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Don't Get Stung in a Lawsuit
1 Oct, 2007 By: Daniel J. Gerber Pest Management ProfessionalPest management professionals (PMPs) play a key role in protecting customers, clients and patients of hospitals, assisted-living facilities, long-term care facilities, hotels and apartments from biting and stinging insects. The failure to prevent biting and stinging insects from contact with people using these facilities can impose liability on both these facilities and PMPs. While a large-scale commercial account might be a lucrative source of income, potential liability concerns should be addressed in several ways before undertaking such a project. What follows are some tips for protection:
1. Check your insurance coverage. Because you should have insurance that covers any operation you undertake, make sure that in your policy there is no exclusion for handling commercial, large-scale residential, or hotel-like accounts. If you need assistance in determining whether your insurance coverage includes these areas, contact your legal or insurance professional to obtain a clear opinion. Make sure you are insured for all aspects of your anticipated operation.
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2. Have a plan. Do not approach these large-scale commercial accounts as you would any other account. As a professional, you will be held to a standard of professional decision-making. This includes the exercise of judgment in light of the situation to which you are exposed. Examples of plan development and executing a sound plan include, but are not limited to:
- Selection of an appropriate product or strategy for pest management. You may have to make these chemical and strategy selection decisions in conjunction with key personnel to ensure as little irritation and business interruption as possible from hotel managers, who deal with a much larger population of potentially exposed guests than, of course, a single-family residential home. Also, medical interest may intervene in many settings, which will eliminate some treatment options.
- The development of a search and inspection protocol. Conducting an inspection of a 300-room hotel, hospital or long-term care facility can be like flying an airplane: an hour or two of boredom punctuated by one or two minutes of excitement. Creating a protocol for inspection will provide you and your employees a clear-cut methodology and rule to follow so you do not miss anything.
3. Develop a new training program to meet your new market challenges. New challenges require new training procedures. Hold frequent training sessions with key personnel handling these critical accounts so they become "specialized" in handling these structures. Work with industry colleagues and your suppliers to develop high-level programs that you can demonstrate to any challenger as representing an industry-leading training program.
4. Document everything. As always in business, you need to avoid a "he said, she said" dispute with your customer. First, it looks bad for any opponent to question your truthfulness — and for you to resort to questioning theirs. Second, you are sure to lose your customer.
Liability situations involving insect bites in commercial buildings are typically won if a PMP can demonstrate adequate, reliable, state-of-the-art inspection procedures that reveal that the pest management program is working to control the insect population.
The absence of infestations over a long period of time will usually provide both the PMP and the commercial customer a good chance of winning a lawsuit brought by a stung or bitten patron. A solid history of control can be used to demonstrate that whatever stung or bit the customer was likely a "hitchhiker" with the customer, or that such a recent addition to the premises that prevention of the sting or bite was an unreasonable and unattainable goal.
Good documentation also allows expert witnesses to testify about the adequacy of your training, control and prevention program. Often, if the establishment alone is sued, you may be called upon to serve as a fact witness or expert witness on your customer's behalf. Certainly, you do not want to be in the position of losing a lawsuit for a customer because your records were so poorly kept and your employees so inadequately trained that a jury finds your customer responsible based on your inadequacies.
Just as word of good results and attention to detail spreads throughout a commercial community, so can bad results and inattention to detail. Handling commercial accounts in a special manner will provide you your best chance for retaining and expanding this important area of business with as little risk as possible.
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