If you don`t have an employee handbook yet, consider creating one. Your employee handbook should cover your policies regarding things like PTO, dress code, and hours of work. It should also address your disciplinary process and what employees should do if they are harassed. Having these guidelines and following them can be very effective in reducing lawsuits by employees. Customers and employees can be hurt if you shirk your responsibilities to keep your physical workplace safe. Potholes in parking lots and uneven floors can lead to slip and fall accidents that warrant a workers` compensation claim or personal injury claim. This legal requirement may directly conflict with the European Union`s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a data protection regulation that came into effect in May 2018 that restricts the transfer of personal data to countries outside the EU. A foreign-based company may face conflicting legal obligations if a subpoena for documents served in a U.S. lawsuit requires the company to produce documents that may constitute personal information protected under the GDPR. Segregated accounts for business and personal assets are a way to show that the formalities of the business are met. If the company is sued or has to pay a debt, the formation of the business entity means that the owner`s personal assets are not threatened unless the corporate veil is violated.
Domain 2 – Labour and Employment: This section deals with your workforce and terms and conditions of employment. Federal and state labor and discrimination laws have a significant impact on how you hire, fire, and retain employees. For example, we recommend that every company with employees have an employee handbook and include policies that address “No discrimination,” “How to report employee complaints,” “Personal appearance in the workplace,” and many other similar policies. Although federal discrimination laws generally apply only to employers with more than a certain number of employees, state law provides for civil liability for bodily harm, assault, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. These legal claims of the State can all apply equally in a set of acts of discrimination. The employee handbook can help protect the employer by providing employees with a clear way to report complaints or perceived discrimination before the employer can be held accountable for such acts. In addition, the Fair Labour Standards Act imposes strict requirements on employee records, including when an employee has overtime and minimum wage. It is also important to understand that this assessment will be different for each organization.
Factors to consider include the regulatory environment in which you operate, especially if it involves multiple jurisdictions, as laws in North America can differ significantly from those in the UK compared to the EU. Consider both the internal (p. e.g., liability arising from employee behaviour) and externally (e.g., regulatory changes), as well as your business model or growth strategy (e.g., if you develop your own intellectual property and do not grow through acquisition). Careful drafting and review of contractual arrangements can help further limit the risk of claims for damages. A well-drafted contract between a foreign manufacturer and a U.S.-based dealer contains a restriction consistent with those of the applicable manufacturer`s warranty. The right business unit can strengthen the operations of a small business. The company will grow and evolve with it. It protects the business owner and the owner`s personal property, but it must be done properly to receive all legal and tax benefits. The above examples do not purport to be exhaustive. They merely illustrate the types of exposure that often exist in the five main areas.
We recommend that each company hire a legal team to inspect the company in the five exhibition areas mentioned above and identify legal threats. The deployed team must be proactive, not just reactive, in order to reduce and eliminate exposure. An organization`s legal team is, of course, responsible for protecting the company from things like lawsuits and reputational damage, and helping it avoid or overcome legal hurdles to doing business. Reducing your legal risk is a complicated business that requires managing minor details, such as ensuring the accuracy of an order`s contract wording, conducting in-depth risk assessments, for example. decide if and how to do business in another geographic area. The best way to reduce litigation is to use a third party to assess your involvement. Lawyers at Bergstein, Flynn & Knowlton offer litigation risk analysis services. This service allows you to become aware of potential threats to processes long before they cost you time and money. The types of lawsuits that can be brought in a U.S. court are far-reaching in terms of purpose and amount.
Foreign companies doing business in the U.S. should keep in mind that seemingly frivolous claims that challenge the most basic principles of common sense can withstand initial judicial review and immediate rejection. Since winning and losing parties are usually responsible for the fees and expenses of their own attorneys, all claims, regardless of their legal basis, can become costly. Learn more: Education is an underrated way to minimize legal risks. Everyone in an organization invests to some extent in protecting the business from damage caused by legal problems. However, if teams don`t understand the overall risks facing the business, as well as the specific risks their department may be responsible for, they can`t help but be part of the overall risk management plan. A simple example is to make sure a junior salesperson understands the importance of signing a contract before moving on to the next step in a process with a customer. Once you have a risk management framework in place, you will need a set of policies and procedures to assess your situation in terms of legal risk exposure, as well as a plan to deal with threats that arise. Customers operating in the United States should be advised that the most effective way to resolve disputes is to avoid them in the first place. This article will discuss potential causes of action and serve as a guide on how to minimize legal risks and risks for manufacturers and distributors of products doing business in the United States through quality control, careful drafting of warranties, contractual agreements, product manuals, warnings, and insurance coverage.
By default, if a person operates a small business but has not registered a business unit, the person created has created a sole proprietorship (an owner) or a partnership (multiple owners). The operator is personally liable for the debts and shares of the company. If the business is sued or owes money, the owner`s personal assets (bank accounts, car, house, etc.) are now at risk. It`s tempting to make your own agreements or simply accept contracts when they`re presented to you. However, you can create an illegal deal or accept something that could cost you thousands of dollars – and you often don`t realize it. Getting an experienced lawyer to review your contacts can save you money in the long run. It is definitely worth avoiding a lawsuit now in the future. In many companies, OSHA regulations also apply to your space. Violating these safety protocols can result in not only violations, but also investigations, fines, and bad press. You can avoid these problems by knowing your requirements and following them to the letter. Some legal risk management tasks will fall within the purview of other business units, even if the General Counsel (GC) or Chief Legal Officer (OCO) is ultimately responsible for them.
This means that the legal department`s umbrella includes training other teams on legal risks. Deepen your knowledge: There are many ways to create and implement an effective monitoring and reporting plan, depending on your organization`s unique needs and preferences. But any plan must start with a data strategy that ensures legal risk information arrives. You can compare the data to the KRIs you set, and from there, you should have automatic report triggers that send alerts to a predefined escalation path so that the right people are aware of the issues and can act as quickly as possible. You also need to make sure that complying with legal procedures and reporting issues is transparent and easy so that people don`t bypass them simply because of friction, which ironically adds risks. Deepening the opportunities for legal departments to implement technology to manage legal risks are enormous. Most of the core tasks of a legal department can be automated or supported by technology, including ensuring access to clean and complete data. Let our team proactively prevent legal risks and act like your in-house legal team by offering you a free exposure inspection.