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AOA News, Views, Tips and More

Rationale: The at-will doctrine protects employment job decisions made based upon genuine business considerations. However, the law prohibits employment job decisions made based upon an employee or applicant's membership in a legally-protected group such as race, gender, age or disability. 

Virtually all employment-practices claims have a plaintiff who is a member of a legally-protected group. So the core issue is almost always the same: was the employer's decision made based upon the plaintiff's membership status, or based upon a genuine business need.

The best defense against such claims is documentation. Specifically, the employer wants to have a written job description, and to show from that job description that the employee or applicant did not meet the practical requirements of the job. If proven, the plaintiff's membership in the protected class is irrelevant.

Contact Brit 952/820-8403 or bweimer@jonessatre.com  

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E&O Loss Prevention Tip  

Description of Claim:

Classification of employees - Employee vs. Independent Contractors

Allegations against the Agent:  The agent wrote a business owners policy (BOP) on the claimant's beauty supply store location approximately 20 years ago.  The agent also handled all of the claimant's personal lines policies such as auto and homeowners coverage.  Five years after the first location opened, the claimant opened a second location.  This location was added to the current BOP.  In late 2009, the claimant lost their lease at the first location and moved all of their stock to the second location.  The agent knew of this move but he never asked if the claimant needed to increase their policy limits.  The increase in business personal property amounted to $77,000.

The underlying loss:  A fire occurred to the building, which contained the claimant's business in April 2005.

Damages:  The claimant's business was a total loss and the damages suffered were $550,000. After all of years of being their insurance agent, the claimant relied on him to be their advisor on what was adequate coverage for all of the policies.    

Risk Management Tip:  Create a check list or a procedure when a client makes a change to a policy.  This will ensure that the right questions are asked to the insured.

Brought to you by:

CalSurance Associates - A Division of Brown & Brown Program Insurance Services, Inc.   info@calsurance.com  or (800) 745-7189