Posted By Crim A Scenario for the weekend: A member of the group is asked for advice by a friend/client, The member realises this is out of his normal area of competence so he asks for advice by posting a thread on this forum, He receives advice in this forum from a few other members, He takes the advice to his friend/client, The friend/client accepts the advice and passes it on to the workforce, A worker suffers an accident, directly due to the advice received, The worker sues the friend/client who bounces the claim back to the original poster, The original poster claims he received bad advice from the IOSH discussion forum which is run by IOSH.

Posted By Crim Thanks Adrian, What is the difference - is it because you would be employed and paid for the advice? or is it because this type of forum is exempt?

Posted By Adrian Watson Both. As an employee or consultant, there is a contractual relationship. This relationship makes both parties liable for acts, defaults and errors relating to the contract. In respect of the forum, I am no more liable than the man in the pub as you act upon it at your own risk! There is case law to that effect, but I do not have the reference at the moment. Regards Adrian

Posted By Jay Joshi refer to the terms of use of the IOSH website, including the discussion forums http://www.iosh.co.uk/index.cfm?go=site.terms

Posted By John Hamilton You'd have to question why you'd take advice from a person when you knew nothing about their knowledge, skills or experience to provide such advice. I would suggest that the advice given on a forum such as this offers a starting point for someone to research all the necessary facts surrounding the matter, or take direct expert advice once credentials have been established. The title of the forum after all is 'discussion', not 'advisory'. Regards, John