How to Structure & Operate your Business to Avoid Being Sued

Principal Attorney of the Campbell Law Group, Regina Campbell, discusses How to Structure & Operate your Business to Avoid Being Sued with Guest Speaker Thomas Scolaro, Esq.

Tom Scolaro is a partner at the Miami-based personal injury law firm of Leesfield Scolaro, P.A. He is an accomplished trial lawyer having tried numerous cases resulting in multi-million dollar jury verdicts, including the largest personal injury verdict in Monroe County, FL, $40.5 million, for the assault victim in a hotel parking garage and a $15.4 million verdict for a motor vehicle collision in Broward County, FL. His years of experience in successfully representing injured clients throughout Florida and nationwide would be insightful knowledge for our audience.

The Campbell Law Group P.A. while representing clients whether in civil, corporate, commercial, employment, or family law matters, our company’s primary goal is first to help clients minimize the need for unnecessary litigation and conflict where possible.

Contact us by calling our office at (305) 460-0145 or emailing us at service@thecampbelllawgroup.com.

Transcript

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hmm

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hi everybody welcome back to the legal zone I hope everyone's enjoyed our podcast so far we have the pleasure

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today to have a new guest and we're going to be talking about today on season 2 episode 6 of the legal

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zone how to structure and operate your business to avoid being sued and

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we have just to kind of recap a little bit what happened last time we had Mr. Marvel Garcia on or she gave me some

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tips about the real estate market particularly luxury home buying how it's different sort of animal and some tips on how to

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do so in Miami in this difficult market and today we have it's part of our topic one of the gurus

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um that's going to help us it usually just sits on the other side of my house

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my clients and friendly today yeah totally friendly today so but I thought it was very very important

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this is Mr. Tom Thomas for tom scholar and he's from these uh these fields

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right that's what i thought okay and he is pretty amazing he has an

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amazing background he's a personal uh he's a Miami-based attorney personal injury attorney and his accomplished

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attorney proud lawyer that has tried numerous cases of multi-million dollar cases against businesses

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um and a lot of his verdicts i guess the largest verdict you had was 40.5 million today yes he's always the next guy oh

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goodness I hope it's not one of my clients but he's going to help us out to avoid that

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um and he's representing different uh individuals and plaintiffs in assault cases relating to securities

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like negligent security cases uh some of them open on practice issues

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and general overall negligence but on a larger scale yes okay and i guess and a lot of them he's going to talk to us

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today about how to help business owners avoid these type of lawsuits yeah you'd be surprised about the ways that people

2:10

can get themselves in hopefully i can you know shed some light yes wonderful so I think that's really

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helpful because he's experienced he's a season trial lawyer he's had to go into court and he wouldn't see

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verdicts based on what businesses may or may or may not have done whether it's intention or not I assume some of them there are

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businesses that actually will engage in intentional sort of behavior they are cost cutting but

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they're doing you know they're doing certain behavior to cost cut but they know it versus just being negligent yeah they're

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already a group I would say the larger the entity gets the more recalcitrant they

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get the more they're willing to beam count as opposed to fixing the problem they'll just deal with litigation costs

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and expenses so it's actually part of their calculus oh yeah okay so it's not sort of like they're just so big that they just don't

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realize all the moving parts sometimes do they know most of these businesses that we take on some they have quality control

3:07

departments they understand when there's you know consumer complaints or prior uh similar incidents and

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there is usually a mechanism for them to fix it but rather than fix it they just deal with the service injury

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and as opposed to trying to shut down the line recast the machines

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you know order new plans to really fix it and get the problem right so that makes sense because that costs a

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lot of money that's not just the proverbial there was water not in a you know down an aisle and they didn't

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notice at the time of someone slipped on it okay so that means it's a lot more involved in it so they're making a

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calculation it sounds like a lot of times okay you know fixing it versus one person's suing and correct

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you always want you always hope that what we do or at least what I do will result in some sort of change that

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the business will learn its lesson and protect itself and the smart ones do okay you know no one wants to see me a

4:03

second time yeah you know once I’ve heard from people once is enough you know they think they've

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gotten the message okay some don't it sounds like you've done something right then i didn't want to

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see you again um you like you said you got the message across and hopefully they're

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taking that into their business models into part of their objective i mean we like to think sometimes businesses have

4:25

social responsibility or sense of it do you find that i think so i think with the more you

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know businesses are also thinking about their reflection of their owners and their reflection of their ownership so

