Torts

Recognizing and Minimizing Tort and Regulatory Risk

In this essay I will explain how regulatory risks may be identified and managed through preventive, detective, and corrective measures for such torts as negligence, product liability and defamation. For most businesses such torts are better handled before they happen. Companies make sure many issues are addressed in the company policy and regulations manuals when new employees are hired as well as in training sessions for topics such as sexual harassment and safety.

For a Company such as Firestone Tires and Rubber for example, one type of negligence could be Negligent Hiring. If an employee in a supervisory position verbally abuses another or in an extreme case, assaults another employee with a tire iron used in the performance of his duties, the victim could claim negligent hiring on the part of the company where they both were employed. This could be the case if the aggressive supervisor has had a history of this type of behavior at a previous place of employment. This begs us to ask the question: Has the company made enough effort to fulfill its obligation of providing a safe working environment for its employees? As it was touched on before there are measures that can be taken before something like this happens. For one, the hiring manager could have followed up on references to possibly find out if the candidate for employment has had a history of violence in the workplace, or perhaps public criminal records could have been investigated to check whether any evidence of crimes exist on the potential candidate for employment involving violence. Another two forms of negligence that could arise from such an incident are Negligent Supervision and Negligent Entrustment.

Negligent Supervision penalizes the company and/or supervisor for not taking the appropriate measures in such a situation. Negligent Supervision can occur if the actions of said aggressive...