While this might have been presented in the court case thread that Tom Bloomer posted I thought I would keep them seperate so as to not complicate matters. I was at a standard bred farm yesterday and the discussion turned to liabilities of a farrier leading horses to/from stalls after/before shoeing, I was told bout a gent who takes a picture of the horse ,in the stall, after shoeing with his cell phone.............. provides a time dated document to the condition of the horse upon return to the stall. This came up as a matter of the high value of some of the horses, . Since I don t carry a cell phone, it made me think that they might be more useful than I thought! ray
I take pictures of my work all the time but I never thought of taking pictures of the whole horse for liability reasons. I wonder how long he keeps the pictures saved? It would probably amaze us how much a backyard plug is worth in court. Since we are discussing liability, does anyone carry liability insurance? If so what does it cover? Example: If you set the barn on fire are you covered, or if you injure the horse in some way are you covered? Would the same policy cover these different things? What sort of liability/malpractice insurance do vets carry and should we be doing something similar? Just a few questions to spark some discussion.
I take pics of my work sometimes - especially if there is something abnormal I find and the owner is not present. This way I do have some proof of something I find wrong. I also think we can be so "anal" that we go over board. I'm not going to get so paranoid I start taking pics all the time of everything I do. I guess I'm going to "trust" a bit. I think in our job we are caught between a rock and a hard spot. Today there is no such thing as a mistake or something just happened. Everyone expects there to be a fall guy for every bad situation that comes along. One I express to all customers is I am only human and I'm not perfect, no one is. I get them to understand I am going to always do my best and treat their horse as if it was mine.
i have to carry it , dont actually know if it law its just that my Boss has always told me it should be carried , you never know what will happen
I have a feeling it was the lawyer. Who else could think up the liability and insurance scams and how he and the insurance companies could get rich.
I use pics all the time..... The best thing about my liability insurance is the leagal representation..... So if a client rings up a no win no fee law firm I just wing it straight to my insurance company.... My biggest client made it clear 28 years ago when I took him on that he would only employ me if I carried insurance.....
