The Lawyer's role.
| Autor | Por Mark Grossman |
| Cargo | Columnista del Washington's Legal Times del Florida's Daily Business Reviews. (USA) |
Defining the Problem
The year 2000 computer problem is simplistically defined as the problem computers have in computing dates on or after January 1, 2000. The problem arises from computers using two digits to define years. So, 98 equals 1998, 99 is 1999 and 00 is often interpreted by computers as 1900.
Since I don’t want to turn this column into a technical column about Y2K, I’m going to ask you to press the “I believe” button when I say that this is a big deal and not easy to fix. For more information on the technical issues, you can find excellent information at http://www.year2000.com.
Lawsuits Already Filed
The first Y2K lawsuit filed involved a Michigan grocery store and a computerized cash register system. The grocery sued because the system it bought in 1995 shut down whenever it processed credit cards with expirations dates in 2000 and 2001. The grocer reported 105 shut-downs in one week. The suit alleged loss of credit card income and damaged customer relations.
The next one from the starting gate was a class action lawsuit against an accounting software company. The plaintiffs claimed that all versions of SBT Pro Series accounting software that came before a version first marketed in March 1997 were not Y2K capable. The complaint goes on to claim that while other companies were offering Y2K fixes for free, this defendant was requiring its customers to buy a new version.
The suit claims breach of warranty, breach of duty of good faith, negligent repair, breach of contract, misrepresentation and other causes of action.
In the third suit filed, and yet another class action, plaintiffs claimed that Symantec, a large well-known software company, was forcing consumers to pay $49.95 for a Y2K-capable version of its best selling Norton Anti-Virus software. In many ways, this suit parallels the claims made in the SBT Pro Series accounting software case.
As these cases demonstrate, the litigation ball is rolling. If you want to minimize your company’s losses in the coming year 2000 litigation feeding frenzy, you’ll add your lawyer to your Y2K remediation team now. If your lawyer is familiar with this area, he will guide you in certain areas.
Old Contract Review
He will probably start by reviewing your present contracts. The purposes include assessing who may have responsibility to you for paying for the costs of your fix and evaluating your possible liability to others if you have year 2000-related computer failures. Knowing where you...
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