Hello Vic,
The way you will protect yourself is DUE DILIGENCE. As a matter of
fact, that is really the way you protected yourself in the past. The
only reason you were getting certifications is that they were legally
required of you. The certification house would not have accepted
liability in the event of a tragedy; your company would. In this
regard, nothing has changed. You need to make sure you are
comfortable with the interpretation (of the standard) that you use and
then act on it in good conscience.
Incidentally, if someone gets hurt, you will be sued. The only
question that will need to be answered is did you play by the intent
of the rules or did you circumvent the rules...
Ron Fotino
Cabletron Systems, Inc.
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Dumb Question
Author: "Victor L. Boersma" <[email protected]> at !INTERNET
List-Post: [email protected]
Date: 4/27/96 8:14 PM
In the grey past, we obtained certification/listing from our
friendly certification houses. If we thought that something
was wrong with the application of an old standard to a new product,
we would have a heart-to-heart talk with our certification
organization. If we had a good, solid and valid argument, chances
were that our certification organization would agree and certify us
to the spirit of the standard. In addition, it was likely that our
certification organization would propose changes to the standard, to
rectify the anomaly.
In the brave new world of "Declaration of Conformity", the only
time you have to explain yourself is, when you get caught.
The question will be whether the regulatory police will consist of
intelligent people who think like you, or will they be dummies who
think unlike you ?
If they think unlike you, your organization may be in for
extraordinarily expensive times, where the fact that they don't
have you on the payroll any longer, will not offset the costs.
Question:
How are we going to best protect our owners and ourselves in this new
environment ????
Ciao,
Vic Boersma
