Potential Legal Claims and Risk Management

Potential Legal Claims

Potential legal claims can be categorised as follows:

Claims under contract

You should clearly define the scope of services and responsibility within the contract you hold with your client. This ensures that your client is clear about what they are buying and you are clear about what you have to deliver. The more specific this agreement can be, the better. Contracts should also include a full legal review process where appropriate.

Professional Negligence

As a consultant or contractor to another business you can also be sued under the common "law in tort". This is based on legal precedent, rather than statute, which means that the standard of skill and care expected of a particular profession or industry has not yet been precisely defined by the courts and so is open to contention. To protect yourself, you should  always operate under the assumption that you owe a higher level of duty than the person on the street. You possess special knowledge and experience in your particular field of expertise and should act accordingly.

Defamation

This can occur at any level and may even include, for example, case studies used during an internal training session. Organisations should be careful of using or producing any material about other companies that may cause offence and that risks going beyond the intended internal audience.

Intellectual Property (IP)

This can mean, for instance, considering how much of an employee's knowledge and methods are really the property of their previous employer. In the creative industries, e.g. media and design, this area of the law has mushroomed and shows no signs of abating. Intellectual Property claims can become a problem particularly when a company starts to become successful. At this point claimants can appear from the shadows. Even if it is without merit, defending such a claim can be very expensive.  

Loss of Documents or Breach of Confidentiality

When working with a company's  senior management, you may often be exposed to their very closest working secrets. Loose tongues at a restaurant, or indeed a laptop left accidentally on a train, could have very serious consequences.

All of these risks can be effectively managed and there are some practical ways to address them. From experience, a company need not necessarily have done something wrong to receive a solicitor's letter demanding compensation. A change of management, company financial difficulties or boardroom politics can result in clients not wanting to pay after the advice or a service has been delivered.