When it comes to lawsuits against businesses, these are things that aren’t necessarily rare; however, there are some that tend to occur more frequently than others. Additionally, most of them can oftentimes be covered by insurance.
Here are four of the most common types of business lawsuits.
*First and foremost, perhaps one of the most common types of business lawsuits involves discrimination suits that are not based on employment. Whenever a business is sued for discrimination, a plaintiff isn’t necessarily always an employee. This means that a suit could be filed by suppliers, customers, vendors, patients, and others who could have some kind of connection to the business itself. For instance, a customer could end up suing a restaurant for discrimination based on their national origin by alleging that the staff made derogatory remarks regarding their native country before then refusing to serve her. There are some EPL policies that cover these types of claims.
*Another common type of business lawsuit involves breach of contract. A business owner can end up breaching a contract whenever they fail to comply with the terms of the contract itself. For instance, an electrical contractor may decide to sign a contract with a general contractor in which they agree to install lighting in a building that is being constructed, but then they end up not doing any work on the project, which results in them being sued for breach of contract.
*One other common type of business lawsuit involves wage law violations. Oftentimes, many lawsuits that are filed against employers are based on allegations that a federal, state, or local wage law was violated by the employer. According to the Federal Labor Standards Act, workers are to be paid the federal minimum wage. This act also governs record keeping, child labor, and overtime pay. Typically, in terms of nonexpempt employees, they are eligible for overtime pay, while exempt workers are not.
*Another of the common types of business lawsuits involves wrongful termination and employment discrimination. Many business lawsuits are often based on allegations involving harassment, discrimination, wrongful termination, or retaliation. Most workers are protected from these types of acts by federal anti-discrimination laws, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Pregnancy Discrimination Act, Equal Pay Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and Title I of Americans with Disabilities Act. Furthermore, many states have also implemented their own anti-discrimination laws as well in order to further protect employees.