in fact not pay off the balance by September 2009, what are my next steps? YANML, but some ideas on how I could proceed would be helpful for my own knowledge and as to use as a gentle threat. I'd like to be able to say to him something like: "If you don't pay the balance as we agreed last year, I will have to take you to small claims court" (or whatever the next step is.) Or perhaps I am SOL and this is why you don't co-sign loans for people. TIA!

Rental Car Accident filter

spacefire — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:43:10 -0800

Hertz fender bender, do I need to file police report, and am I covered? I backing up out of my parents driveway, I hit my mom's car with the rear of my Hertz rental car. Dents and scratches , but no other damage. I have Liability Insurance supplement but no Loss Damage Waiver as that should be taken care of by Visa since I rented using my Visa card. Should we file a police report?

Another question, related: The liability protection states, quote:
Within the limits stated in this subparagraph, hertz will indemnify, hold harmless....which by definition EXCLUDES ANY OF YOUR OR ANY AUTHORIZED OPERATOR'S FAMILY MEMBERS...RESIDING WITH YOU OR THEM..."
I don't live with my parents, I was just visiting, will the liability thing cover the damage to my mother's car?

A question about who is liable for potential data loss when backups don't work as promised

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 10:44:25 -0800

I'm involved in a dispute about whose responsible for data. The basics: A RAID array in a small company's production server died. Under extreme pressure, the technician reconfigured the array, losing data in the process. The customer assured the tech the data was backed up. It wasn't. Now the customer says the tech should have checked the backup tapes before doing anything. Who is responsible for the data repair? I work with a few independent IT techs - we share projects or send work each others way when one of us has a specific expertise that a customer might need. I got called by one, in this scenario:

- Customer production server RAID array failed. It was a RAID 5 array.
- the IT tech was instructed by the customer to get the server working "by noon" - there's a lot of pressure to bring the system up. The tech asked, several times, if backups were available and where were they - the customer showed him a stack of backup tapes, said they'd been working every day, and the office manager er, backed up her boss by saying that she changed it every day.
She went on to say there were problems before but their software vendor had fixed backup problems on their last visit. The tape backup software is a common, good quality system that obviously hadn't been configured well.

- The tech broke the array (I know...), took out the bad drive, and reinstalled the OS on a new array made from the two remaining disks. Which is when I arrived on the scene. After reinstalling the backup software, we found that the tapes hadn't even been formatted. And then I found that the onboard RAID controller was hosed, because it kept killing drives. Hence the RAID array wasn't bad, but the server's mainboard was definitely bad.
So, after a fair bit of panic, a new server is ordered (with proper RAID hardware), the broken RAID set is sent off to a data recovery center for recovery (they got everything back in spite of the reformat) and the process of restoring the production server was completed successfully, and that's where I and the tech spent most of the time - getting the new server running and everyone working again.

The obvious result - the customer doesn't want to pay any of the bill now begins. His reasoning is that "The fact that he (as an IT professional), when he asked us if we had backup tapes, which we did, should have made sure there was information on the backup tapes before anything else was done".

Now, I have issue with the way this independent tech did the repair, and he knows it, but he's the customer's tech, I'm a flunky in this situation. At the time I got called in, though, the time to do anything about it was long past.

My question: is the customer justified in not paying the bill? Or did the IT tech have reason enough to believe the customer and his office manager?
I'm asking the question anonymously for liability reasons, even though I'm not liable, if that makes sense.

No, we don't watch it just for the crashes

Ickster — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:24:33 -0800

How is collateral damage from rallying handled? I've watched WRC from afar (I live in the US) and have seen a few videos of non-WRC rallying. Being from the states, where it's impossible to imagine rallying like this ever being allowed because of our liability laws, I've always wondered if property owners adjoining the course have any way to object to the rally being run, and how they're compensated for any damage that occurs.

The most obvious solution would seem to be that the organizers pay for it out of entrance fees, but with the amount of damage that happens, it seems like entrance fees would either be prohibitive (and there seem to be a lot of amateurs) or organizers would go broke pretty quickly.

A bike hit my parked car, who pays?

ryaninoakland — Tue, 19 May 2009 00:31:28 -0800

Someone hit my car whilst riding their bicycle, knocking my side rear-view mirror clear off. They were nice enough to leave their number for me but I'm curious- is that something their insurance would pay for, or is it something I'll have to try to get money out of pocket for? I have only liability insurance. Totally inexperienced when it comes to such matters so talk to me like an infant.

