There are a couple accidents where the recovery divers were named in a law suit by the widow,because in suits they will name as many people as possible looking for the deepest pockets (CDS can testify to that from the School sink issue). If you perform a recovery at the request of law enforcement because it is a crime scene, then you receive liability protection because you are functioning at the request of law enforcement. Once that person goes outside law enforcement then they are functioning on their own by issuing an opinion,now you are an expert, and you no longer have the veil of protection from law enforcement. I might have some basic steps wrong because I am not in law enforcement,but the people who developed the protocol for doing recoveries have tremendous law enforcement experience, and went to great effort to protect cave divers. I have been part of a couple recoveries, and found that law enforcement controlled the scene and their rules,not sure if that is the hand waving you are describing.