Four Ways to Protect Your Business from Personal Injury Claims

Four Ways to Protect Your Business from Personal Injury Claims

A personal injury claim can mean enormous financial and emotional strain for a small company. To protect your business from personal injury claims, take these 4 preventative measures.

1.      Ensure That Your Place of Business Is Safe

To prevent injuries on your premises, make sure your business environment is safe. Walk through your building looking for anything that might be hazardous to employees or customers. Slip and fall lawsuits are common, so check that there is nothing that people could trip over or slip on.

For example, if your business has a linoleum floor and on a rainy day someone slips and breaks their arm because there is no rug on the floor, that person could file a personal injury claim against your company.

Any business that involves dangerous activities (roller skating, snowboarding, etc.) should have a waiver of liability for customers to sign. Display warning signs about safety hazards, and make every effort to have good supervision and management; you can avoid most injuries and claims this way. 

2.      Create a Safe Product

Several thousand deaths occur each year due to faulty products. These products include equipment, prescription drugs, and medical devices.

Check and recheck the design and manufacturing of your products in order to avoid injuring someone and facing a lawsuit. After you have ensured that your product is safe to use, create safety warnings that include anything that could go wrong.

3.      Follow the Thumper Rule

A personal injury suit can also result when false or misleading information is published about a person or company. For example, a company that publishes an article falsely accusing a local cosmetic dentist of fraud could find themselves facing a personal injury suit for damaging the dentist’s reputation.

To avoid finding yourself in this situation, remember the Thumper Rule: If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

4.      Buy Business Liability Insurance

Every business needs liability insurance to cover the legal costs in the event of a personal injury lawsuit. Here are the three main types of liability insurance.

General Liability Insurance: This is the main type of coverage. General liability insurance protects your business from property damage, personal injury, and advertising claims. This type of insurance (also called Commercial General Liability) is sufficient for some businesses.

Product Liability Insurance: Any business that sells a product needs this insurance to protect it against product malfunction. The amount of coverage a business gets depends on the business type and the risk that the product presents.

Professional Liability Insurance: If your business provides some kind of service you’ll need this insurance to cover what’s called “errors and omissions.” An Edmonton cosmetic dentistry office, for example, would need professional liability insurance as protection against errors, malpractice, omission, and negligence. For some businesses, this insurance is a legal requirement.

Use common sense and take the necessary precautions, and you will save yourself a lot of frustration and worry.

Edson Senna is a freelance writer who specializes in law, finance, and business. He enjoys getting ideas for his articles from companies like Azarko Dental Group.

 

 

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