What Went Down In the Osorio Tablesaw Accident Lawsuit

A while back, we wrote an article about SawStop table saw safety technology, and a particular lawsuit won by a man, Carlos Osorio, who severely injured himself using a basic table saw without SawStop technology installed. Most readers and commentary expressed disgust that Osorio won the lawsuit against the table saw manufacturer. Unfortunately, many of the opinions thrown around after the verdict (including my own), were arrived at with relatively little factual knowledge about the case.  It turns out facts are useful in this kind of discussion.  Luckily, there are journalistic crusaders brave, dedicated and thorough enough to read through hundreds of pages of legal transcripts and actually educate themselves on the facts that make up this interesting table saw safety case. Of course I’m not referring HomeFixated, did you actually think we were serious journalists?

Actually, I’m referring to my friend Patrick McCombe, Associate Editor over at Fine Woodworking. Patrick has been keeping an eye on this story for some time, and, like us, he was curious about the details on what went on behind the scenes, both in the courtroom, and when Osorio actually experienced his injury. Unlike us, Patrick wasn’t too lazy to do a little good old fashioned journalism. Patrick wrote, “So when the court transcript was posted to the Pacer Court Records database on June 3, I couldn’t wait to read exactly what happened in that courtroom. I’ve been reading the documents between working my regular job, buying a house, and packing for a move, so I’ve only made it through 500 of the nearly 1,100 pages of transcript, but I think I’m starting to understand how Osorio and his legal team won their suit. ”

Did you catch that? Patrick said he’s “only” made it through 500 pages of legalese about table saw injury and exciting tool safety analysis! The man deserves a medal.  On a non-saw-injury-side-note, just a few days ago, I was downloading an app for my iPhone at which time Apple notified me they had updated their terms of service. When I went to approve the new terms, it said I was on page one of 45. One of 45! Like anyone is going to read 45 pages of Apple legalese just to get to their latest iPhone app. You know how many pages I made it through before unwittingly signing over my family and all worldly possessions to Steve Jobs? About .1 pages. But I digress. Kudos to Patrick for making us other journalists look like slackers!

You can check out Patrick’s update on the Osorio Case, just please don’t expect that kind of intrepid journalism from HomeFixated anytime soon, OK?  We’re keeping the bar low here, especially since we’ve got more important legal issues to wrangle with.  You know, like skimming our iPhone app user agreements.