Your business can face personal injury claims from your staff or contractors working in your facilities. It’s unpredictable and can drain your revenue or savings as you battle lawsuits to compensate the injured persons. By being prepared, you can avoid the costly back and forth with your staff and the insurer.
In such incidences, it’s crucial to have a lawyer to organize a settlement between your business and the personal claimants. Negotiating for settlement through deposition is one of the best strategies to defend your business from personal injury claims. You’ll learn how to safeguard your business and develop defensive steps after a deposition.
Are you wondering what strategies exist to protect your business from personal injury claims? Find out below.
Conduct a Safety Audit
The personal injury law can challenge your defense by looking at the probable cause of the injury. The claimant can point to negligence in your business operations, yet it was an accident or self-inflicted wound.
Regularly conduct safety inspections as the best workplace practice to avoid such speculative incidences in your business. It can save you from paying compensation claims. You’ll be taking into account the welfare of your staff by providing a safe working environment. Remove clutter in offices, trunks, or tape computer cables, and organize the workstations as you eliminate hazards in your establishment.
Leverage Induction Training
If your business is highly technical or has special operations, training your workforce in how they perform the underlying tasks is imperative. It reduces the chances of people getting hurt while at work. Moreover, it’s an opportunity to install good safety culture at the workplace. They should know how to avoid getting hurt if they can identify potential hazards.
Remember, your workforce can contribute to the injuries they get at work. Don’t overlook the need to train the newly employed people and refresh the older workforce. Ensure you keep records of all the safety training and coaching techniques, including the course content. You can use that in your defense should anyone sue for negligence as a causation of personal injury.
There’s another common defense strategy that a court can consider, known as comparative negligence. It’ll find fault and determine whether there’s a need to pay the personal injury claim. So, research or talk to a legal practitioner to find a preventive solution to compensation lawsuits.
Implement Safety Policies
Safety management policies work as guidelines for people working in your establishment. Anyone working in your facilities should know what’s acceptable and the potential hazards.
Implementing safety policies will insulate your business from getting a personal injury lawsuit. The strategy will most likely underpin the rule of assumption of risk. If your lawyer can argue the case because the injured persons were aware of potential harm, you can avoid paying the compensation claims. The court can read personal ignorance on the plaintiff’s part. So, it’s crucial to consult safety experts and a lawyer to draft a safety policy for your business.
Buy a General Insurance
Businesses need general insurance to cover unforeseen events in the course of operations. It can provide a soft landing if you lose a personal injury lawsuit by paying what the court decides the plaintiff deserves to get. However, it’s crucial to research what the insurance policy covers.
Aside from paying personal injury compensation claims, your business can leverage other provisions in the general insurance cover, such as property damage during an accident. It’s also an opportunity to cut the cost of the premiums you remit to the insurance company.
Your business insurance company can support your defense through investigations before paying personal injury claims. Your lawyer can collaborate with your insurance to prove the claimant’s lawsuit is invalid. For instance, if the claimant had sustained injuries elsewhere and reported that they got hurt at your business, the court can throw the case out because there are grounds to hold you accountable for the damages.
Provide a Safe Working Environment
One of the best ways to avoid paying personal injury claims is by providing a safe working environment. People who feel safe in their workstations can concentrate on productivity and ensure they meet business goals. You’ll also align your business operations with occupational safety and health regulations.
Look at eliminating risks and hazards through a change in the organizational culture. Remember, personal injury can result from staff unsafe behaviors at work. For instance, your team can ignore the safety requirements, signs, and instructions on harmful chemical products. If they get hurt, they can take the fault for their ignorance. So, ensure your workforce cannot use unsafe workstations or conditions as the reason for getting injured.
Hire Qualified Personnel
If your business operations are not complex or technical, you can hire unskilled labor to save the cost of production. But you must monitor how they perform the tasks assigned and the standard operating procedure. Conversely, technical operations need qualified personnel to handle the job. It’ll help eliminate workforce risks or injuries, thereby avoiding a compensation claims lawsuit.
If you cannot hire directly from the job market, you can use human resource firms to outsource the labor. They will be responsible for safeguarding the people they employ and providing the necessary safety requirements, such as personal protective equipment. Ensure that you sign a contract to insulate your business from compensation claims. Ask your lawyer to draft an agreement that can bind the human resource firm to respond should the workforce get hurt in your establishment.
Keep Records of Your Business Operations
Data in business is a critical consideration that you must factor into your establishment. It can help you to defend yourself against lawsuits and remain competitive in your market. It can include information on whether your staff got hurt while performing specific tasks. Establish a record-keeping system for your operations and ask everyone to sign against a completed job.
The task was completed and placed in the archive without an injury. You can use the records to show that your business provided a safe working environment and that no one got hurt from start to finish. Such a strategy can help your lawyer to argue against the statute of limitations. In addition, you can ensure that all injury reports have a backup in the cloud for safekeeping.
Continuous Improvement of Business Process
Personal injuries can result from complex or disorganized business operations. It creates a risky work environment for people, and you can expect multiple lawsuits for neglect. Other factors can be unskilled labor and poor operations management in your organization. You can look for opportunities to improve operations and eliminate hazards to defend your business. It can include the development of management policies to control how people conduct themselves at work.
Besides changing people’s mindsets, continuous improvement can help your business cut the operation cost. You can reduce the reported injuries by employing skilled labor with experience in your market. Also, you can train your workforce to identify hazards and report them for your action.
Hire a Lawyer
Personal injury matters have lawyers who represent plaintiffs and defendants before a court. You can consult a lawyer in your area if you face such lawsuits. However, it is crucial to review their credentials and experiences with personal injury compensation cases. You’ll avoid going to court several times for similar issues.
The following are some of the approaches a personal injury case can use in your defense:
- Contributory Negligence: Personal injury claims defense can cite that the plaintiff should take all the blame for the suffering they experience. The plaintiff is usually at fault even though the defendant contributed to the accident or injury. Your business can provide a safe working environment, but the staff can ignore the safety rules and regulations. If they get hurt, they can take responsibility for their actions.
- Assumption of Risk: This law consideration aims to block compensation claims by the injured person. It points out that the plaintiff was aware of the potential injury when taking up the job. Therefore, they take the blame and cannot push for compensation.
- Pre-existing Injuries: The defense will look at the origin of the injuries when looking at a personal injury lawsuit. If your workforce had a pre-existing injury, they might use it to file recovery claims wrongfully. So, it’s crucial to get medical assessment reports for your staff.
- Release of Liability Waiver: People can forego the right to claim personal injury compensation by signing a release. It can be a form of settlement between the defendant and the claimant. But the primary consideration is the level of negligence. If your business intentionally caused the injury, you could expect the court to throw the release of liability waiver out and proceed to trial.
- Statute of Limitation: The court will look at the timeframe a personal injury case is reported. There’s usually a time cap for anyone to file a lawsuit or a claim. If you face outdated personal injury claims, your lawyer can argue based on the statute of limitation to avoid paying compensation.
Personal injury law can be challenging if you’re unfamiliar with the citations. You must learn where your business fault lies to build a defensive case. A lawyer can help you to decipher what you need to do.
Conclusion
Defending your business from personal injury claims is no mean feat, but it can be done by upholding your employees’ safety. You must balance your organization’s safety culture, buy appropriate insurance policies, and have a lawyer as an advisor to legal matters. It’s a solid strategy to insulate your business from personal injury lawsuits.
