How Business Owners Can Protect Themselves From Injury Liability in the Work Place

In the state of California, particularly the Los Angeles County area, an experienced team of Los Angeles workplace injury lawyers can be kept busy dealing with personal injury claims that go over and above that of workers compensation. In these tough economic times where every cent counts, some businesses try to cut corners in order to stay afloat and in many cases this can have a direct impact on health and safety. This is clearly counterproductive as it will end up costing business owners serious amounts of money should an accident take place. So with this in mind, how can business owners make sure that their workers are protected? A Los Angeles injury lawyer explains.

Premises liability

Slip and fall or trip and fall accidents are very common, and are in fact the second largest cause of work related injuries after repetitive movement. Therefore in order to prevent an accident from happening it is imperative that managers know what's going on around them. One way to do this is through daily floor walks. Simply by walking around the premises, a manager or business owner can see whether there are any potential hazards that may be an accident waiting to happen. Also by documenting daily floor walks, you have records in place should an unfortunate incident occur.

Best working practices

It is always a very good idea to get employees on board when it comes to health and safety. Many accidents are not without fault from the injured party, so by getting everybody to be safety conscious, it will go a long way in preventing accidents. Also these are the people who work at ground level so they will be able to spot and safety and health infringements long before you do.

Regular equipment checks

A Los Angeles injury attorney will tell you that one of the main causes of work related injuries is down to faulty equipment or defective products. Regular checks of equipment that are in used throughout the workplace is vital. If ladders are used, then make sure that they are in good working order. The same goes for escalators, or any lifting equipment. Also make sure that any specialist equipment that operates safety features are also fully functioning. For example, guard rails on cutting equipment, or emergency cut out switches. Finally if you are dealing with hazardous materials, it is advisable that all safety gear such as aprons, gloves, goggles and breathing apparatus are also fully functioning.

Seek advice from the OSHA

In general, the occupational safety and health administration are there to make sure that businesses conform to high standards of health and safety. They are seen by many employers as law enforcers and in some cases a bit of an inconvenience. However they can also be utilised to help your business and are more than happy to offer guidelines. In fact on their website they offer a free consultation service plus a plethora of advice on how to protect small businesses from work related injuries. In a free consultation service, the OSHA consultant will walk through everything with you as it relates to 'your' business. This is not an inspection and is indeed confidential. No citations or penalties will be imposed and the only requirement is that as a responsible business owner you correct any serious health and safety issues that the OSHA inspector finds in a timely manner.

By having a good safety and health management system in place, it makes really great 'business sense' as well as 'financial' sense. The cost of the bottom line will be lowered through decreasing workers comp costs, reducing days lost through illness, reducing product loss and equipment damage and finally lowering or stamping out injury rates.

As you can see, there are ways that as a business owner you can drastically reduce workplace injury compensation claims. Simply by following some or all of the above steps you will find that you can make a difference. If in the meantime you need to seek any advice regarding injury claims, then a team of experienced workplace injury lawyers are on hand to help.