While I'm not a lawyer, I've spent many years working for 2 firms as an expert witness.
What will happen after some guy touches a high voltage point, falls off his stool, hits his head on the counter, breaks his neck and is now a quadriplegic is this. You will be served. Usually a work. Process servers LOVE to serve people at work for maximum embarrassment. You'll have 30 days in most states to answer the complaint. If you don't, the other side wins what they ask for by default and they start taking your stuff, garnisheeing your wages and so on. And a judgment is one of the few things you can't bankrupt out from under. You can expect to have your wages garnisheed pretty much for the rest of your life. So you see a lawyer. He'll read the complaint, tell you a few things about the probability of winning and so forth. Then he'll tell you that he charges $350/hour and bills against a $5000 to $10,000 retainer, due and payable immediately. You could, of course try to represent yourself but that'd be like leading a lamb to slaughter. The next thing that will happen after you clean out your savings account for the retainer is that there will be a deposition. You'll meet with the other side and a court reporter in one of the sides' conference room. You're sworn in and the fun begins. The session will be video recorded in addition to the court reporter. All these expenses that are adding up, you get to pay if you lose. The plaintiff's lawyer will have a guy like me advising him. They'll have a working version of the clock PCB all fired up and ticking away. He'll ask you something to the effect "If I touch right here (a high voltage point) will I be shocked? This is civil court. You can't take the Fifth. Ultimately a judge will order you to answer and if you don't, he will toss you in jail for contempt. IF you answer "yes", pretty much game-over. He'll ask you to show him in the manual where you warn the kit builder not to touch that point. To add insult to injury, he may pick out a couple more points on the board. If you say "no", the next question will be "sir, please touch that point to assure us there is no hazard. Now you have a dilemma. If you say that you were wrong and that the point will cause a shock, you'll get grilled for a bit about which time did you perjure yourself, your first answer or now? If you touch it and get shocked, game over. If you refuse to answer, the lawyer will speed-dial a judge on the speakerphone and request an order for you to answer. If you refuse, it's off to jail we go. The judge can keep you in jail as long as he wants to or until you comply with his order. The lawyer will finish the deposition by asking about your qualifications to design such dangerous hardware, what kits you've designed and sold before and a few other things designed to make you look bad. Your lawyer can ask you questions in an attempt to rehabilitate your case but most won't. The other side can cross-examine any answer you give which opens up more doors for exploration. That's used up your retainer so your lawyer will ask for another check. He'll also ask your permission to negotiate a settlement. If the victim was seriously hurt, if they will discuss settlement at all, it will be high. If the guy wasn't seriously hurt, he might settle for "just" $50k. Can you pay that? If the case goes to trial, the (in TN) 6 man jury gets to see the depositions. You will be compelled to testify (remember, no 5th in civil cases) where the plaintiff's attorney will ask you all the same questions all over again. Better remember your answers during deposition or you'll face a perjury charge. The jury will be composed of the 6 dumbest people in the county who couldn't figure out how to get out of jury duty and then passed voir dire. (OK, I'm overstating a bit but many trials have made me quite cynical.) And unlike criminal cases, it takes only a majority of jurors to find you guilty. So one juror can't hang the jury or convince the others to change their minds. When you lose, you might think that you'll appeal. In TN, like most states, you have to post a cash bond equal to the value of the judgment before you can appeal. Let's say the jury awarded a "measly" $1 million. A bonding company will require 10% of the amount as payment. Can you come up with $100k? That only buys you the right to appeal. By the time verdict time rolls around, your lawyer will have prepared seizure orders, had them signed off by a judge and will have people positioned to seize your car, your boat and anything else you own except your house to satisfy the balance of his fees and the plaintiff's expenses which the judge will award. Basically you've just become a poor man. There are a few things you can do to protect yourself. You should have an umbrella liability policy attached to your homeowner's or renter's insurance. I have a $5Mil one that costs me about $300 a year. Second, you can do this activity under a C corp, though unless you have several stockholders who aren't relatives, it's relatively easy to "pierce the corporate veil" and get to you directly. Still the corp is a good idea. For any further advice, you need to talk to a plaintiff's defense attorney for mitigation techniques. If you're not very wealthy and don't have many assets, then you're probably in pretty good shape. The plaintiff's attorney would look at your financial profile and determine that you're not worth a suit. Like I said, I'm not a lawyer. I'm the guy telling the lawyer what to say and do. I've always worked for the defense, as I just couldn't see myself working for the attorneys that file the ridiculous suits they file. John On 05/05/2016 03:26 PM, gregebert wrote: > I would argue that the unassembled kit itself is not capable of > producing harmful voltages or electromagnetic interference, therefore > it's not subject to regulation. It's about as harmful as a loaf of > bread. > > But, whoever assembles the kit and turns it on would assume > responsibility. I would put a disclaimer in the instructions just to > cover yourself. > > -- John DeArmond Tellico Plains, Occupied TN http://www.tnduction.com <-- THE source for induction heaters http://www.neon-john.com <-- email from here http://www.johndearmond.com <-- Best damned Blog on the net https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/BarbraJoanOriginals/neu <-- Fine Art Originals PGP key: wwwkeys.pgp.net: BCB68D77 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/neonixie-l/572BDC08.7050504%40neon-john.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
