Dear Fellow Sailplane Racers

Stefan:

Unlike the US, most industrialized countries, particularly European
ones, provide universal health coverage and a working social safety
net, largely obviating the need to seek redress privately. Our
(imperfect) system attempts to address this by means of an adversarial,
inefficient and ultimately unfair tort process which tries to resolve
the competing interests of commercial entities, companies, health
insurers, workers' comp insurers, property and liability insurers,
defense and plaintiff attorneys, etc. and those who have been injured.


The result is a complex, uncoordinated and wildly expensive swamp,
which, occasional giant jury awards not withstanding, rarely provides
adequate protection or compensation to the injured.

The paradox is that, while the cost of one of these giant jury awards
can destroy a small firm, the frequency with which they occur is low
and, further, the notion that such settlements represent a significant
cost to the overall US economy is a political myth, fostered by those
(big tobaco is a famous example) seeking to avoid financial liability
for the very real damage they have done.

Perhaps one of the lawyers who attend this forum could comment
(hypothetically, of course and with appropriate disclaimers) on what
the FLARM groups' actual liability exposure in the US might be and
possible strategies for controlling it.

Raphael Warshaw


Stefan wrote:
Eric Greenwell wrote:

During my limited contact with the FLARM folks in preparation for a
session at the last SSA convention, I got the impression it wasn't
"liability" directly, but that they didn't know what the liability is
likely to be

I've got no direct contact to the FLARM people, but I know very well how
those liability lawsuits of the USA are percepted here in Europe (be it
correctly or exaggerated). In one word: insane. A claim a million would
be absolutely unthinkable over here, and even 100'000 is usually well
beyond the range. And, most important, end users are supposed to be
intelligent people here, able to read and understand.

So when they write in the manual: FLARM is a help, but it's by no means
reliable, so take it as a help but don't rely on it, then there pretty
safe in Europe. I'm not so sure in the USA.

An excerpt of the FLARM manual (cited from memory): "It is explicitely
forbidden to use FLARM in the USA, in US registered aircraft, when a US
citizen or somebody who lives in the USA is on board, when the departure
or landing point is in the USA or when the aircraft crosses US airspace
during the flight."

Stefan