Incident Management Team Inc. Your partner in Crisis Management

Home - Site Map - About Us - Crisis Facts - IMT Services - Ask The Experts - Resources - Join Our Network - Contact Us
	Incident Management Team
Litigation Exposure

You’re a Human Resource Representative with ABC Company. It's eleven o’clock in the morning and the sounds of loud voices outside your office distract you from the phone call you are on. Suddenly your office door bursts open; standing in the doorway is James Jones.

Until a week ago, James worked in finance. He'd been a model employee for more than five years but recently he began to change. He became withdrawn and moody. His work deteriorated and he was prone to violent verbal assaults against co-workers. After he tried to attack his supervisor during a counseling session, you were forced to terminate him.

Annoyed by the disruption, you begin to rise from your desk. You start to protest the intrusion then suddenly stop. A wave of terror sweeps through you. James has a gun!

For most of us, workplace violence is something that only happens on the six o'clock news. We know that it exists, but there is an air of unreality about it. We can't relate to mass murder committed by a deranged Postal worker or to the scattered wreckage of a commuter airplane blown from the sky by a disgruntled former airline employee. Incidents like these are so far from the realm of our everyday experience that we just can't comprehend them. As a result, we tend to view the idea of workplace violence as a sensational curiosity. It happens, but not in a business like ours and certainly not to people like us.

It is virtually certain that any violent incident will result in some sort of litigation. It is also certain that the litigation will attempt to show that the organization was somehow negligent in it's approach to workplace violence.

In cases where an employee is the cause of injury to others, there will inevitably be claims that the organization knew or should have known of that individual's propensity for violence and failed to act. Issues of negligent hiring, negligent retention and inadequate supervision will be raised. Individual managers and supervisors will be singled out for their alleged negligence in failing to predict and prevent the violence. In situations where outsiders injure employees or customers, the organization will be accused of negligence for failing to provide adequate security. Claims will be made that the violence, whether caused by employee or outsider, was foreseeable and but for negligent and inept management practices could have been prevented. As with other security and safety considerations, having a formal workplace violence program in place can go a long way toward mounting a credible defense should claims of negligence be made.

OSHA General Duty Clause Section 5 (a) (1)

Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that re causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm.

This includes the prevention and control of the hazard of workplace violence.

Workplace Massacre Leads to $7.9 Million Award

In a civil case that could have nationwide implications for companies whose employees are threatened by potentially violent co-workers, a jury on Tuesday awarded $7.9 million to the widows of two managers gunned down in 1995 by a man they had fired two days earlier.

Union Butterfield/Dormer Tools, a small Asheville business, was slammed with an $8 million judgment when a terminated employee returned in a shooting rampage two days after being fired.

Ford Motor Co. was hit with $19 million in EEOC compliance and training cost for sexual harassment.