The United States is known for many things, including frequent litigation. Many people believe that the majority of lawsuits brought against businesses in the US are frivolous, but this simply isn’t true.
This idea is actually part of a larger PR campaign to take power away from consumers.
In any case, small and medium-sized businesses don’t always have a team of expert lawyers on hand to protect them from unjust lawsuits and expensive settlements.
So, what can businesses do to protect themselves from litigation?
What tools are at their disposal?
And finally, what are the best and most cost-effective ways to invest in settlement protection?
Hosted Call Recording
92% of customer interactions occur over the phone, which means that just 8% of customer interactions occur in a different sphere (online, face-to-face, etc).
So what does this mean for settlement protection?
It means that recording your calls with customers is vital to ensure that you are protected in the event of a dispute.
For example, let’s say that a customer claims a representative at your business discriminated against them over the phone. This could be grounds for a lawsuit. However, with a hosted call recording service, you can have evidence at the ready to stop a lawsuit before it starts.
Liability Insurance
Depending on the location and nature of your business, you might be required to maintain liability insurance. Even if the government does not require you to obtain a policy, you should seriously consider it.
Liability insurance can greatly reduce the cost of a settlement in the event that you are found at fault in a lawsuit.
Fortunately, general liability insurance is not out of reach for most small and medium-sized businesses. In fact, you can obtain a policy for as little as a few hundred dollars per year. If it ends up saving you thousands of dollars down the road, it would be well worth the ongoing cost of a policy.
An Experienced Attorney
This is certainly one of the most expensive options on this list, but having a lawyer that is familiar with your company is extremely important during a lawsuit.
If you have an attorney on retainer, you can quickly manage any potential issues that arise without needing to catch a new lawyer up to speed.
Costs vary greatly, but building a lasting relationship with a lawyer who specializes in lawsuits against businesses could help you avoid huge settlements down the road.
Cybersecurity Protocol
In recent years, many class-action lawsuits involved cyber-attacks that put consumers’ personal information at risk. Thankfully, most cybersecurity protocols are cheap and easy to implement.
Not only does it keep your customers’ information safe, but it keeps your private business information out of the wrong hands as well.
Effective cybersecurity protocol begins with the right Internet setup. You’ll want to ensure that your networks are firewall protected. VPNs are also a good way to hide your location and make it that much harder for hackers to infiltrate your systems.
Finally, be sure to regularly change your passwords and implement two-step verification to protect your hardware and software.
