Holster Liability?

[SpringyCL45]

Sorry if there is already a thread covering this :-/

To all the holster makers: Are any of you concerned with or have experience dealing with people trying to sue you or the company because they said your holster caused an accidental discharge?

I know many of you have disclaimers on your websites related to this but would that actually hold up in court? Ever since the MickD's hot coffee incident, how can one protect themselves against these kind of things? Simple disclaimers, good insurance, what?

[TwinOaks]

There are some threads that discuss this in detail. Do a search to include "hoster" and "insurance". And yes, it is a valid concern. I simplify the issue by only selling holsters to people I know to be experienced/skilled, and not the type of person to assign blame to someone else for being careless.

[Lobo]

Sorry if there is already a thread covering this :-/

To all the holster makers: Are any of you concerned with or have experience dealing with people trying to sue you or the company because they said your holster caused an accidental discharge?

I know many of you have disclaimers on your websites related to this but would that actually hold up in court? Ever since the MickD's hot coffee incident, how can one protect themselves against these kind of things? Simple disclaimers, good insurance, what?

Your post asks 'how can one protect themselves against these kind of things'. In modern America, where lawsuits are regularly filed in just about any type of business activity (with or without real or significant justification) we cannot prevent lawsuits over claims of injury or damage. We can achieve a measure of protection by doing two things:

1. Incorporate your business. A corporation is effectively a separate 'person' under the law. In the event of a claim being upheld against a corporation the personal assets (such as home, bank accounts, retirement savings, etc) of the principals' cannot generally be attached to satisfy the claim; only the assets of the corporation are at risk.

2. Business insurance. A good business insurance policy will include significant liability coverage. In the event of a claim the insurance company will provide services to investigate the claim, negotiate a settlement, arbitrate the claim, provide legal representation and litigation expenses, and/or pay judgements (up to policy limits, of course). This relieves the insured of significant expenses and much of the time requirements of litigation as well as protection against any actual losses due to judgements.

A third thing that we should all be doing is to decline any orders for products that we have any inkling might be unsafe under some, or any, circumstances of use. Maintaining a record of such requests as a means of showing a history of turning down profit rather than producing questionable products may also be a good idea.