From mstone@directcon.net Wed Aug 13 08:38:19 2003 Received: from mxu5.u.washington.edu (mxu5.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.164]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.9+UW03.06/8.12.9+UW03.06) with ESMTP id h7DFcI2x042332 for ; Wed, 13 Aug 2003 08:38:18 -0700 Received: from janus.directcon.net (janus.directcon.net [206.170.184.16]) by mxu5.u.washington.edu (8.12.9+UW03.06/8.12.9+UW03.06) with ESMTP id h7DFcDrL004587 for ; Wed, 13 Aug 2003 08:38:14 -0700 Received: from ABSHOME (dsl-206-13-125-194.directcon.net [206.13.125.194]) by janus.directcon.net (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h7DFdXv23199; Wed, 13 Aug 2003 08:39:33 -0700 Reply-To: From: "Matthew Stone" To: "Arcview ListServe" , "ARCVIEW-L\(ESRI\)" , "Gislist\(Geocomm\)" , Subject: Consulting Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 08:37:53 -0700 Message-ID: <002901c361b0$dfe87e00$c27d0dce@ABSHOME> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook, Build 10.0.2627 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 X-Uwash-Spam: Gauge=XI, Probability=11%, Report='__EVITE_CTYPE, __HAS_MSGID, __SANE_MSGID, __HAS_MIMEOLE, __HAS_X_PRIORITY, __HAS_OUTLOOK_IN_MAILER, __HAS_X_MAILER, __HAS_MSMAIL_PRI, SPAM_PHRASE_00_01' Ok, I have not seen this issue come across any of the GIS lists before and I am currently dealing with this problem and getting frustrated. I am newly entering the field of consulting and am trying to secure general liability insurance. This is no easy task as it appears many of the mainstream insurance companies are frightened off by the idea of =93GIS=94 without actually asking what will be done with it. Here is an example of what I received from an agent after having dealt with this problem for over a month now=85. =93The underwriters are "afraid" of GIS. The example i got was the "system" tells the driver to turn left, and he turns left and "...he runs off a bridge that isn't there or he is sent the wrong way down a one way street and he kills 5 people or the asteroid hits and we all die." The injured parties would sue and since there is Bodily Injury or Property Damage, at the very least the GL policy would have to pay "defense" costs (Perry Mason charges a couple of hundred bucks an hour) and if the insured is liable, may have to pay a claim. Since GIS is "new", it may take a while for "reality" to sink in. But for now, they don't want to take the plunge for a premium of $350. or so.=94 Now, I know many of you are successful consultants and have overcome this issue of insurance, so I would like to know HOW????? I will sum. Thanks in advance. Matthew Stone, MPH Epidemiology and GIS Consultant 2780 Holly Hills Ln Cameron Park, CA 95682 PH:=A0=A0=A0=A0=A0 530-676-7899 CELL:=A0 530-417-4703 FAX:=A0=A0=A0 810-958-2496 Email:=A0 mstone@directcon.net .