cover one's ass

The acronym CYA, meaning cover your ass (or arse), as well as being relatively widespread urban slang, is also commonly used by a number of professional bodies, in relation to procedures which are perceived to be purely defensive against legal penalties. The two most commonly cited examples are:

• Physicians, who use CYA as a short-hand for referring to the practise of defensive medicine - i.e., ordering every conceivable test to try to insulate them from future medical malpractice suits if the patient fails to recover.

• Bank compliance officers, who sometimes joke that KYC ("know your customer") and CYA are essentially the same thing - ie. that money laundering and terrorist financing will inevitably occur regardless of the amount of regulatory structures which put in place,^[1][2] but by complying with all the regulatory requirements the compliance officers can absolve themselves from future liability for failing to spot a money launderer or terrorist.

But its use is also reasonably widespread among journalists ^[3] and structural engineers.

As an example, just before the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the final launch approval by Morton Thiokol (the maker of the solid rocket boosters used during the launch) contained the following warning: "Information on this page was prepared to support an oral presentation and cannot be considered complete without the oral discussion". This warning, which was present even though the information was sent by fax, has been labelled as a CYA notice.^[4]

An alternative form is CYOA meaning cover your own ass (or arse).

See also

• Due diligence

Footnotes and citations

1. ^ The Economist, Financing terrorism: Looking in the wrong places. 20 October 2005
2. ^ Jeffrey Robinson. Brown's war just doesn't add up: you can't kill terrorists with a calculator. The Times. 14 February 2006.
3. ^ Joe Grimm. Newsroom politics: Cover your ass.
4. ^ Edward R. Tufte, Visual Explanations. Graphics Press, 1997. pp 26–53.

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