Horror Stories from the Court of Negligent Hiring
Today's litigious society has created an environment that requires management to be armed with numerous tools. Many employers currently spend little time verifying the accuracy of employment applications; and, although they would like to adequately screen applicants, the cost to do so has, in the past, been financially prohibitive.
LAWSUITS
A car rental company recently paid $750,000 to an employee who was raped by a fellow employer
A guard service was found guilty for inadequately checking a guard's references when the help steal from their client. The charge - negligent hiring as they failed to investigate and employee had a criminal record. The damages paid were over $300,000.
An employee who had previously been convicted of passing bad checks forged signatures contracts. The court judged his employer negligent and awarded $175,000.
After driving for a telephone company for only a week, an employee was involved in a traffic accident. The jury learned that the company never saw the employee's driver's record which had five tickets within 18 months. They awarded the injured party $550,000.
An Appellate Court awarded $4 million to a woman who was raped by an employee. His employment application indicated no criminal convictions and the employer did not perform a complete check.
A hospital was found negligent in hiring a kidney transplant coordinator who was unskilled in medical charts. As a result, a patient was given a transplant of a cancerous kidney which caused his death.