Court Records Or Court Records: One Click Away From Bankruptcy
identity theft prevention April 25th, 2008Risk taking is part and parcel of being in business today. As an illustration of this court records and find records show that 60 % of new startups fail within the first year of being in operation (that’s about one in every 4) and this number rises even more significantly after 5 years or operation from three in five.
But just as every business owner knows these figures , not many realize that there are other elements emanating from the business itself that can dramatically add to the overall risk factor.
A company operating a fleet of cars for example, or even heavy machinery has an added element of risk particularly since these cars and or heavy equipment are manually operated. This human factor adds to the element of risks and in doing so brings a whole new outlook to potential liabilities and real possibilities of legal litigation.
Market forces play a vital role in businesses, and so can human related forces be even more damaging! These human related risks expose businesses far and beyond the confines of its geographical address. Indeed any business sending employees to customer’s homes, or dealing with children or disabled people or involved in other such interactive activities between employees and customers places itself in a position of added risk, with regards to liability issues.
Indeed in such cases, all it takes is a single mistake, a bad decision, a poor judgment on the part of a company’s employee to cause problems such that they can have serious consequences and sometimes even deal a fatal blow to the survival of the business.
Put differently, the actions of a single careless employee can significantly alter the delicate balance between success and failure, and plunge the business in a situation which can at best be costly in terms of customer service and or litigation costs, or at worse be fatal to the business.
Whilst it is impossible for a business owner to anticipate such problems in order to take appropriate measures every steps of the way to prevent and protect against them, just imagine the additional hassles the business would face if it turned out that the “careless” employee was in fact a person who should have been checked more thoroughly in the first place had court records been duly investigated as a matter or pre screening before being hired!
What if this person had a recorded history of poor decision making or worse court records that indicated a less than perfect past! The tragedy in this instance would of course be increased by the fact that this could have been a totally avoidable situation which should never have been allowed to take place in the first instance.
There is always an element of unease when talking about the subject of court records. After all we live in a free world where the privacy of all of us is something sacred, and thus whenever the issue of background check is raised there is a sense of guilt or discomfort showcasing everyone desire to stay out of other people’s businesses.
But as the responsible owner of a business, in a world where companies are involved in costly lawsuits the question becomes not so much that obtaining court records on a prospective employee may on the surface seem to be inappropriate but rather that not doing so shows a definite recklessness on the part of the business owner!
By all means, individual liberties should indeed be protected at all costs but not at the expense of others who rely on the responsibility of their bosses to do everything they can to protect not only their personal safety but also their livelihood!
When the actions of one careless employee with a less than perfect history puts the livelihood of others at risk, then obtaining court records or cell phone number on all prospective employees is the only responsible thing a business owner should do to protect his business and the job security of the company’s other employees.