Sued for inaccurate reading?

[Bluelagune]

The trick with the egg!

:lolsign:

((those are experts))

 

 

[Grandma]

Haha! Should we sue the weather-man when their "predictions" are incorrect and it rains on your wedding day?  :))

 

It depends.

If you didn’t pay the weatherman for a forecast, you wouldn’t have a legal basis to sue them.

 

However:

(1) had you hired a meteorologist to forecast which weekend would be sunny for your wedding and, based upon tried and tested scientific data and forecasting programs, they did so and you set the date for your wedding based on your reliance on his/her conclusion, and on your wedding day there was inclimate weather, then yes, you could have a claim for breach of contract against them. 

 

Or

 

(2) If the meteorologist held out to the public his accuracy in forecasting sunny days, knowing it was untrue, he intended to deceive you to get the contract, his deception actually induced you to contract with him, a reasonable person would have relied on his promise to predict a sunny day to have your wedding, and it rained on your wedding day, then you’d have a claim against him for fraud.  (This is the Miss Cleo’s psychic hotline scenario. They were sued successfully for fraud.)

 

The first scenario confuses me.  I am not arguing with you, Clairbuoyant[/member].  I just don't get it.  Did the meteorologist promise in a written contract that their forecast was guaranteed?  Then the contract seems from my layperson's perspective to be fraudulent and your second example could apply.  But if they did not make that promise, or maybe even if they did, then what is the actual basis of the lawsuit?  It’s hard to understand how anyone would believe that any weather report is guaranteed, especially far enough in advance to plan a wedding, which may be relevant to the “reasonable person” concept.  Also, could a meteorologist be expected by law to be infallible? Legally, I don't see the grounds for liability. 

 

I’m not a lawyer so maybe I’m wrong.  (Even if I were a lawyer, I could be wrong!)  But I was fascinated by this idea, so I tried to research the question.  I didn't get very far.  The few Google citations I found seemed to indicate that such lawsuits have not and would not be successful.  Again, I am not being argumentative.  I am being curious.  I am not a lawyer or a paralegal or a research assistant.  Maybe I just can't locate the relevant material.  Could you please provide references to a case or legal statute or opinion to support your statement that someone could have a claim for breach of contract for an inaccurate weather forecast that was not deliberately deceptive or fraudulent but simply wrong?  I'd also like to read about cases where a privately contracted meteorologist was actually deliberately deceptive and was sued for ruining a wedding.

 

I was also interested in the Miss Cleo example.  I couldn’t find any mention of that either.  Miss Cleo was indeed successfully sued more than once, but not by any private individuals or for any cases involving weather predictions that I could find.  However, I didn’t dig very deeply even into Google and I didn’t use any legal databases so the information may be out there.  If so, could you tell me where to find it?  Again, I am not doubting or arguing with you, Clairbuoyant.  I really want to know more about this!

 

 

[Guest libra]

 

One of Dean Radin's books is called Entangled Minds. ...They're just fascinating recountings of research that's been done and that's why I have such fascination with the subject.

 

 

I am not willing to read a book just to preach to someone, but I have approached a certain friend of mine about my tarot reading (which was very private thing for me for years) and he reacted very defensively, in a way that kind of made a huge judgment that all people who do anything relevant to that kind of business were just frauds that were manipulating people for money, just like the church in history, yada yada. He kind of went off about it in a very negative manner and I was just curious what it is in him that has such hurt attached to it. I mean, by sharing something that he may actually find approachable about the subject perhaps will open up a doorway to relax whatever muscle has a really tight knot in there, enough to kind of go off frantic from a simple discussion with a friend. I hope to reach the peace within him.

 

Ugh people like that... I did a reading for my boyfriend's best friend's girlfriend and she told him about it and before she could even get into the reading, he was apparently bashing me for thinking I could tell the future and blah blah blah, but I had actually  just done her Birth Cards and thus was mostly a personality assessment and things like "You've probably come across a lot of situations like thisblahblahblah, and that's because one of your life lessons is to learn thatblahblahblah." so she explains that to him... And he turns around and goes "Well if she didn't tell you the future, how is that even a tarot reading?"

