The ways to avoid the lawsuits for such small organizations as mentioned employer include the following:
- The choice of the correct legal form for the small business (it should be noted that in general a conclusion could be made that the corporation business structure is better protected from lawsuits than sole proprietorship ”“ especially it suggests a better protection for the business owners themselves and their private funds);
- On the other hand, a corporation-type structure usually shields an owner’s personal assets from lawsuits.);
- Strong control over finances;
- The constant development of the company’s employment policies (that is very actual in the discussed case of Reliable Contracting Company). A set of special employment agreements could be developed that would help both company and its workers to feel themselves much better protected. As an option, some specialists offer to the obligatory conclusion of the non-solicitation agreements that would definitely safe company’s time and money. Another smart way that is used by the majority of successful small business is to address the potential employment disputes in their beginning or even before it. Firstly the company should ensure that its hiring policy is fair, that the situation with agreements is fine and of course the capability to works with complains of the employees is crucial (as it can be seen this method wasn’t applied by the Reliable Contracting Company in discussed termination lawsuit case). A very good option for any employer that is the development and maintenance of the effective HR practices that are stated in a written form (for instance in a form of the employee handbook) that have to be introduced to any new employee on their arrival to this company;
- The lawyers that represent the company in the court should be reliable experts in their field of practice and have a perfect legal knowledge base;
- Another interesting option to avoid the lawsuit is to ask the appropriate business associations and local chambers of commerce for their help and consultations. (Mccrea, 2002)
Another aspect that has to be mentioned in this paper is the ethical considerations that are reflected in the laws and jury’s considerations. I should note that these considerations are absolutely clear: the employee of the Reliable Contracting Company has firstly suffered from the injury that was obtained at work and then was inappropriately terminated with a insufficient cause of termination (the company even denied the fact of the termination saying that the worker wasn’t laid off, not at all, he decided to quite voluntarily by refusing to go to a new work place). Therefore the court had a clear ethical consideration which was the protection of the employment rights of the employee in accordance with the legislation of Maryland and the national legislation regarding employment as well. It addition it could pointed out that the regulations presented by Fair Labor Standards Act – Section 14(c) ”˜Workers with Disabilities for the Work Being Performed’ may be applied in the discussed case. Besides, taking into account the fact of the employee’s injury that happened at work, another legislative act may be applied too – Occupational Safety and Health Act that helps to establish control over Safety and Health Standards.