Are You Afraid of Getting Sued? 5 Tips on How to Prevent it

As a business owner, if you’re afraid of the potential of getting sued by a disgruntled customer or client, you’re not alone.

This is a very real fear in our modern-day marketplace.

Sometimes, customers or clients get so upset about their experiences with businesses that they’ll even go to the lengths of filing civil lawsuits in an attempt to ‘right the perceived wrongs perpetrated upon them’ by the company.

But sometimes, it’s not even about right or wrong.

Sometimes, people are just out to try to make a quick and easy buck. 

And your business can absolutely fall victim to this sort of mindset.

So if you’re afraid of getting sued while doing business, you’re in the right place—because in this post, we’re going to walk you through five tips for how to prevent this from happening.

These tips may not guarantee that you’ll never face a lawsuit (also, note that this article is NOT legal advice!).

However, they can help you to prepare and give yourself your best possible odds for avoiding the issue and/or handling it if it does arise.

Let’s jump into it.

1. Do Your Research

Whenever you start a business, it’s important to investigate the types of ways in which your business dealings could expose you to potential liability.

For example, if you’re a plumber, one obvious potential for liability could include having a pipe break and flooding the house right after you install it.

If this were to happen, it’s very possible that the homeowner could sue you for the damages, claiming that you were negligent and didn’t perform your work to the expected standard.

The point here is just to research your industry and figure out where you may be vulnerable.

That’s really the first step.

2. Be Responsible And Ethical In Your Business

The bottom line is this.

The vast majority of customers just want to feel good about spending their money on the products and services they spend money on. 

Therefore, if you tend to actually be responsible and ethical, and do a good job at helping your clients, you will be highly unlikely to run into a lot of civil litigation problems.

This doesn’t always rule out the potential for disaster.

Plus, accidents do happen.

However, you can really set yourself up for better odds of success by making sure that you always conduct your business responsibly and ethically.

3. Try To Deal With Clients And Customers In An Understanding, Respectful Manner

Whenever a customer or client comes to you with a problem or an issue, always make sure to try to address the issue in an understanding and respectful manner.

It’s also in your best interest to try (within reason) to solve the problem for the customer.

High-quality customer service can take you a long way where liability is concerned.

If a customer or client believes that you’re on their side and that they can trust you to help them solve issues in the future relating to their purchase from you, they’re going to be that much less likely to take some kind of legal action against you.

Of course, once again, this won’t protect you from all potential liability.

But it can help to increase your chances for success while decreasing the potential for disaster.

4. Be Extremely Careful With Legal And/Or Sensitive Details

Some types of business require you to be extremely careful with personal details and/or legal matters.

For example, if you run a health care clinic, you need to be really careful about not violating people’s privacy.

If you run a restaurant and bar, it’s really important to go through the proper channels and legal requirements to make sure that you’re serving alcohol in a responsible manner that won’t put others in danger.

It’s in your best interest to be responsible when seeing to your legal obligations where your business is concerned.

This will help to keep you out of trouble and help you to maintain a proper face and name in your industry.

5. Equip Yourself With Insurance

There are many different types of insurance that you can obtain to help protect you from civil litigation—including E&O insurance.

E&O insurance basically stands for ‘errors and omissions insurance.’

And in some industries, this type of insurance can help you to protect yourself from civil liability issues where customers feel that your service to them wasn’t rendered as it should have been.

Once again, this won’t necessarily always protect you from everything.

But it’s just another step that you can take to help you guard against the potential for legal calamity while running your business.

Conclusion

There you have it.

Five tips on how to prevent getting sued while running your own business.

Of course, finding a great lawyer is also another obvious step that can help to protect you.

It’s just really important to be responsible and to be aware of the risks.

That’s really half the battle in itself.