Lawsuits can be costly – both financially and to your company’s reputation. In some cases, they can be enough to shut down a business that is unprepared. To prevent your company being crippled by a lawsuit, here are just five ways in your which you can defend yourself.

Hire an attorney

The simplest way to defend yourself from a lawsuit is to hire an attorney. An attorney may be able to advise on you the best direction to take when faced with a lawsuit. Attorneys can also be useful for helping you to introduce preventative measures, which could stop lawsuits from occurring in the first place. Make sure to do your research when looking for an attorney so that you find someone who is reliable and knowledgeable of your business niche.

Get contracts professionally written

Legally tight contracts can also be important when defending yourself against lawsuits. If a contract is poorly written, it is possible that information may be able to be misconstrued and used against you. However, a legally tight contract will be written in a way in which this is not possible. You should hire a professional legal writer to write your contracts and ensure that they are legally tight.

Insure yourself

Certain types of insurance may be able to provide compensation against a lawsuit. Medical indemnity insurance for example can protect doctors against lawsuits that may have been made on account of false diagnoses, misprescribed drugs or surgical errors. It’s worth shopping around for a medical indemnity insurance quote online. Insurance brokers may be able to help you find the best deal.

Tighten up security/health & safety

A lot of lawsuits are responses to accidents that could have been avoided by implementing good security or health and safety measures. Consider tightening up your security and health & safety. This could include taking extra precautions to protect client data and putting up extra signage to warn customers and employees of dangers. You may be able to hire a security advisor and a health and safety advisor to run an audit of your company and pinpoint any weaknesses that may need to be fixed.

Train your employees thoroughly

Investing in thorough training could minimise mistakes – many of which could be causes of lawsuits. Training your employees to deliver a professional service could prevent clients from filing lawsuits. Meanwhile, you should also include health and safety training that may protect you from employee lawsuits – training such as telling employees how to lift a box or use a ladder may seem simple, but it could aid your defence if an employee gets injured doing one of these tasks, providing that you can offer proof you’ve trained them in these tasks (usually by getting employees to sign a contract).