Legal Jargon help

I wonder if anyone can help with a potential legal matter....

A year ago a bloke up the road called me with a 80Gb PATA IDE hard drive problem. His PC is pretty old and doesn't support SATA. His drive was failing so I backed up his data installed a refurbished 160GB PATA ide HDD this was the biggest HDD I had that was still PATA. I re-installed windows XP restored his data everything was good. As he was pretty cash strapped so I charged him a compatible price and stated on my invoice that it was a "refurbished" HDD (I even gave him a 3 month warranty) I also stated that I'm not responsible for loss of data or software issues.
Now more a year down the line the HDD has packed up and he hasn't made any backups and the drive has crashed.
He now wants me to be responsible for the loss of data and the cost of the drive even though I told him that when i replaced the drive no new PATA HDD's were available as they had stopped making PATA HDD's prior to his original HDD failure. Although I sold him a HDD that is more than 5 years old ... Am I still liable ?

Thanks in advance

Nar, the disclaimer on your invoice should squash any legal claim he may have.

If he didn't keep backups, then the loss of data is his own fault. It's an unreasonable claim.

Otherwise, we would all get to sue the hard drive manufacturers everytime a hard drive failed.

I agree with Brink.

The disclaimer, and the contract both stated that. It doesn't even require a Legal Jargon-ist to help. It's just common sense.

By the use of "Bloke", I know you're British (Flag Confirmed it :)), but Civil Court is something we have in the United States. You can always look into this option to fight it, if he persues it. Any judge in their right mind, would side with you.

All I have to say is, what an ass he is. I'd fix it, and charge him the premium it would for a tech support.

- DSX

Thanks for the reply's guys this puts my mind at rest.
I went to his house today and offered as a gesture of goodwill to return half his money and attempt to retrieve his data free of charge, but he declined and replied "all or nothing". So he know wants to go down the legal route, I'll keep you informed on the outcome .... but thanks again

Nick

PooMan UK said:

Thanks for the reply's guys this puts my mind at rest.
I went to his house today and offered as a gesture of goodwill to return half his money and attempt to retrieve his data free of charge, but he declined and replied "all or nothing". So he know wants to go down the legal route, I'll keep you informed on the outcome .... but thanks again

Nick

Good Luck Nick! We're all here to help! :)