The last thing you want to do as a business owner is spend any time on the phone with a lawyer or in court dealing with a messy situation. Unfortunately, just about every business will at some point have to pay costs for legal fees of some sort. After all, we live in a day and age in which somebody somewhere must be blamed for what went wrong – and it usually is the company. In fact, it’s estimated that companies who make about $1 million in revenue each year will pay about $20,000 of that in legal fees. But you can implement practices to make sure legal fees don’t eat into your cash flow.
Dealing With Employment-Related Lawsuits
The number one listed lawsuit most businesses have to deal with falls under the category of employment and workplace practices usually in the form of discrimination or sexual harassment. The fees for settling these kinds of cases can be quite hefty, as shown in this article, and there almost always is something that could have been done to prevent it. Probably the greatest defense against these kinds of lawsuits is understanding that today’s workforce markets embrace diversity in the workplace, and you need to have a hiring policy written that shows you will not make any decisions based on a person’s demographic category. But you also need to promote a culture of treating employees well and discouraging sexual harassment.
Injury-Related Lawsuits
You might think of personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits as being only related to high activity and heavy equipment jobs in manufacturing, construction, warehouses, and other businesses that put employees in harm’s way. But the truth is you never know when a water spill on a tiled floor, a carbon monoxide leak from a central air unit, or another disaster in an average retail store or office building could occur. The best way to be covered in the event this happens is to have your insurance policies in place for each situation, but they also are no substitute for maintaining a safe workplace on your own. Most insurance companies and auditors want to see that you’ve taken safety precautions, and that means always making sure you check your premises for unsafe conditions, putting signage, caution tape, or guardrails against it and making sure the area is well-lit.
There are many other lawsuits that can come into play if you’re not careful such as fraud or intellectual property theft. That’s why it’s good to be educated on legal issues before you go full speed into running your business to make sure you know what action you should take when faced with a disgruntled employee or customer. And even though you hope not to have to call them, you need to have a good lawyer with experience in all workplace matters on your side.
For more information on how to protect your business, and to help it grow, make check out our blog!
