Commitments and Contingencies

a. Operating and capital lease obligations

The Company has entered into operating leases for various office space, storage facilities and equipment. Rent expense under all operating leases, including both cancelable and non-cancelable leases, was $0.9 million, $0.8 million and $0.9 million for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013, and 2012, respectively.

Included in property and equipment in the consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2014, is approximately $61,000 of office equipment the Company acquired under a capital lease during 2012. The leased equipment has an original cost of approximately $147,000 and associated accumulated amortization of approximately $86,000 as of December 31, 2014. The Company’s capital lease obligation as of December 31, 2014, was approximately $67,000 and bears an interest rate of 6.2%.

Future minimum lease payments under non-cancelable leases at December 31, 2014, are as follows (in thousands):



	Operating		Capital
2015	$	560	$	41
2016	583		30
2017	591		—
2018	590		—
2019	449		—
Thereafter	1,249		—
Total minimum lease payments	$	4,022	71
Less: Amount representing interest			(4		)
Capital lease obligation			$	67

b. Purchase commitments

The Company routinely enters into cancelable purchase orders with many of its key vendors. Based on the strategic relationships with many of these vendors, the Company’s ability to cancel these purchase orders and maintain a favorable relationship would be limited. As of December 31, 2014, the Company has $19.1 million of open purchase orders.

c. Litigation

Product Litigation

The Company is currently named as a defendant in 12 lawsuits in which the plaintiffs allege either wrongful death or personal injury in situations in which a TASER CEW was used (or present) by law enforcement officers in connection with arrests or during training exercises. In addition, two other product litigation matters in which the Company is involved are currently on appeal. While the facts vary from case to case, the product liability claims are typically based on an alleged product defect resulting in injury or death, usually involving a failure to warn, and the plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages.

As a general rule, it is the Company’s policy not to settle suspect injury or death cases. Exceptions are sometimes made where the settlement is strategically beneficial to the Company. Also, on occasion, the Company’s insurance company has settled such lawsuits over the Company’s objection where the risk is over the Company’s liability insurance deductibles. Due to the confidentiality of our litigation strategy and the confidentiality agreements that are executed in the event of a settlement, the Company does not identify or comment on which specific lawsuits have been settled or the amount of any settlement.

In 2009, the Company implemented new risk management strategies, including revisions to product warnings and training to better protect both the Company and its customers from litigation based on ‘failure to warn’ theories – which comprise the vast majority of the cases against the Company. These risk management strategies have been highly effective in reducing the rate and exposure from litigation post-2009. From the third quarter of 2011 to the fourth quarter of 2014, product liability cases have been reduced from 55 active to 12 active cases, with two new lawsuits filed in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Management believes that pre-2009 cases have a different risk profile than cases which have occurred since the risk management procedures were introduced in 2009. Therefore, the Company necessarily treats certain pre-2009 cases as exceptions to the Company’s general no settlement policy in order to reduce caseload, legal costs and liability exposure. The Company intends to continue its successful practice of aggressively defending and generally not settling litigation except in very limited and unusual circumstances as described above.

With respect to each of the pending lawsuits, the following table lists the name of plaintiff, the date the Company was served with process, the jurisdiction in which the case is pending, the type of claim and the status of the matter.



Plaintiff	Month Served	Jurisdiction	Claim Type	Status
Koon	Dec-08	17th Judicial Circuit Court, Broward County, FL	Training Injury	Discovery Phase
Derbyshire	Nov-09	Ontario, Canada Superior Court of Justice	Officer Injury	Discovery Phase
Thompson	Mar-10	11th Judicial Circuit Court, Miami-Dade County, FL	Suspect Injury During Arrest	Discovery Phase
Doan	Apr-10	The Queen's Bench Alberta, Red Deer Judicial Dist.	Wrongful Death	Discovery Phase
Shymko	Dec-10	The Queen's Bench, Winnipeg Centre, Manitoba	Wrongful Death	Pleading Phase
Ramsey	Jan-12	17th Judicial Circuit Court, Broward County, FL	Wrongful Death	Discovery Phase
Firman	Apr-12	Ontario, Canada Superior Court of Justice	Wrongful Death	Pleading Phase
Ricks	May-12	US District Court, WD LA	Wrongful Death	Motion Phase
Rascon	Apr-14	US district Court, AZ	Wrongful Death	Discovery Phase
Schrock	Sep-14	San Bernardino County Superior Court, CA	Wrongful Death	Pleading Phase
Moore	Nov-14	St. Louis County Circuit Court, MO	Wrongful Death	Pleading Phase
Jones	Jan-15	Los Angeles County Superior Court, CA	Suspect Injury	Pleading Phase

In addition, other product litigation matters in which the Company is involved that are currently on appeal are listed below:



Plaintiff	Month Served	Jurisdiction	Claim Type	Status
Mitchell	Apr-12	US District Court, ED MI	Wrongful Death	Notice of Appeal filed August 2014; Briefing Phase
Thomas (Pikes)	Oct-08	US District Court, WD LA	Wrongful Death	Notice of Appeal filed January 2015

Cases that were dismissed or judgment entered during the fourth quarter of 2014 and through the filing date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K are listed in the table below. Cases that were dismissed or judgment entered in prior fiscal quarters are not included in this table.



