Combating Frivolous Lawsuits in Retail and Hospitality (original) (raw)
Vic Herrera
Vic Herrera
CEO Focus Secure Video, Inc. Active Shooter solutions for Schools and Businesses
Published Jun 23, 2015
We have noticed at DTT a trend with regards to actions filed against our clients. Particular types of lawsuits are being filed at the last minute in order to give plaintiffs the best chance that video evidence has been destroyed. We deal with a sizable amount of retail and restaurant clients. They are susceptible to frivolous slip and falls, workman's comp claims as well as a growing rate of labor law actions being filed against them. The good news is video is a terrific tool to mitigate these issues or disprove them outright. The bad news is, attorneys are aware that most video systems have a storage capacity of 30-90 days and statue of limitations rarely call for filing cases like these in less than one year regardless of state. I will discuss a few ways to address these serious issues.
- Get a camera on the time clock and store it in the cloud
- Ensure every incident is documented and archived
- Get more storage on your entrances and common areas
First and foremost, get a camera on the time clock and store that data for at least a year. A trend we are seeing more of in frivolous/nuisance lawsuits are claims that employees didn't get their breaks when if fact they did. Our clients are seeing an alarming rate of these coming in. We have a client who asked us to help solve this very expensive problem. We put a camera on the entrance area where employees are to enter and leave. The employees punch in and out using the system which happens to be right under that camera and integrated to the time clock. We then take that video and store it in the cloud for two years. Now we have the punch and video evidence of every entry and exit. The trick here is we only put one camera in the cloud as this client has typical business DSL. This is representative of half of our client base and works fine to get one camera with quality video in the cloud. They have averted several lawsuits using this technique. Furthermore, word has gotten out among employees that this tactic is not bearing fruit. This strategy has big ROI. Takeaway, make sure you are following the state regulations and be ready to prove it with video.
When an incident occurs that a manager or owner is aware of the first thing they ask for is a disk. Incidents need documentation and associated footage archived in a cloud environment indefinitely. EVERYONE LOSES THE DISKS. We get requests for a watermarked disk every time something happens, and then, 8 months later or longer, when council is beginning to deal with the issue, they can't find the disk.
When people cut themselves, when someone falls on the property you need to archive the incident. Everyone has a form and a procedure, but what are you doing with it? Has some or more of the information been lost? It is critical to get your incidents to a place that is safe, searchable and backed up. We provide a tool in our cloud portal to collect and organize any and all documents, notes, video footage into a dossier. Some clients use it, some clients have other tools and polices to deal with these events. In any event we have a simple archiving process that delivers video to the client and then we take a copy and archive it in our cloud storage as long as the client is a customer. The takeaway here is everyone loses the disk. Archive your incidents in the cloud!
Finally, it's all about risk assessment and exposure. Let me tell you a little story about a client who was sued using the American's with Disabilities Act. A lawyer in southern California was working with a disabled man looking for stores that could be targeted using the disabilities act as not accommodating those with disabilities. They would find a store, wait 5 months from the date of the claim and just file. Then send a letter demanding $15,000 to drop the suit. This team has filed hundreds of these. Incidentally, I have no issue with the ADA, I do have an issue when people abuse the system for personal gain which was the case here.
The disabled man didn't even have to go in to an establishment because they knew there was no video evidence. Our client knew it was frivolous suit and fought on principal. After 50,000andwiseadvicefromhisattorney,hegaveupandsettledfor50,000 and wise advice from his attorney, he gave up and settled for 50,000andwiseadvicefromhisattorney,hegaveupandsettledfor10,000. To his credit, he was smart enough to get it writing that they could never sue him again. He has hundreds of stores in the area and was subsequently sued several more times by the same team, unsuccessfully, due to their foresight. The takeaway here is this lesson only cost $60,000, by the way, that buys a lot of storage.
Local storage is getting cheaper, cloud storage is getting cheaper but none of this is free. It is important to review what your exposure is. You may want to do a little research on what an average slip and fall, ADA, or workman's comp claim might cost you. Balance that against having extra storage for areas where risk of these events are highest. You might not be able to put all of that data in the cloud due to bandwidth constraints, but you can increase your local storage to guard against a claim that comes months later. A year's worth of storage is surprisingly inexpensive. Who knows? You might save yourself $60,000 and some major aggravation.
About the photograph- My wife and I were leaving Las Vegas, and she really loved this spinning machine and wanted to hit it just one more time. We put in 20andIwhenweweredownto20 and I when we were down to 20andIwhenweweredownto6 left I said, let's go. Keep the six bucks, but she wanted to give it one more try...and the rest was history. Don't let unscrupulous types hit the jackpot with your business. Protect it with a well thought out video solution. We just happen to have one at DTT.
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