Posted By Barry Husband I would appreciate any guidance on the legal status of product disclaimers. My company manufactures heavy rotating machinery. we also offer a repair service. To do this we ask our clients to return parts for us to repair. These parts can be 'safety critical' components. Recently, we have come under severe pressure from those clients with workshops of their own to allow them to carry out the repairs themselves but using our information and manufacturing standards. This makes good commercial sense as it would save on transport costs etc but, how do we disclaim any liability for the correct application of our design standards. The failure level of this type of machinery could be catastrophic as the application is onshore and offshore gas/oil production. Can anyone offer any debate on this subject please?. Rgds, BarryH

Posted By Adrian Watson Barry, Like all things, it depends on a number of things. Whilst your disclaimer must be reasonable, it cannot disclaim your liability for negligence or for strict liability on your part for defects in design and manufacture. Therefore, if it can be proved that the failure was due to a design or manufacturing defect, you're at fault! However if the defect is not due to a design or manufacturing defect, but a failure on their part to follow clear, precise and correct instructions to maintain or repair the machine they would be held to be at fault and you would be consequently not liable. You will need to check the specifics of your scheme with a lawyer specialising in product liability. Regards Adrian Watson