Plaintiff	Month Served	Jurisdiction	Claim Type	Status
Grable	Aug-08	6th Judicial Circuit Court, Pinellas County, FL	Training Injury	Dismissed
Juran	Dec-10	Hennepin County District Court, 4th Judicial District	Officer Injury	Dismissed
Wilson	May-11	US District Court, ED MO	Wrongful Death	Dismissed
Miller	Jan-13	New Castle County Superior Court, DE	Wrongful Death	Dismissed
Ward	Oct-14	Richmond County Superior Court, GA	Officer Fired	Dismissed

The claims, and in some instances the defense, of each of these lawsuits have been submitted to the Company’s insurance carriers that maintained insurance coverage during the applicable periods. The Company continues to maintain product liability insurance coverage with varying limits and deductibles. The following table provides information regarding the Company’s product liability insurance. Remaining insurance coverage is based on information received from the Company’s insurance provider (in millions).



Policy Year	Policy Start Date	Policy End Date	Insurance Coverage		Deductible Amount		Defense Costs Covered	Remaining Insurance Coverage		Active Cases and Cases on Appeal
2004	12/1/2003	12/1/2004	$	2.0	$	0.1	N	$	2.0	n/a
2005	12/1/2004	12/1/2005	10.0		0.3		Y	7.0		n/a
2006	12/1/2005	12/1/2006	10.0		0.3		Y	3.7		n/a
2007	12/1/2006	12/1/2007	10.0		0.3		Y	8.0		n/a
2008	12/1/2007	12/15/2008	10.0		0.5		Y	—		Koon, Thomas (Pikes)
2009	12/15/2008	12/15/2009	10.0		1.0		N	10.0		Derbyshire
2010	12/15/2009	12/15/2010	10.0		1.0		N	10.0		Thompson, Shymko, Doan
2011	12/15/2010	12/15/2011	10.0		1.0		N	10.0		n/a
Jan-Jun 2012	12/15/2011	6/25/2012	7.0		1.0		N	7.0		Ramsey, Mitchell, Firman, Ricks
Jul-Dec 2012	6/25/2012	12/15/2012	12.0		1.0		N	12.0		n/a
2013	12/15/2012	12/15/2013	12.0		1.0		N	12.0		n/a
2014	12/15/2013	12/15/2014	11.0		4.0		N	11.0		Schrock, Moore, Rascon
2015	12/15/2014	12/15/2015	10.0		5.0		N	10.0		Jones

Other Litigation

None

General

From time to time, the Company is notified that it may be a party to a lawsuit or that a claim is being made against it. It is the Company’s policy to not disclose the specifics of any claim or threatened lawsuit until the summons and complaint are actually served on the Company. After carefully assessing the claim, and assuming we determine that we are not at fault or we disagree with the damages or relief demanded, we vigorously defend any lawsuit filed against the Company. In certain legal matters, we record a liability when losses are deemed probable and reasonably estimable. In evaluating matters for accrual and disclosure purposes, we take into consideration factors such as our historical experience with matters of a similar nature, the specific facts and circumstances asserted, the likelihood of our prevailing, and the severity of any potential loss. We reevaluate and update our accruals as matters progress over time.

Based on our assessment of outstanding litigation and claims as of December 31, 2014, the Company has determined that it is not reasonably possible that these lawsuits will individually, or in the aggregate, materially affect our results of operations, financial condition or cash flows. However, the outcome of any litigation is inherently uncertain and there can be no assurance that any expense, liability or damages that may ultimately result from the resolution of these matters will be covered by our insurance or will not be in excess of amounts recognized or provided by insurance coverage and will not have a material adverse effect on our operating results, financial condition or cash flows.

d. Employment Agreements

The Company has employment agreements with certain key executives. The Company may terminate the agreements with or without cause. Should the Company terminate the agreements without cause, or upon a change of control of the Company or death or disability of the employee, the employee, or family of the employee, are entitled to additional compensation. Under these circumstances, these officers and employees would receive the amounts remaining under their contracts upon termination, which total approximately $1.0 million in the aggregate at December 31, 2014. In March 2015, the Company finalized its severance agreement with a former executive whose position was eliminated in 2014, and accordingly, the Company accrued approximately $0.5 million as of December 31, 2014.