“SECURITY LIABILITIES YOU NEED TO WORRY ABOUT”

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“SECURITY LIABILITIES YOU NEED TO WORRY ABOUT”
© 2004 By Gary L. Cunningham, C.P.O.

Why should you worry about liabilities in your business? Well, for one and probably the biggest reason, you could get sued for everything you have! But I guess you have insurance for things like that, right? Well, did you know that if you are found negligent in any action, there is a very good chance your insurance carrier will not stand behind you?

That has happened to more people than you think, and then they get to pay all the bills like the legal fees, court costs and yes the final judgment against you.

Just think about it, most lawyers charge an average of $250.00 an hour, then there are the court costs, the bad publicity a court situation will undoubtedly bring to your business and of course the money you have to pay the person(s) that filed the suit in the first place.

WOW, can you imagine trying to pay for a multi-million dollar judgment plus all the other costs that you will get hit with! Hope you are saving a lot of money for the future and you checked out your insurance in case it is a negligent suit you’re filed with!

So, you are now wondering what is liability? In this article we are discussing the liability of security in your business! These are the main liabilities you will have in a business when it deals with security issues:

•Negligent Hiring/Retention
•Failure to Provide Adequate Security
•Failure to Properly Training Security
•Premises Liability

So there is a lot you can do for reducing/eliminating these types of liability issues. Preparing for them ahead of time will save you money, time and maybe even your entire company.

The first thing you can do to reduce your security liabilities is to have a physical site security survey done by a competent security consultant. In this manner you will be able to find out just what your liabilities are and what measure you need to implement to reduce them.

The second thing you need to do is actually implement the recommendations from the consultant. Without this step in place you do nothing but raise your liabilities, especially if it is over a matter of cost of the security measures you need to implement. The courts do not look favorable on those that neglect to install security measures just because of the cost associated with them.

The third thing you should do is look at all your policies and procedures; they will usually be the reason that you have a security issue in the first place. Most times the security measures you need the most to reduce or eliminate an issue is in the way policies and procedures are written or not adhered to.

Take a close look at the entire make up of your company, hiring, retaining and termination of employees. Look at all you policies and procedures for the way you do and run your business. Take a close look at the outside of your business for anything that may get someone hurt or protect a possible criminal.

This is the only way you will find the things that can get you sued, you have to find them first to fix them. Having a lawsuit filed on you for them and going to court saying you didn’t know is not a valid excuse!

Look at the crime factors in your neighborhood and other businesses around you and then see what you can determine is possibly going to happen to you in any type of criminal event or incident that you may be sued for.



Then make the necessary changes to all these to reduce/eliminate the possible lawsuit factors. It is not easy or not time consuming to do all this. That is why it is suggested a security consultant do it for you. It can save you a lot of time, money in the long run and be done the right way before you do get sued.