Liability

[louie]

I worked on a system that had almost no requirements and no test team, and an insane deadline due a law coming into existence. However now the system is live I am told that the users can sue my client if the system doesn't audit certain data. I got the impression they were implying I would be held responsible? Is that possible. I did my best based on the fragments of information i had.

[Wanderer]

I worked on a system that had almost no requirements and no test team, and an insane deadline due a law coming into existence. However now the system is live I am told that the users can sue my client if the system doesn't audit certain data. I got the impression they were implying I would be held responsible? Is that possible. I did my best based on the fragments of information i had.

This is why people take out professional indemnity insurance...

Also, remember that if you are operating a limited company then it most likely your company that will be held liable and not you personally (provided you didn't sign your life away in the contract). The fact that your company probably has no assets means there is unlikely to be legal action taken, in my opinion.

[louie]

This is why people take out professional indemnity insurance...

Also, remember that if you are operating a limited company then it most likely your company that will be held liable and not you personally (provided you didn't sign your life away in the contract). The fact that your company probably has no assets means there is unlikely to be legal action taken, in my opinion.

I don't have the insurance, but given I wasn't given the correct information and support (testers) etc I don't see how they could ever hold be fully responsible.

[eek]

I don't have the insurance, but given I wasn't given the correct information and support (testers) etc I don't see how they could ever hold be fully responsible.

Actually I think that makes it more likely rather than less likely. The fact that you did it all by yourself without support means that they can point out the obvious target (the lone developer) and helps them clearly deflect the blame from them to you.

Also the lack of analysis doesn't help your argument unless you can accurately show that the initial information you got was confirmed as correct by the third party. If you were working agilely with continuing changing requirements they could easily used your defence against you.

The killer thing here is that Lawyers will destroy you with both time and money so I view indemnity insurance as both something my clients like and something that when things go wrong allows me to offload the problem to a specialist asap.

Assuming all your contract paperwork is in your company name your best option is probably to close you current company down asap and start your next contract as a new company. Oh and find some indemnity insurance for your next contract its very cheap if you end up needing it.

[BlasterBates]

It's unlikely that clients are going to sue, more likely they would complain and it would get fixed. If they were going to sue you, they'd have to demonstrate negligence and even if they did sue they could only sue your Ltd company. The fact that they managed the project would make it very difficult to prove negligence. You would have to do something pretty glaringly "stupid" like delete all their code.

I wouldn't get fussed about it, you don't have a lot to be worried about.

[malvolio]

I don't have the insurance, but given I wasn't given the correct information and support (testers) etc I don't see how they could ever hold be fully responsible.

Lesson for the future then. If you work in an area where you can be blamed as the sole arbiter of what is produced, you need insurance for when it goes wrong. As I said somewhere else recently, "Fingers crossed" is not a good business model.

[dogzilla]

This is why people take out professional indemnity insurance...

Also, remember that if you are operating a limited company then it most likely your company that will be held liable and not you personally (provided you didn't sign your life away in the contract). The fact that your company probably has no assets means there is unlikely to be legal action taken, in my opinion.

Are you sure? I know a friend who is on quite a lot of money and he pays himself quarterly/half yearly dividends most of the time, so his company account has quite a bit sitting there at any one time. Lets say he had legal action taken against him, so he withdraws all the cash straight away and starts trading under another LTD company. Surely that's not gonna fly? As far as I know you can't just move onto another LTD and expect your liabilities to disappear

.

[eek]

It's unlikely that clients are going to sue, more likely they would complain and it would get fixed. If they were going to sue you, they'd have to demonstrate negligence and even if they did sue they could only sue your Ltd company. The fact that they managed the project would make it very difficult to prove negligence. You would have to do something pretty glaringly "stupid" like delete all their code.

I wouldn't get fussed about it, you don't have a lot to be worried about.

Thinking about it I think the issue really boils down to the fact the end client wants someone to fix the problem for free and the old clientco want Louie to do it.

The threats are there because they want it done for free so just calmly call them back and point out it that while you would be happy to help its a change request that you will happily quote and charge for. You can also do it quickly if you can work from home (which would allow you to do it in your own time or offload it to elance and pocket the difference).

[louie]

I will be moving on anyway soon so no worries, some other mug will have to support it.

[louie]

Actually I think that makes it more likely rather than less likely. The fact that you did it all by yourself without support means that they can point out the obvious target (the lone developer) and helps them clearly deflect the blame from them to you.

Also the lack of analysis doesn't help your argument unless you can accurately show that the initial information you got was confirmed as correct by the third party. If you were working agilely with continuing changing requirements they could easily used your defence against you.

The killer thing here is that Lawyers will destroy you with both time and money so I view indemnity insurance as both something my clients like and something that when things go wrong allows me to offload the problem to a specialist asap.

Assuming all your contract paperwork is in your company name your best option is probably to close you current company down asap and start your next contract as a new company. Oh and find some indemnity insurance for your next contract its very cheap if you end up needing it.

By that logic, I could hire someone give them one page requirements to build a search engine equivalent to Google and if has to be done in 3 weeks or I will sue. i.e. it's bulltulip.