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Subject:Re: Hit Man Manual From:Tim Altom <taltom -at- IQUEST -dot- NET> Date:Thu, 13 Nov 1997 13:01:33 -0600
At 05:21 PM 11/13/97 GMT, you wrote:
>It always seemed to me that a concientious insurance carrier would say to the
>client company: "Include us on the review list for the final draft of the
>documentation so that we can assess potential liability issues in the
>documentation. If you don't want to do that, we'll have to charge you a higher
>rate for the same coverage".
>
>To the best of my knowledge, this hasn't happened with any of the companies
>I've written documentation for. Perhaps the insurance carriers aren't as
>clever or concientious as I gave them credit for being; perhaps they did make
>those statements and the companies I worked for decided to ante up higher
>premiums. I know I've actually brought it up to my manager at at least one
>company and was told not to worry about it. That, being management's
>perogative, is fine with me; my concience is clear.
>
>Mike
>
I think insurance carriers are like homeowners; until the roof is leaking,
it doesn't matter how tattered it might get. I've looked up the latest
liability cases concerning documentation claims, omissions, or mistatements,
and I have to tell you there aren't many. It may be only a matter of time,
of course; there weren't many cases directly on point about hot coffee
spilling while driving, either, despite the centuries of accumulated tort law.
If just one big case goes to appeal based on documentation contents, you
might see insurance carriers rouse themselves. Otherwise, I think we can be
thankful for small favors that only _in-house_ attorneys are included in
review cycles.
Tim Altom
Vice President, Simply Written, Inc.
317.899.5882 (voice) 317.899.5987 (fax)
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