Liability - Is It Simple, Stupid?

Say you are shooting a TV comedy show for a major network and the producer asks you do to something really stupid like, I don’t know, film the talent as he dresses up as a pilot and tries to enter the secure area of a major airport? And let’s make it even dumber. How about if the producer wants to film this hilarious gag during a major international sporting event when airport security is even tighter than it usually is? And when, surprise surprise, the stunt doesn’t go down well and you get arrested, can you rely on that old Nazi excuse that you were just following orders?

Or let’s say (hypothetically) you are wrangling animals on a big budget studio production and you become aware that the ‘farm’ where they are being housed has so many hazards it actually appears to be a purpose-built facility for killing and maiming animals. Once the death toll starts hitting the kind of numbers you get in an average orc versus dwarf battle, what are your responsibilities?

These are difficult and serious questions. On any given film set there are a plethora of laws, both civil and criminal, that govern the conduct and actions of the people working on the production. And the issue we are looking at is who is liable if any of these laws are broken?

The answer to that question is – it depends. However, as a working assumption it is safe to assume that if you have broken a criminal law, you will be personally liable for it, even if you are only in that place doing that thing because you were told to by the person who hired you.

It is a criminal offence to impersonate a pilot and attempt to gain entry to a secure area in an airport. I don’t know what the precise section in the Crimes Act that covers this is, you can look it up if you are really interested, but take my word on it this is a crime. It is also a criminal offence to conspire to, or to aid and abet, an attempt to do this. So it’s not just the talent actually committing the act who can be criminally liable, but the crew who are there filming and helping to make it happen. This may seem harsh if you are say the sound recordist. You just turned up for work and the producer and director told you to get in a car and go to the airport and do your job. But innocence of the law is no excuse as the old adage goes, and as your parents have probably said to you when you were a kid – “if someone told you to go and jump off a cliff, you wouldn’t do it would you?”

There will be some breaches of civil law where the production company, or someone else, would be regarded as the liable party rather than an individual. For example, in a breach of privacy situation, if the cameraman was told by the producer to film something that ultimately involved a claim of breach of privacy, it would be the production company that got sued, rather than the individual cameraman. Or if a city street was blocked and used to film a car chase without obtaining the appropriate consents, it would be the production company that would bear the responsibility rather than any individuals involved (although the locations manager may well find themselves out of a job pretty quickly).

Ultimately, like many things in life, working out if you could be personally liable for something is a matter of common sense. Criminal laws are directed at individuals and, for the types of offences we are talking about, don’t depend on your state of mind. If you do something that is prescribed by the criminal law, you are liable whether you believed it was okay or not, or whether you were doing it in the course of carrying out your job or not. Doesn’t mean there aren’t defences but just that following orders is not one of them.

However, the fact that you may be personally liable does not mean you don’t have remedies against the people that put you there. Most contracts that you have with the company or person you are providing services to, will have warranties or other liability provisions that will enable you to obtain redress if you are led into harm’s way or required to do something that turns out to be illegal. But not all contracts! So maybe get some legal advice before signing your next contract for services!! Just saying…