Hire or retain an employee whom you know or should have known had a criminal record or a tendency to injure another and you are risking all you have ever worked for. Tallahassee Furniture employed a man in the yard and let him drive the truck. Then they sent him out to delivery furniture, which required that he enter the homes of the customers. He delivered a sofa to a customer who gave him a TV. Later that night, after work, he returned under the pretense to get a receipt for the TV to prove he didn't steal it. She let him in, for he had been a representative of the trusted store. He attacked and raped her. Judgment against Tallahassee Furniture for $2.7 million. He had a record of violence.
Juries have zero tolerance for employers who are careless in hiring, allowing high risk people to enter the homes of customers, resulting in injury. Juries give compensatory damages (award those damages that are provable such as lost income, medical bills, even pain and suffering, etc.). On top of that, if the offense is particularly heinous, they award punitive damages to punish the defendant and set an example. Most states have punitive damages, and aggressive lawyers inflame juries to award monstrous verdicts. Witness the multi-million punitive damage award in the infamous McDonald's spilled coffee case. The largest punitive damage award in negligent hiring I have seen was for $40 million.
How can you avoid the possibility of this happening to you? We can guide you through this minefield.
L D Sledge, JD
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