Common Lawsuits That Businesses In The 21st Century Will Face

Whether you own or operate a small business or a large corporation, there will probably come a time when you are faced with some type of lawsuit. The only difference is going to be, as a small business owner the danger of a lawsuit could potentially mean total financial ruin. Legal actions can be a major headache and severely hurt your business,which is why it is imperative that a ligation team on top of their game represents you. Below, you will learn about the most common lawsuits that businesses often face.

Disgruntled Employees

For any business owner, one of the most common lawsuits that you are going to face is wrongful termination. This is especially true, if you are located in America, because American-based employees have far more rights than other countries. One great way to avoid this is to make sure that you have the terminated employee or employees sign documents that are carefully crafted by your legal team. The documents must clearly state the reason or reasons why the employee is being terminated. If you fire an employee without this type of documentation it just leaves your business wide open for a lawsuit.

Patent And Copyright

Patent and copyright actions are common legal issues that will be faced in the tech industry. In fact, you would be surprised how many companies out there just sit on their patents for years, hoping that another company will violate them, so that they can collect on a lawsuit. A great way to avoid a dispute like this is to employee a good research and development team.

Disgruntled Customers

Any customer that is unhappy with your products or services has the right to file a lawsuit against you. In fact, if enough disgruntled customers gather together they can actually file a class-action lawsuit, which can be damaging for any company. One of the best ways to avoid this is to be proactive. Make sure that you are always on top of your customer complaints. Find out exactly why the customer is unhappy with your product or services and try to make the situation right with the customer before it goes to a court of law.

Discrimination Suits

Discrimination suits are becoming more and more common throughout the workplace. Most people know that discrimination suits can be brought on because a person is discriminated against due to their age, sex, or even race. However, what most people don’t know is that discrimination suits aren’t always brought on by employees. Of course, in most cases they are, but customers, suppliers, and vendors can also file discrimination suits.

Security Breach

One of the most common problems experienced by small businesses and large corporations is a security breach. Almost every type of business is utilizing the Internet to perform payment transactions, storing customer data and processing orders. Keeping this in mind, the data collected during these operational procedures are a treasure trove for online hackers. If you do not protect your customers’ information, with frequent software updates and other means, you will find yourself in a civil court, disputing the claims of a security breach.

Take for instance Target, which was pulled into a class-action lawsuit stemming from a 2013 data breach. The company ended up settling the case of out court, paying $10 million in damages to victims.

Personal Injury

Business owners are responsible for protecting their workers and customers from injuries. However, the best you can do to protect these individuals, just one little mishap could still occur without warning. Personal injury lawsuits can ruin a business, especially if it is not protected by liability insurance. Employees and customers will need to be compensated for loss of wages, medical bills, personal suffering and other damages.

Published by Kidal Delonix (1200 Posts)

Kidal Delonix is a contributor to Mr. Hoffman's blog. The views and opinions are entirely his/her own and may not reflect Mr Hoffman's views.