"John Hall" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Dave Ludlow writes:
[re litigation over an incorrect forecast]
So, has this ever happened in the UK? I haven't heard of it and if
not, the "litigation" explanation for "over the top" forecasting
sounds like an excuse, does it not?

I don't think that it has happened _yet_, but that does not mean that
forecasters may not be genuinely worried about the possibility of it
happening in future. (Sorry about the double negative in that sentence,
but hopefully you get the drift.)

but surely you would be more open to litigation if you knowingly overstated
a weather event as you would be if you just got the forecast wrong.

After all, if it was an genuine mistake then the court might well decide
that you did your best under the circumstances. But if someone cancels a
function because the forecast was so dreadful, and it comes out that the
forecast was overstated as part of a stratagy to cover the forecasters back,
then I would have thought the court would take a pretty dim view of it.

Jim Webster