PRODUCT liability claims can be costly - in time and in money - and can deprive a company of its market share through negative publicity.
That's why one of the NTEA's nine new industry-specific sessions, "Reducing Product Liability Claim Losses," is expected to draw a large crowd in the 1:30 to 2:45 pm time slot on Wednesday, February 28.
Presenters Billy Boguski, cost containment manager for the Hartford Insurance Group, and Tom Kuzmick, a Philadelphia attorney, will deal with preventing or mitigating claim losses through an integrated quality program that addresses documentation, design, testing, manufacturing, labeling, instructions, and training. They'll explain which insurance and legal viewpoints weather the tests of consumers and reduce the perils of litigation. Topics include inspection, the effects of modification, warnings, post-sale duty to warn, preservation of evidence, marketing materials, and litigation issues.
"This will give insight into why you need to do the things you should do to produce quality products, and to defend yourself in court or produce enough evidence so that a claim would never surface," Boguski says. "You need checkpoints where the supervisors or individuals document facts.
"Almost every piece of truck equipment has a serial number. If you're questioned about a bolt not being torqued properly, you have proof: `Here's the date, the name of the person and the initials. If it's been changed, you changed it, not us.'"
Boguski says one of the elements of his presentation will focus on misrepresentation.
"Everybody in the organization should be properly trained on what to say and what not to say, particularly a sales staff," Boguski says. "You don't want people overpromising what the product can do.
"Companies have presented pictures of a product being improperly used. You can't do that. Most of us have put together a gas grill or a toy. What's the first thing you do? Look at the photograph on the box. A lot of people don't go completely through the instruction manual. They'll look at the photo and say, `You did it that way.'"
Boguski has spent over 30 years with the Hartford Insurance Group, with a background in loss control and claims. He has a master's degree in insurance and an MBA in management, and has made presentations all over the nation.