Legal Dilemma

I was in Minnesota earlier this week to get my eight hours of training for my IA. Even though I wrote the test in AMT that readers can use for four hours of credit, and AMTonline.com has more than nine hours of virtual IA seminars available, I didn't want there to be any perception of conflict of interest, so I sat in on the two-day seminar put on by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. I'm glad I did. There were a lot of good presentations. One that stood out was a one-hour presentation by Greg Reigel, an aviation attorney, on legal issues of concern to aircraft mechanics. In the presentation, he brought up FAA vs. Law -- the case that came out last year where the NTSB ruled that complying with manufacturer's service bulletins is mandatory. The ruling created a storm of controversy, since FAA had always said that service bulletins are only mandatory if they are referenced in an AD. In the end, FAA clarified their stand and again said that service bulletins, even though referenced in the maintenance manual, were not mandatory for Part 91 operations unless specifically referenced in an AD. Problem solved, right? Maybe not. Mr. Reigel warned the room full of IA's that they may be setting themselves up for a civil lawsuit in regards to logbook signoffs. Apparently, the NTSB ruling created a trend of OEM's incorporating statements in their maintenance manuals such as, "All service bulletins are considered part of this maintenance manual, and compliance with them is mandatory." Reigel warns about the possible implications of signing off a logbook entry with the words "Performed an annual inspection in accordance with manufacturer's maintenance manual." If that maintenance manual happens to have that wording making service bulletins "mandatory," that IA could be in an attorney's sights in the case of an accident. After all, in a legal sense the IA really didn't do it "in accordance with the manufacturer's maintenance manual" if that manual says all service bulletins are mandatory, and the service bulletins were not done. Reigel offered two tips. One, don't sign off the logbook referencing the maintenance manual. Instead use Appendix D of part 43 for the annual inspection checklist. The second tip was to make a list of all service bulletins that are not incorporated. Have the owner sign this list saying he or she is aware of the service bulletins not complied with. Then keep a copy for your records. Make a logbook entry stating that a list of all service bulletins not complied with was presented to owner for corrective action. That puts the burden on the owner. Needless to say, Mr. Reigel's presentation raised a lot of questions. If the session was two hours long, I still don't think there would have been enough time to get through all the questions the IAs in the room had. What do you think about the Mr. Reigel's warning about logbook signoffs? If we try not to refer to maintenance manuals in our signoffs, are we sacrificing safety and thoroughness in fear of possible legal action down the road? Is it even an issue? Thanks for reading! Joe Escobar