How to lose Millions of Dollars. A Story of Negligent Hiring.

No, its not Dr.Evil it’s Ted Moss of Investigations America. Negligent hiring cost U.S. businesses millions of dollars in damages each year with the average settlement being around 1 Million Dollars! Investigations Americas team of experts can help mitigate that risk by conducting thorough risk and vulnerability assessments that can help employers understand where improvements to their facility and procedures need to be made in order to safeguard employees and customers.

There a generally 4 elements when determining negligence.

  • Duty
  • Breach
  • Causation
  • Damages

Duty of care refers to the first element and means does your business have a duty of care towards an employee or customer? In some cases the relationship between the two create a legal duty. For instance if you have employees driving company vehicles or driving for company business are they qualified to do this safely. A simple driving record check for the cost of around $25.00 could save you Millions of Dollars later on.

Breach of duty is the second element wherein a court would examine the question, did the employer breached this duty by doing or failing to do something that a reasonably prudent person would do under similar circumstances? The term “reasonably prudent person” is a legal standard that represents how the average person would responsibly act in a certain situation. Not doing a background check on a worker who enters peoples homes when there is a reasonable expectation that they will have access to money, jewelry and be in contact with customers would most likely be a breach of duty if something bad happened and that employee has a record for theft or violence.

Causation is the injured party simply showing that the employers action or inaction (Negligence) caused them injury either physically, emotionally, financially or in many cases all of the above.

lastly of course is damages. If these three elements are met and a lawsuit is brought forth it can cost employers Millions of dollars in damages. In this Video Ted Moss discusses how Investigations America can help Mitigate your companies risk with background checks, risk assessments and investigative services. The old adage an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure can be aptly applied when it comes to mitigating risk from any number of threats to your businesses health and especially concerning negligent hiring.