Although “informed consent” provides limited protection, limits on liability can make it unprofitable for an attorney to sue.>>

this is of course the ultimate goal of all “businessmen” is to have limits on liability so low that well no one really can sue at all and hence the liability aspect of engineering goes out the window.

Lets say for instance that colgan air was only liable for oh say 50,000 per person that they have die on their airplanes…well as Donald Trump would say “it becomes a business decision” devoid of any real cost on their part to try and run a safe product.

The first case I recall my Dad taking on product liability was when he defended Beechcraft from being sued by the widow of a person who had landed with the gear up and in the process managed to kill himself. Beech asked my Dad (I have a story in Flying magazine about this so nothing privileged here) what a settlement should be and my dad wrote them a one word letter “DEFEND”.

What is a life worth?

If NASA knew that it as an organization (or the people who worked for it) that they were personally liable for goofy decision, what do you think Jay Green would have been saying with Columbia or Linda Ham with Challenger (of sorry mixed the orbiters up the disasters are so similar).

I know of one Chief of Staff of a Marine division in Iraq who after reports of troops being electrocuted in the showers came out informed the person in charge of the building of the showers that they or someone in their company would take the first shower in every damn space they built…or not eat take ones pick.

Do we really want Linda H’s and Jay Greens completely scott free in terms of liability? RGO

This is quaint. But ultimately an exercise in going in circles, no place fast. A decade from now they’ll be skimming the skies having ceilinged out the market and looking for a bailo>>

we will see…but I predict you are wrong, in face I would wager 10000 of Romney’s dollars against you (grin).

in the end I suspect that this “technology” is going to change dramatically both entertainment, travel, and military use. RGO

The goal isn’t just to expand the protection to subcontractors, though that’s very important. It’s also important to remove the adjective “inherent” from risks. The California trial lawyers will fight this with gusto.

>>

LOL

“informed consent”…To be kind to both Richardson and Branson I think that this is mostly crap…and more importantly while my Father (Gayle E. Oler) the attorney in the family, the attorney whose specialties were anti trust and “malpractice” suits would tell you that this is …well he would use a kinder word. But while Dad is in heaven now, his comments on bills like this are easy to find on the record.

The circle that “informed consent” can cover in terms of lawsuit relief is very very small. For instance The folks killed by NASA in Challenger and Columbia could have signed twenty informed consent documents made by 1000 dollar an hour lawyers (n these cases Dad billed at 1500) …and that would not have stopped their heirs from seeking and getting a judgement against the operators of the shuttle had the shuttle been operated by a private concern.

Dad was a solid “Mitt Romney” Republican but there is not a moment when someone talked about “litigation relief” (and that included the twit who is Gov of Texas) that he did not break into a chuckle.

Lets try another way here.

you cite an example “you” think that such a bill would protect from…then we can talk.

Cogan airlines tried to run under “informed consent” in their defense of the Buffalo crash. The lead law suit in that case was one of Dad’s last big efforts before his body simply could no longer (as he put it) “take his mind to the courthouse”.

their argument got to the point where not only the judge ruled against them in a dismissal but the judge allowed the jury to decide the issue…it got flamed there as well. And it has held up nicely on appeal

But you tell me a situation you think such a law would be “good”

Robert G. Oler

After his betrayal of Bill and Hillary 2008, Richardson is reviled by both democrats and Republicans. I can’t think of a person less likely to win a Presidential nomination, unless it is Colin Powell.

well maybe in my view we are entering a period where we are on the verge of a massive change in deliverable conventional weapons and suborbit vehicles are going to be well a part of that…

Robert G. Oler

@Simberg

Your value of hardware over the people who ride it is well documented on this forum.