Avoiding Claims of Negligent Hiring or Retention

Many states have allowed claims for negligent hiring and negligent retention. Although these lawsuits have not yet appeared in every state, the clear legal trend is to allow injured third parties to sue employers for hiring or keeping on a dangerous worker. What can you do to stay out of trouble? Here are a few tips:

• Perform background checks. Make it your policy to run a routine background check before you hire an applicant. Verify information on resumes, look for criminal convictions (to the extent allowed in your state), and check driving records. These simple steps will weed out many dangerous workers and help you show that you were not careless in your hiring practices.

• Use special care in hiring workers who will have a lot of public contact. You are more likely to be held responsible for a worker's actions if the job involves working with the public. These workers all require more careful screening:
  • workers who go to a customer's home (to make deliveries, perform home repairs, or manage apartment buildings, for example)
  • workers who deal with vulnerable people such as children, the elderly, or the disabled
  • workers whose jobs give them access to weapons.
• Root out problem employees immediately. Under the theory of negligent retention, you can be responsible for keeping a worker on your payroll after you learn (or should have been aware) that the worker poses a potential danger. If an employee has made violent threats against customers, brings an unauthorized weapon to work, or racks up a few moving violations, you have to take immediate action.
  For more information on handling potentially dangerous workers, see Dealing With Problem Employees: A Legal Guide, by attorneys Amy DelPo and Lisa Guerin (Nolo) and The Essential Guide to Workplace Investigations, by attorney Lisa Guerin (Nolo).