Legal Question in Technology Law in California

I am an IT consultant and last month I was involved in a data loss situaion. The data loss on a server was caused by a glitch in the backup software. I was not getting good consistant backups so I uninstalled the software that was having the problem. I was going to use the built in windows backup. When I uninstalled the backup software it corrupted the data drive and the backups. So the customer lost six weeks of data. Now they are trying to come after me for six weeks of thier entire staff salary about $50,000 The customer had not yet signed a contract that I had sent him. Nor has he paid for any services related to this job. It usualy is customary that IT guys are not liable for data loss. What does the law in california say if he never signed the contract I sent him.


Asked on 6/22/10, 11:16 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Stone Law Offices of Michael B. Stone Toll Free 1-855-USE-MIKE

The customer is an idiot for letting you touch their only set of backups -- and for not having offsite backups, and for not having a backup set on write-protected volumes. You used poor judgment in not having a contract in place that specifically disclaims liability for data loss, and in not purchasing corp-to-corp consultant liability insurance. I doubt that they will succeed in suing you for $50,000 as they would have to hire an expensive expert witness who would testify that you caused the data loss, and an honest expert would have to testify that they were more negligent than you. I would not expect payment for your services; if you were to sue you would expect a cross-complaint from them, and you would again be faced with an expensive-expert-witness-testimony problem.

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Answered on 6/23/10, 2:40 am


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