 

Like buddy. Either keep your ears open when we are explaining it to you (he has earlier literally walked away from a conversation she & I were having with him taking about how we use tarot!), or keep your mouth shut about it later!

[NocturnalSpark]

This is all very interesting and the possibility of being sued has made me think twice about doing tarot readings professionally, especially in the U.S. where people can sue for anything. People do pay lots of money for entertainment -- movies, live shows, etc., so I don't think the for entertainment purposes only disclaimers would deter anyone.  I think most people understand disclaimers and legal policies that nowdays you sign to do anything, not that they are foolproof.  Think there's a liability insurance for that sort of thing, and in just about any profession you can get sued. If I ever start doing something more formal than readings for people through word of mouth, I would put a disclaimer get insurance, all the precautions, but I'm just super caution when it comes to these things. I think a lot of law is based on things that are provable by mainstream science so that does put people working as fortune tellers or tarot readers in a bad position in terms of lawsuits.

[Grizabella]

I've just been roaming around catching up on posts and ran across this thread.  I say here that I don't use a disclaimer but I do now---it's this:

 

Terms of Service :

Your common sense and careful judgment about  any actions you take after the reading are your own responsibility.

 

Maybe it's blunt but I like it better than the "entertainment only" disclaimer.  If I remember right, there are some US states where the "entertainment only" has to be posted but Oregon isn't one of them so I don't use a disclaimer in the in-person readings I do. 

 

I think you could more likely get sued if you were one of those readers who claims they've got some kind of huge percentage rate of "accuracy".  

Edited May 26, 2023 by Grizabella

[DanielJUK]

If you are reading professionally, it's probably advisable to get legal advice in the country / state where you live just to protect yourself.

In the UK, for years and years this was part of the Witchcraft Act, literally the law used during the Witchcraft Trials and the part of it which covered us was the "Fraudulent Mediums Act" from the 1950's.

 

In the 2010 this was modernised and this area was moved into consumer regulations of selling. Tarot reading is still lumped with psychics, spiritualists and clairvoyants. Really it's about protecting from fraud and so the law classes our readings as not professional advice. That is why you see "for entertainment purposes only" with UK readers, they are not giving professional advice 🙂

 

Back on AT, I nerdery looked into the witchcraft laws from the 50's to 2010, only 8 people were ever prosecuted here in court during that time frame. It's extremely rare!

The cases that were prosecuted for readings were readers who were clearly defrauding their customers, like this wasn't giving a bad reading or the customer not liking the readings but money making scams. I presume there was evidence that the readers were not giving the services they described and taking the money.

 

 

[Wyrdkiss]

 I'm wondering, do any of your reading session styles simply not lend itself to this dilemma?  As stated by another member, I leave medical, legal, etc. advice to those experts. a querent can explore with me how they feel about a diagnosis, or how to cope with a change of income, but there are not a lot of situations where I can see my approach getting me into this hot water.

Edited June 25, 2023 by Wyrdkiss

[Natural Mystic Guide]

48 minutes ago, Wyrdkiss said:

 I'm wondering, do any of your reading session styles simply not lend itself to this dilemma? 

🌀🌹🌀 If I am doing a 'professional' reading -- meaning one that is for a paying client.  I either record the reading or the reading is in writing.  (Most of my readings are long distance.)  If we are brushing up next to any questionable areas such as medical or legal matters, I very clearly state or write my disclaimer.  Sometimes I do it more than once in the course of the reading.  So it goes something like this, "Here is my disclaimer.  I am not a medical doctor.  I do not diagnose, treat, or prescribe.  I recommend that you seek competent professional help from a medical professional.  I recommend that you follow all of your doctors' advice."  This accomplishes two things.  The client receives this important information.  I have a recorded or written record that I gave a disclaimer. 🌀🌹🌀