HANDLING PERSONAL LIABILITY

By Dr. Lawrence Wilson

Many people ask me how to reduce personal liability when working with other people. Here are some answers, to the best of my ability at this time. This article will be updated if we learn of changes to the laws, or the interpretation of the laws of America, in particular. Many other nations, however, have similar laws.

Before discussing details, it is important to discuss certain points:

1. You cannot completely eliminate legal liability if you have a personal service business, or any business today. If you think you can end all liability, you are wrong.

2. We do not desire to eliminate all liability. That would be irresponsible. If you work with people, you have some responsibility. If you do not want any liability, then do not work with people.

3. The goal of all the methods in this article is not to eliminate all liability, which is impossible. It is to reduce some liability, especially the possibility of frivolous lawsuits that are very common in the USA, in particular. They are less of a problem in most other nations.

4. Frivolous lawsuits are legal actions against you that are not justified by the facts or situation. However, attorneys file such lawsuits all the time if they think they can convince a jury or an insurance company to pay off. Frivolous lawsuits, by definition, are not about justice, but rather just a way to get some money from someone.

Of course, they may not see it as frivolous, especially if someone dies while under your care. It is usually not the patient who files the suit, but rather a friend or family member who may be living in a very distant location and has no knowledge or understanding of what you do, or what occurred. The person is simply angry, upset, or sad and “wants justice”.

5. In America, often criminal attorneys work “on contingency”. This means they do not charge much for filing lawsuits unless they collect money from the defendant - you. Then they take a percentage of the money for themselves. An attorney might file 100 frivolous lawsuits, hoping to win just one or two, and that will pay him or her for their trouble. This is sometimes called a “fishing expedition”, because it is not about justice as much as it is a financial strategy used by some attorneys.

6. Some attorneys justify the strategy as being necessary because they don’t know which situations are real. However, it clogs the courts with hundreds of lawsuits, many of which are not exactly real. If someone files one against you, you must respond which costs lots of money, time and energy. If this can be avoided, it is definitely best!

WHAT ARE THE LAWS THAT AFFECT A NUTRITIONAL PRACTICE?

The two types of laws are:

1. The basic criminal laws. These are laws against fraud, misrepresentation, and negligence. These are federal statutes or laws that affect any and all activities in society.

2. Medical practice acts. These are state laws that regulate the practice of medical care. Under these laws, anyone can be accused of practicing medicine without a license.

In addition, licensed doctors can be accused of doing something “outside their scope of practice” under these same laws. Medical practice acts in each state are occupational licensing laws.

WAYS I INSIST OUR PRACTITIONERS PROTECT ALL OF US

1. Always treat people very well! This is very important. This means don’t charge too much, and answer all phone calls, emails and letters promptly. Communicate with your clients. Keep your promises. Be available to people. Be concerned and really care about your clients.

Always tell the truth to the best of your ability, and operate your business and your life in a totally ethical manner. Know that higher ethical standards are demanded of natural healing practitioners than of conventional doctors and other practitioners. This is just the way things are at this time, so don’t resent it.

2. All clients must sign a disclaimer and disclosure form. This should state what you do, who you are and your training, and what you do not do and do not claim. The simpler the statement the better.

Remember, with nutritional balancing we do not diagnose, treat, prescribe or cure any diseases. We only reduce stress and support the body nutritionally. Then health conditions may go away. This is very important to put in your statement. Sample statements are in the book, Legal Guidelines For Unlicensed Practitioners.

3. All clients must join the Nutritional Balancing Academy. This is a private membership association. The Supreme Court of the United States has approved this method of reducing some liability. They have ruled several times that if you and your client are members of a private member association, you have more rights to offer healing and they have more rights to accept it than if your client is simply a member of the public.

This is why every single client must sign the Private Membership Form before you work with the person.

OTHER POSSIBLE WAYS TO EITHER REDUCE LIABILITY OR SIMPLY REDUCE THE POSSIBILITY OF LAWSUITS

1. Always respond to legal-sounding letters and phone calls or emails quickly and professionally. This means do not be defensive. I like to call the person and talk in a relaxed way about the problem. Call when you have some time to talk. Often, letting the person vent or express their complaints can diffuse the situation.

2. Get all assets out of your name. This is an excellent idea. You can give or sell them to your children, or put them in an irrevocable trust. Talk to an attorney about this. This way, if someone wants to attack you, they will look to see how much money and assets you have. If there is nothing, they will often not want to waste their time on you.

3. Put a lien on any large asset such as your home. This is a legal procedure that will discourage an attorney from going after you. It is a simple process and can help if you own a house or have other valuable assets. Basically, it tells anyone who wants to sue you that you have large debts and that others have a claim on your money before they do. Therefore, it is not in their interest to sue you. This technique is very good if you have a large asset such as a home and you don’t want to put it in someone else’s name.

4. Work as an employee of a corporation. This is not too helpful. If someone wants to attack you legally, they will usually sue the corporation and they will sue you personally. The corporation only helps if, for example, a car is owned by the corporation and an employee of yours has an accident with it. In this case, the liability for the accident may be limited to the corporation, and not be yours, as well.

5. Become a minister. I do not think this is helpful. Ministers can be sued if someone dies or is harmed.

6. Make people sign a form that you are not liable for any damage, disability or death. Several of our practitioners do this, and have been told by attorneys that it is a good idea. I think it is phony and that it would not hold up in a court of law.

7. Stay away from cancer. Cancer is the worst disease in terms of liability. I am not sure why this is the case, but it is. If you really want to limit liability, do not work with anyone with cancer. This is not our official policy, but I don’t encourage working with cancer patients. Cancer is not an easy condition to work with, and then there is the liability problem. However, many people ask for help with cancer, and it is very hard to turn them down, especially if they are family members or close friends.

If you do work with someone with cancer, please have them sign a paper that states that they understand that nutritional balancing is not a cancer therapy, and we are simply supporting the body nutritionally. As mentioned earlier, the problem is usually not the client. It is friends or family who become upset if your client dies or takes a turn for the worse.

8. Stay away from anyone who is threatening, or with whom you do not feel comfortable. If at any time that you are working with someone, you do not feel comfortable, it is fine to tell a client that he or she should fine another practitioner to work with. Hints that you should let go of a client are threatening words, or telling you that he or she has sued other health practitioners, for example.

9. Don’t charge a lot of money, and give back money to anyone who is very unhappy and wants it back. Returning money promptly if someone is very unhappy is an excellent idea. It is not worth fighting over a few hundred dollars, or even $1000.00. Anyone who has been sued knows this.

Sometimes, a client is very upset, whether justified or not. Fortunately, this is rare with nutritional balancing, but it can occur with any program at all. In these case, if the person wants their money back, I would not argue. This has saved a number of our consultants from legal action.

10. Buy malpractice insurance. I do not think this is necessary, but some people like it. It does not reduce your liability. It just pays off if you are sued and lose the case. It only costs a few hundred dollars a year as an “allied health professional”.

A problem with it is that if someone wants to sue you, they will find out you have personal liability insurance, and they may attack you for this reason alone. Many insurance companies do not want a court case, so they will settle the case out of court, paying the attorney.

For other more good ideas and more discussion of liability issues, please see my book, Legal Guidelines For Unlicensed Practitioners.

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