Tort risks and subsequent violations are issues that most business owners try to avoid. Regardless, they do still occur. Many businesses have policies and procedures in place to lessen the likelihood for potential risks. In the following summary, potentials tort risks along with an actual violation from the Quick Takes Product Liability video will be presented. In addition, the risk management process used to lessen the business risk will also be discussed.
There were a few potential tort risks in the Quick Takes Product Liability video. One of the main risks was worker injury. Janet, one of the employees of Non-Liner Pro, cut herself on a sharp corner on the equipment that they had gotten recently from Quick Takes Video. This led to a trip to the doctor due to an infection that developed. It had serious potential to develop into something serious. Another potential tort risk was involving the contract itself. There was clearly a miscommunication about what Janet was signing when the software was delivered to Non Linear Pro. Since she was unaware of what she was signing, one could argue that not all of the elements of an enforceable contract were in place and therefore, the contract should be void. “To have an enforceable contract, there must be an agreement between the parties. There must be mutual assent by the parties.” (Cheeseman, 2010) Another potential tort risk was the product liability. It seemed that the editing software had problems from the beginning. The information from the salesman on the product was clearly distorted and the software needed to be converted to a digital format just to be used. This led to the Non-Linear Pro staff focusing too many hours trying to remedy things when they actually should have been focusing on their specific jobs which could most likely cause a loss of production and more importantly, profit.
While there were several potential tort risks in this video, the actual tort violation committed was intentional...