The Vendor Deck That Contradicts the Science
A regional insurance association contracts you to deliver a 4-hour "Origin and Cause" block using their slide deck. On review, 11 of 58 slides present pour patterns and "alligatoring" as reliable indicators of an accelerant, one slide states that a determination of incendiary is acceptable when no accidental cause can be found, and a case-study slide names a real claimant and shows a photograph of a burned bedroom with a victim's belongings identifiable. Your own testimony in three pending matters relies on the current scientific position, which rejects all three of those claims. The association's education director says the deck "was approved by our committee" and asks you to deliver it as written. The fee is 40% of your quarter's income. Twenty-six adjusters are already registered.
1. Before you answer the education director, what do you actually prepare? What is your decision framework?
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Prepare specificity, not outrage. Produce a short written review identifying each problematic slide by number, the claim it makes, why the claim is unsupported by current fire science and investigative standards, and a proposed replacement slide or a two-minute correction you would deliver instead. Vague objections get negotiated away; a numbered list with replacements is a solution the director can take to their committee.
Decision framework, in order: (1) Can I teach this material accurately? That requires the deck to be corrected, or my delivering explicit corrections on the record. (2) Can learners tell which version is authoritative? A silent contradiction between slides and instructor is worse than either alone. (3) What is my exposure if a student later testifies using the deck's version and is impeached? That exposure is mine as the named instructor, not the committee's.
Then make one clear request: correct the 11 slides and the case-study slide, or allow me to deliver with documented corrections, in writing, before the class. Not after, not verbally in a hallway.
The fee is a fact about the decision, not a factor in it. If it enters the framework, the framework is worthless.
2. The case-study slide names a real claimant and shows identifiable belongings. How do you handle that, and why does it matter beyond the slide?
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Treat it as a privacy and confidentiality problem, not a taste problem. A named claimant tied to a fire scene, with identifiable property, in a deck shown to 26 adjusters, is personal data being distributed for a purpose the claimant never agreed to. Remove it before the class regardless of what happens with the other slides - this one is not a debate about fire science.
Practical steps: instruct the director in writing to remove the slide from all copies, including archived versions and any materials already distributed; substitute a de-identified case (no names, no logos, no distinctive belongings, no address); and if copies have already gone out, ask what the association's process is for recalling them.
Why it matters beyond the slide: it signals how the association handles case material, and it is the kind of detail that surfaces in litigation. If the deck is used again and the claimant is identified, the instructor who delivered it will be asked why. Removing it is also a straightforward professional-standards obligation: instructional material should never expose a member of the public for illustration value.
3. The director refuses to change the deck and insists you deliver it as written. What do you do, and what do you tell the 26 registered adjusters?
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Decline to deliver it as written. The three claims at issue - pour patterns and alligatoring as reliable accelerant indicators, and negative corpus as a route to an incendiary determination - are exactly the positions that get investigators impeached on the stand. Teaching them to 26 adjusters who will make coverage and subrogation decisions is not a neutral administrative act.
Offer the alternative once, in writing: deliver the same 4 hours with corrections stated on the record and a one-page errata distributed at the start. If that is refused, withdraw, and put the reason in writing to the director - specific slides, specific concern, and the offer you made.
Handle the fallout honestly. Notify the association in time for them to find a replacement, and support a factual notice to registrants: the session is being rescheduled or replaced. Do not send a notice that implies illness or a scheduling conflict. You do not need to publish a critique of the sponsor, but you should not participate in a misstatement about why you are not teaching.
Internally: tell your own contracting or training manager what happened and keep the correspondence, because the same association may ask again.