Legal Issues Ever Small Business Owners Should Be Aware Of

About three quarters (75%) of small business owners have expressed their concerns regarding being sued with frivolous and unfair lawsuits, and around 43% of small business owners have been threatened with a lawsuit. Although legal issues are common in business, small businesses are much more vulnerable since they don’t have as many resources or a legal department or team, unlike larger corporations and organizations. The fear of these lawsuits could affect the decision-making of small business owners, forcing them to make bad business decisions, or play too safe in a way that their operations are negatively affected. As such, we’ll be taking a look at the common legal issues that every small business owner should watch out for:

Disgruntled Employees

The US provides many rights for employees, and labor unions assist employees to uphold their rights. As such, one of the biggest problems small businesses can face is disgruntled employees suing you after you terminate them due to valid reasons such as not being able to perform their job properly and such. To avoid issues related to wrongful termination and union issues, it’s important that you have your employee sign a documented drafted by an attorney that clears up the terms of dismissal.

Harassment and Discrimination Issues

Harassment and Discrimination lawsuits are messy and very serious in any workplace or business. Not only can they destroy relationships, but they can be quite costly and can damage your business’ and workforce’s reputation. Discrimination issues can stem from sex, race/ethnicity, age, disabilities, and such, while harassment can be sexual, physical, and racial. For small businesses that don’t have your human resource and legal departments, this can be quite tricky to manage as a small business. To avoid discrimination issues when hiring, it’s essential to keep all applicants’ resume and don’t throw them away to prove that you don’t select based on age, ethnicity, gender, and such. You can take periodic meetings with employees and staff, and take any allegations and rumors seriously and investigate them immediately before they become full-blown cases. Harassment transgressions should be dealt with straight away.

Immigration Audit

Always ensure that the staff employed in your small business are legally allowed to work in your area. When hiring your team, it’s essential to do a background check or require authentic documents to ensure that you’re not employing persons that aren’t legally allowed to work in your state or country. Otherwise, you’d be facing huge and crippling penalties if it’s found that your business employs an illegal labor force.

Dissatisfied Customers

Customers can gather as a group and file a class-action lawsuit against your business, claiming that your small business sells faulty products or services, or have broken promises and guarantees, or have misleading services. Not only are these lawsuits costly, but they can do almost irreparable damage to your brand. So it’s crucial to be proactive with customer complaints and investigate any issues with your products and services, and properly compensate and duly apologize for any shortcomings. And, of course, don’t make promises that you can’t keep.

Best Way to Prevent Them: Get an Attorney

The best way to protect your small business from these legal issues would be to secure an attorney who’s knowledgeable of local and state laws. Attorneys aren’t just for big and medium-sized businesses and corporations, securing a competent commercial and corporate litigation attorney is essential to provide legal advice to keep your small business safe from the common legal issues stated here and more, as well as to assist you with other legal matters that may arise.

Conclusion

Legal issues can be quite detrimental to your business, and small businesses are much more vulnerable to these than more prominent companies and corporations that have their legal departments and connections, which is why you should always be wary to avoid these legal pitfalls to keep your business afloat and to make better business decisions to let your business earn and thrive.