Safety Dance
Get policies in place now, and avoid liability later.
Setting policies to address potentially risky situations can be
your best insurance when it comes to defending yourself against a
claim. If you demonstrate you've done due diligence in terms of
protecting people and otherwise diffusing potentially risky
situations, you're in a much more defensible position in the
eyes of a judge or jury, says Al Nagelberg, president of Albert Risk Management
Consultants, an independent risk management consulting firm in
Needham, Massachusetts.
Let's say someone slips and falls on your property on a
snowy day and sues you for not removing the snow. If you had a
snow-removal policy, you could clearly show you were aware of the
potential risk and took steps to minimize it-reducing the
likelihood you would be held liable for damages.
The benefits of being proactive are significant. First, notes
Nagelberg, your loss ratio is a key driver of your insurance rates,
so reducing or eliminating losses keeps your premiums down. Because
many insurance consumers are accepting higher deductibles to
contain premiums, reducing your liability exposures directly
reduces out-of-pocket costs.
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General areas where you should have procedural policies include:
employment practices, property and equipment management, Internet
use, cell phone use, vehicles and workplace safety. To figure out
what policies you need and how to create them, contact a risk
management consultant, an insurance agent or an insurance
broker.
Jacquelyn Lynn is a freelance business writer in Orlando,
Florida.