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Suggestions to Avoid Litigation

Employees:

• Where possible, require employees to sign:
  • employment contracts;
  • confidentiality agreements;
  • non-competition agreements.

Customers:

• Review your terms and conditions of trade to ensure that they minimise your liability;
• Include provision for the retention of title over unpaid goods;
• Ensure your terms and conditions are signed by the customer;
• Obtain guarantees from the directors of corporate customers;
• Have a clearly defined policy of debt recovery.

Insurance:

• Ask your broker to confirm whether they act for you or the insurer;
• If you have a loss, enquire whether any of your existing insurance policies will cover it;
• Notify your broker/insurer of facts which might give rise to a professional indemnity claim;
• Review your insurance cover for:
  • directors and officers liability;
  • product liability;
  • professional indemnity;
  • public liability; etc.

Suppliers/Service Providers:

• Confirm the existence and limits of insurance held by your suppliers/service providers;
• Provide a written specification of your requirements, identifying outcomes which can be verified objectively by recognised tests or standards;
• Specify that the information to be included within your accounts must identify what has been done, by whom and at what charge.

Records:

• Keep your records for the applicable statutory periods
• Maintain a register of what records can be destroyed and when;
• Maintain a register of significant future dates.

Suggestions to Manage Litigation

• Establish a line of communication with your solicitor for potential claims so that documents are protected from disclosure to claimants by legal professional privilege;
• Have employees who are potential witnesses sign professionally prepared witness statements soon after the relevant events, before they cease your employment.
• Retain the most appropriately qualified expert witnesses/barrister early.
• Extract and preserve the relevant records;
• Allocate a person within your organisation to be responsible to answer requests from your solicitors for information/documents;
• Anticipate that staff will be diverted from their normal activities and develop a plan for their work to be done.