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Telephone Company Ad Spot
I’m creating a :30 spot for a local phone company. I’m wondering about how to drop in all of the legal fine print that probably needs to be included. You know that find print that nobody can actually read.
Do I need to rely on the Client and their legal team to write that? How do you folks handle such things? Do I need some protection from any issues that can arise from this?
Thanks
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7 Replies
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They write it. This is somethung that you want nothing to do with, unless you were a lawyer before getting into production.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, ArizonaIt’s a dry heat!
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[Greg] “Do I need to rely on the Client and their legal team to write that?”
Absolutely. You should have nothing to do with any legal copy that appears on screen.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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(Walter): You should have nothing to do with any legal copy that appears on screen.
I fully agree as far as the spot(s) go but will take it a step further. We’re working on an industrial safety training video for a client at the moment and we have asked our own legal counsel for wording that we can add to the “fine print” disclaimer to protect US. We want the disclaimer to, in addition to protecting the client, hold us, as writer/producers, harmless in the event a lawsuit should come up.
Will it work? My guess would be probably only to a limited extent. When people are hurt on the job personal injury attorneys look to involve as many defendents as they can find. Stating in writing that we’re not responsible for whatever happens to people who were supposed to learn from our video may help in court, but it’s unlikely to keep us out of deposition hell.
Which reminds me: I better check our insurance coverage. Just because we’re insured during a production I doubt we’re covered for anything that happens as a result of that production. Hopefully our umbrella liability policy offers some protection, but I WILL be checking this.
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Nick I
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Andy –
They certainly ARE supplying their own legal jargon. I want to insert language which protects US. This project is for a large entity with its own very large law firm. I have no doubt that they’ll be more than competant at protecting their own interests, I just need to make sure that we’re not left out in the cold. -
[Nick Griffin] “I fully agree as far as the spot(s) go but will take it a step further. We’re working on an industrial safety training video for a client at the moment and we have asked our own legal counsel for wording that we can add to the “fine print” disclaimer to protect US. We want the disclaimer to, in addition to protecting the client, hold us, as writer/producers, harmless in the event a lawsuit should come up.”
That legal disclaimer should be in the contract between you and the client, not on the screen. When we’ve done training videos here, the client signs off on all aspects of the project, including the script. If there are any issues later on (which we’ve never heard of) then we can clearly show that the client has approved all aspects of what was shown on screen.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”Read my blog! https://blogs.creativecow.net/WalterBiscardi
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Sorry for being less than clear and yes of course, Walter, you are right. The contract already has this. I just want it on screen for potential litigants to see — not that anybody actually READS the “fine print.”
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