Changing climate of liability suits could put the spotlight on security

Sep 1, 2001 12:00 PM, Larry Anderson www.securitysolutions.com

In the past, liability lawsuits against corporations have often been settled quietly out of court. The corporation pays the plaintiff some amount of money, and the suit just “goes away,” hopefully without a lot of bothersome media fanfare that can give other potential plaintiffs the idea that lawsuits are a great get-rich-quick scheme.

Typically, decisions to settle are based on economics more than principle. If it is less expensive to settle quietly than to stave off the lawsuit in a court of law, corporations have opted to pay up.

Taking a harder-line approach to liability lawsuits, the retail innovator Wal-Mart is now helping to redefine the economics of how liability suits are handled. According to a report in USA Today, Wal-Mart is fighting harder against liability lawsuits, which in the case of the nation's largest retailer can range from complaints that the local Wal-Mart sold a gun that was later used to commit murder, to abductions in the parking lot, to a claim by a customer that she was trampled in her attempt to buy a Furby.

Refusing to just roll over under the weight of thousands of lawsuits — USA Today estimates one is filed against the retailer every two hours — Wal-Mart is providing a preview of what might become a growing trend among businesses. In a country full of litigious low-lifes and licentious litigators, the money being paid out is bound to increase in the future. What better time to push aside the prevailing cut-your-losses calculus and begin to deal with these cases on their — dare we say it — merit? Wal-Mart has certainly proven itself to be a trend-setter in many other areas, and this could be another one.

All of which brings up the question of how a changing climate of liability lawsuits might affect the security director's job. The short answer is that it will make it more critical than ever that a company's security operation be buttoned-up.

No stranger to involvement in liability lawsuits, how many security directors have bitten their tongues as their companies decided to pay off lawsuits that the corporate lawyers deemed as not worth fighting? How many security directors have yearned for their day in court and the opportunity to debunk some spurious liability claim in the interest of righteousness and the American way? How many of us have shaken our heads grimly at how much everything changes when the lawyers and accountants get involved? About how many questions of principles are lost among dollar signs and non-disclosure agreements?

If a feistier attitude toward liability lawsuits becomes commonplace, it will shift the turf on which these lawsuits are fought. Rather than cutting their losses, more companies will be looking to resolve these conflicts based on the facts of what really happened. It will make a company's security department that much more important — and in the spotlight.

Perhaps it's time that our readers updated their deposition wardrobes.

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