Legal Eagles are Already Flying

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The legal feeding frenzy over Y2K has begun. Today's Boston Globe has a brief article on page F-1 stating that Anderson Consulting has filed suit in Massachusetts state court seeking a declarative judgement against J. Baker that (and I quote the article, not the filed motion) "the world's biggest consulting firm didn't fail the specialty retailer when installing a computer system almost 10 years ago that didn't address Year 2000 glitches." This action was taken after J. Baker hired a law firm to file suit in an attempt to recover the cost of the system from Anderson. (J. Baker's lawyers were hired on a contingency basis, for what that's worth.) What system is the center of this storm was not mentioned.

I would think that this case bears watching as it could very well set a precedent for similar actions. Should Anderson get their judgement, they could become largely immune from civil action on any system where Y2K compliance was not specified in the consulting agreement. Essentially, they get a "Get out Of Court Free" card, one which would become a precedent for any other case filed in Massachuestts and possibly other courts as well. I'm sure my sister the attorney would tell me I have oversimplified the situation, but this should do for now. Sue me, sis.

Is anyone else here aware of other Y2K related suits already in the legal system? Anyone want to comment on this one?

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), August 29, 1998

Answers

Supposedly, the first Y2K lawsuit filed was last July by Produce Palace International. You can read a little about it and some others at www.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/all/9808246446 Also, Paul, did you see the article about Andersen not taking on any more Y2K customers? :-o

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), August 29, 1998.

Paul, these are a pain because they are such long addresses, but here are 2 more: www.dispatch.com/news/bus98/Y2K0819.html (Article is in yellow) and www.amcity.com/tampabay/stories/081798/newscolumn4.html %-)

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), August 30, 1998.

Gayla,

Thanks again for the info.

No, I hadn't heard about Anderson not taking on any more business, but can you blame them? Since the chances of complete remediation beginning now are vanishingly small for any firm that can afford Anderson's fee, would you set yourself up for guearanteed failure if you could help it? Besides, I'm willing to be that their dance card is pretty full up through 2001 just with existing contracts.

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), September 01, 1998.


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