[MWFMAG.COM EXCLUSIVE] We are going to close out LAW MONTH the hard way this weekend, with tough reading on Saturday, and the toughest of all on Sunday.  Stay tuned, as the materials we are bringing you are nowhere else on the web.  These are exclusives.  In this 2012 civil suit in Oregon, Eagle Industries, Inc. claimed that a metalworking fluid product lost it's rust preventative properties in the vapor state and caused extensive damage to their machines.  The coolant at issue was Hangsterfer's Laboratories' Neosol 400.  Their local representative, MacPherson Western Tool and Supply, was also named as a Defendant. 

Attached for your reading pleasure is the Complaint by the Plaintiff and the Answers by each Defendant.  These public record documents were obtained by Metalworking Fluid Magazine directly from the Court itself.  However, few documents in this Court are publicly available.  The Oregon Courts are behind much of the nation on efiling of documents, so we have nothing more to share at this time.  The point is well enough made here.  Metalworking Fluid Suppliers have legal duties associated with the sale of their products to End Users, just like everyone else does.  When damage is done, it can be very expensive to everyone involved.  Proving the damage was caused by the negligence of the supplier, and not of the user's failure to maintain the product or some other cause is another prospect indeed.  These things are tough on customer relationships and customer confidence, and that's a two-way street.

There is a lesson to be learned in every such suit.  Is your sales force aware of the concepts that form their legal duty to their customers?  -No.  Has your sales staff been trained by your legal department in how to respond to customer complaints? -No.  Record keeping practice in place?  -Probably not. 

Get your lawyers off their assess, out of their suits, and have them put on a training program for you – at a discounted hourly rate.  Have them review your EHS program while they are still wearing their neatly pressed jeans.  And you – Company Man – stop treating your lawyers like doctors, calling them only when your sick.  Make them part of the team.   If they don’t fit in – get a new lawyer now!  This country is overrun with them.  They need to share the same goals that you have.

I spend real time with my clients – at their place – where the action is. I work to understand their machines, their designs, and their daily business practices.  It is only from that vantage point, rather than from my sweet office, that we can work together to enhance their enterprise value – not just the law firm’s value.  Be prepared, Boy Scout.