Could A Third Party Grading Service End Up In Court Grading Counterfeits?

Technically ? yes IF a Gov. would prosecute for possession of a fake.
or,
if they grade a fake and certify it as authentic. of course unknowingly.
a civil suit could emerge out of that for damages.
BUT both scenarios are highly unlikely, as you agree to their conditions of doing business. And that includes that scenario.
it would be different if a TPG would be a recognized and trained Professional. Which they are not.
I believe they are purposely avoiding proclaiming themselves Professionals as that designation would suggest they be a trained, educated and experienced person in that respective field and hence, they would have a liability and would have to guarantee their work.
When you use a TPG you are only paying for their personal and unquestioned experience and opinion and not for a "professional" opinion. Hence, NO implied liability.

weird, are the laws different in canada? my wife got a counterfeit $5 at arbys I think. she unknowingly went to spend it at wal mart, and they questioned it, asked if she had washed it with her clothes, where did she get it. when they told her it was counterfeit, they said they werent allowed to give it back, since she wanted to bring it to me so I could see if it was in fact counterfeit. I did end up going and looking at it,(it was cut slightly smaller than a legitimate one), but they did state again that they were not allowed to give it back.

Civil court yes criminal court no. There's tons of fakes floating around the judge or prosecutor might have one in their pockets unknowingly, anyone could...sooooo would it not be the feds own fault that so many fakes are around to begin with?
With high powered lawyers these TPGs could afford to save their reputation (rightfully so) there would be no proof of intention to defraud anyone. And if they put out a few bucks to keep a client and everyone happy then sobeit.
It would be criminal if they did this all the time, or did it intentionally but its bound to happen once in a while.
Some fake coins are of such high quality even the experts are having a hard time telling them apart.IMO

You are correct 47 they and ngc and Anacs do have some sort of guarantee. All I can say is that with the 1955 Lincoln double die they did look after, what happened was they received a few more with identical markers .They then contacted the submitter and told him to send it back for a refund. I would guess that if a person was concerned, all the major TPG do ahave a procedure in place. I am sure you have to send the suspect item back in the TPG holder and they would open it. The amount of money involved along with their collective reputations is too huge to mess with, I would think.
Would be interesting to see what ICCS and CCCS have to say on this issue.

^ The Chinese situation is a total mess in a lot of ways. You have counterfeits, Chinese companies making legit products that are branded by companies in North America, and Chinese making knock-offs of products that are made in China for western export, or selling direct to consumers.

I used to avoid China like the plague, but lately I've ordered items here and there. When people realize they can order stuff that is sold in stores here direct from where it's really made, they may do more of it as well. I owe no allegiance to companies that farmed their production out overseas, and that covers most of them.

1cent - don't forget ghost shift. That is the factory officially only runs 1 or 2 shifts manufacturing legit goods for paying customers with properly licensed logos and such. Then somebody runs an extra 'ghost' shift using everything exactly the same (or not, maybe the raw materials are marginal rejects), except the product doesn't go to the customer, it goes into the grey market.

http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=918 <-- very much a techies explanation of the ghost shift problem.

BStrauss:
we used to purchase knock-offs in HKG-Aberdeen at the market of nearly every interesting pair of high end jeans, with or without the original label. cost from $3 to $ 10 max.
we had choices of nearly every high end piece of clothing.
Later-on the Fake coin and shops started under the guise of money exchange shops. They are still there, but moved further away from the main stream traffic. recently I have personally seen the stacks and boxes of World-look alike fake coins in Hong Kong.
prices are anywhere from $1 to $ 10 for real silver. AND if what you want is not in stock, they will have it within a few hours.. even deliver it to your hotel. I saw buyers from many nations, but most were Americans and German Speaking buyers.
There is NO way we can stop this evil at the source. The only way we can stop or reduce the influx is political.

Would the slab get a "details" designation, for going off thread topics?