A LEGAL PERSPECTIVE

Companies registered to ISO 9001 and related guidance standards need to evaluate their application of this quality management system from a legal perspective. This book provides an understanding of the legal implications of how the standard is applied.

…this book will identify ISO 9000 legal considerations

Increasingly over the next several years, ISO 9000 will enter the day-to-day world of lawyers. Corporate attorneys will need to know what it is, how it operates, how it might affect their company, the types of legal exposures and legal protections it offers or creates and how to go about defending their company in the event of a lawsuit. Outside attorneys will want to know what it is, how it operates and its purpose, and they will want to determine if it provides a useful vantage from which to build an effective case in the event of a lawsuit. As this book demonstrates, ISO 9000 may prove in some instances to be important even though neither the plaintiff nor the defendant knew of its existence prior to the lawsuit.

The growing significance of ISO 9000 to lawyers and to litigation will be explored in this book in keeping with one of Sun Tsu’s offensive strategy axioms in his 2,500-year-old classic, The Art of War: “Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril.” Perhaps this axiom should be given a modern twist: “If you don’t know ISO 9000 as it relates to your client, you could easily be in peril!”

…this book will help strengthen your ISO 9000 system

ISO 9001 registration is a significant accomplishment for a company. It requires implementation of a system with fully documented processes and requires the recording of work results that demonstrate performance to documentation. ISO 9001 represents a powerful methodology and is backed up by a paper trail validating a strong management system in the event of a lawsuit. Conversely, it also can represent a significant degree of exposure if the paper trail reveals weak controls that are not able to document a sound quality assurance system. The good news and the bad news are identical; a paper trail exists in the event of a lawsuit.

…this book will help clarify legal misunderstandings

This book will explore ISO 9000 from a lawyer’s perspective: its origins; its structure; the interrelationships of the different ISO 9000 quality management standards; its growing function in the marketplace in the US, European Union and global economies; its growing use in regulated sectors; its relationship to product safety; its product liability implications; and its possible impact on corporate legal offices and law firms in the future.