Am I Liable for this Accident?

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:36:15 -0800

Liability filter: I was involved in accident and need to know if I will be held liable. I was sitting in a taxi in heavy traffic, but was very close to my destination. I told the driver I would just get out then and there. He said ok. I paid him, then opened the door and WHAM a bicyclist went flying through the air. He may have broken an arm, possibly dislocated a shoulder, and his bike was damaged. But he was conscious, and I don't think he'll require surgery. I saw no blood. An ambulance came. I gave his brother, who was riding with him, $80 for the ambulance, as well as my drivers license number and phone number. I want to help, but I also want to know where I stand: if I am liable, if I can have a claim filed against me, if I can be sued, etc. Presumably the cab company might be liable instead of me? I don't have insurance.

IS breach repercussions

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 08:50:55 -0800

A former employer (left under good terms) has had an information security breach. I mainly did their web site, "light" IT work, copywriting/design/marketing, and "misc." I had admin privileges and set up systems because I was the only one who knew computer stuff. Complicating things, I have done (a very small amount of) web-related consulting for them since leaving, with no contract, and was the one who reported the breach, found while doing a job. They had a consultant from the hosting firm look at it, and the breach goes back a while, to just before my end date. They don't think I did anything intentionally and are still giving me work, but reportedly the consultant who looked at the system said very negative things about my competence and that I may have left a hole open. I don't know what I did yet and don't know when details will be forthcoming. My former employer doesn't seem mad about it yet, but they also don't know any details. Very small company, no written IS policy, no other sysadmin, and none since I left.

I am relatively inexperienced, both in security and in my career overall. I had a lot of responsibility at this company... maybe more than I should have. How worried should I be, and about what? Right now I am not sleeping well. They might have to notify clients, etc. Could a mistake like this be considered negligence in a legal sense, or is it something someone would normally just be reprimanded or fired for? Should I try to ask questions and get resolution, or wait to be contacted?

who is liable to pay for bedbug treatment?

I like to eat meat — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 22:50:43 -0800

who's liable for bedbug treatment in san francisco? are we really liable to pay this bill and can we get our deposit back? hello internet. We got bedbugs a few weeks ago, and our landlord treated it after they kept saying no one else in the building complained, and blaming us for bringing them in. they never said anything about us having to pay, but we just got a huge bill for treatment and a letter saying that "the probability someone in your apartment introduced the bedbugs to your apartment is just about 99.9%"

There was nothing about payment discussed or any agreement that we signed agreeing to this, and this bill totally came out of nowhere.

anyone know what our rights here are? Are we legally liable to pay this? If we try to fight this, can they withold our deposit or otherwise get back at us?

Thanks!

Writing a liability release for a biking accident?

i less than three nsima — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:16:47 -0800

Legal filter - I hit a car head-on while biking the other day. It was my fault, and I’ve agreed to pay the damages to car. I need help writing up a release of liability contract so this guy doesn’t keep coming back for more. Here’s what happened... I was biking to work on Tuesday, and came to an intersection with a long line of cars waiting for the light to change. I decided to try passing the cars, using the oncoming lane of traffic, which was empty of cars at the time. There was a big truck at the head of the line, blocking my view, and a car turned into my lane quickly and we hit head on. Fortunately, my bike took the brunt of the impact, taco-ing out the front wheel and destroying the fork. I walked away with a pretty badly bruised shin, some smaller bruises, and nothing more. The car was also damaged - the front assembly and grill was shattered on impact. An ambulance was reflexively called by the driver, but by the time they came, it was clear to me that I did not need their help, so I signed a waiver that said I was OK. The EMTs asked the driver to sign a waiver as well, which he refused to do, which started to put me on guard that this guy was a little shady.

From the beginning, I knew that this was on me - I did a stupid, illegal maneuver with my bike, and I was prepared to pay for the damages I made to this guy’s car. We agreed that he would take his car in to the shop, and then he would work with the shop to get the estimate to me and then I would pay for the damages. At the critical moment of exchanging information at the scene, I gave him my name, address, and phone number, but he only gave me a nickname and his cell phone number, strike two for my suspicions of shadiness. He also seemed very interested in leaving the scene of the accident before the cops came - I didn’t want to have to deal with that either, because at the time I feared I might be charged with something for my reckless biking, but in retrospect this makes me more worried.

