Are You An Employer At Risk?

The American Bar Association says there are more than 750,000 lawyers in America who will file over 18 million new lawsuits this year.  Will any of these suits be filed against you for negligent hiring?

What is Negligent Hiring?  It’s a liability you face every time you hire – unless you conduct a thorough background check.  If an employee of yours commits a crime, is involved in an accident, or causes damages to a third party, you can be sued.  If you failed to examine the public records of the employee which would have revealed a criminal record or a history of driving while intoxicated, a jury may order you to pay millions!  It happens all the time!

A jury in Oklahoma awarded the relatives of a teen-age rape victim $6,500,000 from a national pizza restaurant chain in a negligent hiring case.

Similar cases of Negligent Hiring occurred when…

A Washington, D.C. grocery store delivery man assaulted a customer while delivering a phone order.

A newly hired condominium maintenance man assaulted a guest who was alone in a resident’s unit.  The man was a convicted felon.

Several members of a family were injured after a truck driver with a bad driving record caused an accident.

A woman was raped in her residence by a man hired as a security guard.  He had a history of sexual harassment and discipline problems.

You must know who you are hiring to prevent incidents like these from happening to you!  Recall the adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  When you do a background check on job applicants before you hire, you screen out those who could become liabilities to your firm.  And if an employee does cause damage or commit a crime, the fact that you took the precaution of a background check before hiring makes it extremely unlikely that you could be held liable for negligent hiring.

For your own protection, you should use the Employee Background Check services provided through us to thoroughly investigate the backgrounds of your prospective employees.  In addition to protecting against negligent hiring, background checks reduce your risk of dishonesty, theft and even personal injury.  With the rising incidence of violence in the workplace, this can be an important issue.

Source: workforceverification