Civil, Business or Commercial Liability: Running a small business has its rewards, but it also comes with its fair share of liability, including the possibility of slip and fall lawsuits, claims for defective products, and the negligent acts of employees.
Do you run a business? Learn about your responsibilities as a business owner
All it takes is a single costly lawsuit to close a small business, which is why business owners and their managers need to understand their own responsibilities and prepare for them. This section covers a wide variety of topics related to corporate liability, with articles on minimizing your legal risks, liability-related forms and contracts, slip and fall lawsuits, employer liability for employee actions, and more.
Employer’s Liability for Employee Acts
Employers can be held liable for the conduct of their employees even if the employer did not intend to cause harm and did not play a direct role in the harm experienced. This is due to two basic concepts related to employer liability.
- First, employers direct the behavior of their employees and receive the benefit of their efforts when things work out. This notion suggests that negative consequences also “belong” to the employer.
- Second, employers are more likely to be able to compensate someone who is injured or injured. Regardless of fairness, the legal system wants to identify a possibly liable party who can make the victim whole, and the employer presents the best opportunity to achieve this goal.
Work-related accidents result in liability for employers under the “superior respondent” doctrine for the negligence of their workers in the course of their employment. However, if the employee causes a non-work related accident, this usually does not result in liability for the employer. If a worker injures another worker they are compensated under worker’s compensation instead of a liability claim.
Negligent hiring or retention, unlike work-related misconduct, arises from acts performed by an employee outside of their employment. The most common example of this is when an employer hires someone with a criminal record in such a way that their clients are at risk. Conducting a background check on employees, especially those in contact with the public, provides some isolation from liability.
Harassment between employees is a growing source of liability for employers. An employer may be held liable for harassment unless it can show that it exercised reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct any harassment and the employee unreasonably harassed did not complain to management or otherwise avoid harm.
The Small Business Owner and Slip and Fall Accidents
When someone slips, trips and falls on someone else’s property and is injured, the property owner is often liable for “premises liability.” This is particularly so when there is a dangerous condition such as rips in the carpet, changes in the floor, poor lighting, a narrow staircase, or a wet floor. Rain, ice, snow, potholes, and other obstacles can also create a hazard.
There is no precise method to connect the owner to liability for a slip and fall accident, but situations where the owner / possessor created the condition, was aware of the condition and negligently failed to correct it, or the condition existed for a period of time. such time that the owner / possessor should have known and corrected the condition before the accident would result in liability.