The estimate is now in, and the car will be fixed by Tuesday. My plan is to meet the man at the shop and pay the shop directly for the work. I would like to have him and I sign something together saying that we are both satisfied with the situation, that neither of us owes the other anything, and that the matter can be considered closed. I have no intentions of suing the man, but I also want to ensure that this is my last responsibility to him. I don’t want him coming to me 2 months down the road saying his engine is knocking and that I have to pay to replace it.

I would like advice on what I should write in order to make this document legally binding and to cover all my bases. Also, if you all have any advice on how I can present this to him so as not to freak him out too much, as I already know he is reluctant to give out his name, that would be great too.

A few addendum, for the inevitable comments:
1) I know my handling of this has not been the best, but for better or worse, I am in the situation that I’m in now, and I just want it to be over and not have to worry about it any more.

2) I know you are not a lawyer or if you are, you are not my lawyer. I also know that I should probably be doing this with a lawyer, but this whole thing has already cost me quite a lot, and if I can manage to write up something that is legal enough on my own, it would save me that much more trouble.

How to manage two consecutive car accidents?

fermion — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:03:28 -0800

My parked car got hit by a truck. Then, before I could get it fixed, it got hit by another truck. How do I handle two claims at once? The first accident was a couple of months ago--a truck hit my parked car and ripped my rear bumper halfway off. The wheels of paperwork have been grinding slowly, partly just because I've been busy, so I'm still working things out with that insurance company and hadn't fixed the damage yet. This morning, a garbage truck hit my (again, parked--I haven't driven it at all for a few months) car and did some damage to the door and mirrors, as well as taking my bumper the rest of the way off.

What do I tell the garbage truck's insurance company about this most recent incident? I don't want to get compensated for the same damages twice, but I also don't want to give them an excuse to claim all the damage was pre-existing. I know that the appropriate actions in situations like this can be counter-intuitive, so I'm hoping you folks can give me some advice.

Potentially relevant info: I'm in Washington State, and my insurance is liability-only (it's an old car) so I'm dealing with the other insurance companies directly rather than through my own insurer.

cheap auto liability insurance

lgyre — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 15:35:17 -0800

Where can I get cheap auto liability insurance for an older vehicle? I want the minimum auto insurance required by law in PA, which is liability. We used to have Esurance, which I was happy with, but they seem to only cover cars made since 1981, and our new vehicle is a 1980. I know I can get quotes online, but I'm not sure where to start. Do you know a company with cheap rates that offers just liability coverage on a vehicle that old?

What is a cpa's liability

thebwit — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:25:11 -0800

What is a cpa's liability? More specifically, I hired a cpa to do my payroll and taxes. She mis-payed all of the tax payments and then told me the wrong due date for another tax payment and then I got hit with a penalty. So what is her liability in all of this?

Good online resource for generic liability waiver?

Idiot Mittens — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 05:41:56 -0800

Is there a good online resource for generic liability waivers? I'm shooting a trailer for a screenplay with some friends and a bunch of extras. We'll be doing a lot of stuff on roller skates so I'd like to take some reasonable assurances that we don't get sued if someone gets hurt.

I know going to an actual lawyer would be best and protect me to the fullest, but I can't afford that. And since I know most of these people and we'll be taking safety precautions I don't expect a problem. I'd just feel better if something were signed. Thanks!

Why does property liability work the way it does?

IndigoRain — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:12:17 -0800

Why does property liability work the way it does? In other words, why am I responsible for someone else's injury in my home, even if it was in no way my fault? My friend, who has a 20-year-old daughter, permitted her daughter's friends (all over the age of 18) to come over for a swim. Two of the boys were throwing a third boy around and horseplaying. The third boy developed a hairline fracture in his neck. He and his mom have threatened to sue my friend.

I know YANAL and I am not asking for legal advice. She'll get a lawyer. I am asking why they should be liable in the first place. My friend did not provide an unsafe environment (as referenced in this thread).

Another example: My mom, a few months ago, tripped on a rug at work, and injured her knee pretty badly. The hospital told her to file workman's comp. Why is her boss responsible? I'm not saying my mom is responsible for tripping, but why isn't there something akin to an "act of God" law?

