This is an intensive one-day seminar that is designed to give businesses the tools that they need to avoid the lawsuits that can be avoided, and to win the ones that cannot.  During the course of the day, we cover several topics that are also covered in other, shorter presentations described elsewhere on this site.

If you are in business, sooner or later you will be sued--by an employee, competitor, customer, or by someone with whom you do business.  Such litigation can destroy a company both by costing ruinous amounts to defend or settle, and by monopolizing the time and attention of management.  Many, if not most, of these suits could be avoided if businesses took the time to learn and apply proven and practical methods of prevention.

This seminar is aimed at business owners and managers, corporate counsel, human resources administrators, and other business professionals.

We cover the following topics:

I. General Strategies for Avoiding Litigation
    A. How to avoid motivating the potential litigant
    B. How to discourage a plaintiff's lawyer
    C. How to preserve and document your defenses

II. Nightmlare Scenarios--Lessons from Actual Cases
    A. The employee from hell
    B. The customer with no brain
    C. A true tax audit nightmlare

III. How Not to Get Sued by an Employee
    A. The four most common way to get sued
    B. The one page document that you should not be without
    C. How to keep your employee manual from biting you
    D. How to hire and how to fire
    E. How to get a release that will stand up in court

IV. Claims for Wrongful Termination and How to Avoid them
    A. How to conduct an internal investigation that won't backfire
    B. How to nail down the "at will" relationship
    C. Establishing termination for good cause

V. Claims for Harassment and Discrimination
    A. How to prevent harassment and discrimination
    B. Protecting your company from the acts of employees
         beyond your control.

VI. Claims for Unpaid Leave and Overtime
    A. Who can and cannot be treated as an exempt employee
    B. Who can and cannot be treated as an independent contractor
    C. How to prevent surprise claims for years of allegedly
         unpaid compensation

VII. Competitive Torts
    A. What you can and cannot say about a competitor
    B. Legal competition vs. unlawful interference
    C. Antitrust issues

VIII. Avoiding Liability for Independent Contractors
    A. Protecting against the improper use of independent contractors
    B. How to keep from being held responsible for the negligence
         of your independent contractors

IX. How to Reduce the High Cost of Unavoidable Litigation
    A. The use of customized arbitration clauses
    B. Insurance policies--how to make the most of them
    C. The three most common litigation boondoggles and
         how to avoid them
    D. How to help your lawyer to reduce your legal fees
    E. Getting expedited resolution of disputes where it
         is appropriate

Selections from the Text for the Seminar

For more information, e-mail me at vdicarlo@dicarlolaw.com