Liability insurance isn’t enough to protect your business. You must limit your business risks. What would you do if someone slipped, fell, and sued your company? Nobody wants to think about this situation, but lawsuits happen.
It comes down to this: a person can’t win a lawsuit unless they can prove to and convince a judge and jury that your business was at fault.
Here are a few examples of how you can minimize your risk to be sued:
- Warning the public about an unsafe condition or product
- Making a reasonable effort to maintain a safe environment for the public and employees
- Refraining from slander and gossip
- Investigating an employee’s complaint of civil rights discrimination or sexual harassment
Simply put, to reduce liability risks, you must behave lawfully and demonstrate responsibility for the welfare of others:
- Your clients
- Your customers
- Your competitors
- The general public
Furthermore, you must obey the civil rights laws, sexual harassment laws and any other laws that give rights to your employees. If you don’t cover your bases, you are setting up your business for failure. However, if you can provide evidence that you took your responsibility seriously and made reasonable efforts to prevent harm to others, you are much less likely to be found liable.
Here are a few examples of how you can provide evidence:
- Maintain copies of communications with your clients or employees about risk and safety.
- Maintain records of your efforts to verify that someone you hired was not a risk to others.
- Testimony that you provided warning signs or other warning signals regarding a hazardous condition on your property
- Evidence from other professionals in your field that the choices you made and actions you took were consistent with acceptable professional standards in your industry.
- Records that your equipment was regularly serviced by knowledgeable technicians
Did you notice a common theme here? All of these examples involved some form of written records.
How consistent are you with documenting your efforts to do things lawfully so you can prove that you are not liable?
Documentation is the key. If you don’t want to do it yourself, then hire someone to do it for you. They will pay for themselves if it prevents a lawsuit! Finally, talk to your insurance agent about suggestions they might have to make your business employee and client safe.
If you would like a free consultation, reach out to an InsuranceHub agent a call right now.