Another person I was talking to compared this to me being liable for someone tripping in my driveway. Assuming there was nothing unsafe about my property, if someone did trip in my driveway, who decided that I should have to pay that person's medical bills? (I know in practicality it is the insurance company who pays, but why my own insurance and not the injured person's insurance?) Why is it my fault? Why can't it be argued "this is just one of those things that happens" or even "it's the victim's fault for not watching where he was going?"

How did this law come about in the first place? Is there ever an exception to the law?

who's responsible for the credit card?

glawky — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 20:23:48 -0800

Sadly, I'm likely to be going through a divorce in the near term. I have a concern about the credit card debt I've accumulated and wish to protect my wife from any liability. Should I find myself in a situation where I am unable to pay it [ lose my job, injury, death ], is there a way to insulate her from the debt before our divorce? Does she have any liability after the divorce?

Ignorance of the law...?

uaudio — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:17:01 -0800

If I run an open wireless access point using DHCP, is there a way for anyone to identify which PC or device in the IP range is receiving or sending traffic? If I run a shared connection and someone does something unlawful, is it my problem or theirs? I'm using the latest Airport Extreme with 802.11n. I don't run any filtering software or anything like that. I just received a letter from my provider (Cox) saying that someone was sharing unauthorized content, but it wasn't me. I'm going to discuss this with the folks who share my connection, but my questions are:

1. Is it my liability if the **AA decides to sue?
2. Can they see who it actually was, like MAC address or computer name?

I understand the easiest solution moving forward is to close the access point, and running the connection open is probably in breach of Cox's TOS, but I'm more concerned about what happened already.

Freelance liability insurance is making my head hurt.

Stacey — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:52:39 -0800

I'm a small freelance business owner, with a new client whose standard contract requires me to carry general liability insurance. Probably not a bad idea, so I could use some tips for what to look for in this type of insurance, and any good carriers. But in the meanwhile, for this specific contract, I'd like to get that clause waived. Has anyone had any success having a clause like this waived, and how did you do it? I run a small copy-editing business part-time. Liability insurance hasn't been an issue up until now. Clients aren't on my property, I'm not on theirs, no one's traveling anywhere, they make all final decisions on whether to accept my suggestions...it just hasn't been a high priority and no one's asked about it before. But my new client is so happy with the job I just did that he wants to get me signed up as a contractor at his university so he can hire me again. Which is great, but there's this boilerplate language in the contract about how I need to carry all sorts of insurance - the general liability, plus workers' comp, employer's liability, and automobile liability.

Ultimately, if I can afford it, it's probably not a bad idea to have this sort of insurance. I'd like to start looking into it, and would gladly accept suggestions for companies that might have a reasonably-priced insurance policy for this sort of business. (I've looked around a little so far and the policies I'm finding seem to assume full-time employees, property, and 6-figure revenues, which is all way out of my league right now.)

In the short-term, I'd like to get paid for the job I've already done (which was originally supposed to be a one-off and thus not require all of this), and have time to look around for good insurance rather than jumping into the first thing I find just so I can satisfy this contract. A little Googling led me to some stories of editors who were able to have clauses like this waived after pointing out they don't really apply to businesses like mine. I'd like to try that tack and am looking for advice on how to proceed. Has anyone successfully had something like this waived in a contract? If so, what arguments were persuasive?

Should I pay a lawyer $1000 to fight a $3000 liability claim?

Bathtub Bobsled — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:17:47 -0800

Am I personally financially liable for copyright infringement when the company I work for gets sued for the unauthorized use of a song in a commercial I produced? Recently I was laid off from a job as a commercial producer for a small television station because of budget reasons. I returned last week for an exit interview and during the exit interview, my former boss flipped out at me because they were getting sued by a music publisher for unauthorized use of a song in one of our station promos.

My boss notified me that he was going to hold me liable for it because I produced the commercial. He claims that any money the station loses in the settlement, he is going to come after me for.

He still owes me two weeks severance, and he is threatening to fight my unemployment claim.

At the time I thought we were allowed to use unlicensed music in commercials that simply promote station functions (instead of pushing a product or a service). We had used many copyrighted songs many times before without any conflict. I have only learned recently that this isn't the case.

Am I liable, or should I fight this?