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if the owner has good community values and the if the owner is a civic minded

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person then in large part you know they tend to run their business a certain way

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but there aren't bad actors you know we're not all perfect people and you're going to run into bad actors and these

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bad actors have businesses just like anybody else and there you see it their personality

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their style bleeds over into how they run the business how they view

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the public their customers their partners and relationships and you know if they're a toxic type of

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person you know it just it just draws it just feels you know yeah

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I assume they also create a corporate environment very similar oh yeah it's totally a reflection of the

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ownership and management I mean that's just the way it is and you hope you know the way I run my

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business is that everybody shares in the values that we're trying to create and in the

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mission of the business but if you are a person that's just only focused on the

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bottom line and nothing else that's ancillary to that well that has consequences maybe not

5:48

today or tomorrow but it will it's got a slightness to it no yes yeah sure and then of course a lot of

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time to see some of these larger companies have to deal with public relations nightmares where it becomes large enough right when the issue is

6:00

correct really gets out there correct and there's you know there's a there's a number of instances where that

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happened now again i will say there are some businesses out there that when they when they have a problem they recognize

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it they're on top of it you know they do their own whether they have their own internal

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legal departments or whatever they're on top of it they handle it but there's others that just

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let it get completely reported and you know there's nothing you can do right and help nail the yeah

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yeah so then let's talk about that what can business owners do the ones that want to make a difference make a

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change like what is the I get maybe what's the number one tip you can get to a business owner to help them avoid these types of lawsuits with

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negligence and issues that come about sure well the first thing I would say um and it's sort of like there's two parses

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sort of they're interrelated the very first thing I would say is you know you need to have very good

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competent legal advice behind you know and just so many folks when they're setting up their business they worry

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about you know how to

7:15

Succeed in business, but what does a lawyer do? His job is protection and how to deal with problems and if you have a lawyer's input and advice from the beginning

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the lawyer is going to see things that you don't see this is your force first or second forward into this business but

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the lawyer specializes in this they've seen the script they've seen people like me

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they've seen you know business lawsuits and litigations and how things can blow up yeah and they've got the wealth

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of experience and so but a lot of times when people start a business, they don't want to spend the money on

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that line item right so but that's you know that's being penny wise and kind of foolish correct um

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you know I’m big on sayings and you know one of the things i had is you know by wants cry once you know spend a

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little bit at the beginning for some sound confident representation in terms of how you're structuring your

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business you know the forms that your business uses the internal policies and procedures that you use

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you know how you deal with vendors your landlord you know your customers

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anything that you're engaging with the public especially and how to protect you because

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what does somebody who's selling pancakes know about that or somebody who's supposed to start a bakery or

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somebody who's you know wants a retail store I mean they don't know the potential ways that

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they can get into trouble they know how to bake bread yes they do very well they know

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but we live in a world of sharks you know and

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it's just the way it is and if you are not protecting yourself from the beginning yes, it is a painful

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lesson to learn down the road and the reason why I say it's interrelated is because you know

8:59

the business owner is focused on making his business succeed right yes

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that is their singular focus so but who is watching his flank you know who's watching his backside

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who's got his six as the legend he's not thinking, or he or she is not thinking about that but

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hopefully they've engaged with a lawyer to begin with to

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look at and anticipate those issues because if you deal with them on the front end

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it's so much easier we should eliminate most problems in life yes well I think I see I see business owners

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from start to finish up speaking some of them are just starting out you know Regina need help I’m going to do this right make sure I’m registering there's

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so much to this from business registrations to what you know if you have working workers compensation

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to HR even if you're small you still need some forms of HR policies and procedures in place what about your

9:52

contract you're dealing with your vendors, and they always say the other thing you always want to also have a good account so that even if they don't have a lot to

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talk about now you establish relationships and go hey listen I’m going to do this

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is this okay or how am i supposed to categorize this or is there a way to make this more tax efficient

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um and a lot of them to say answer that question they may say well what does your lawyer say about doing it

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this way so sometimes it's a dance it is it is and i always try to tell you as you grow

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the same way a lot of business owners don't understand cash flow problems you have to anticipate that you have to wear

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so many houses above somewhere yeah especially what you know what i do too you know i mean

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my world is I don't bake bread I’m a litigator right but behind all that

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there's a business there's the business of you know we have the employees I’ve got HR issues

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I’ve got customers my clients I’ve got to deal with vendors I’ve got to deal with insurance we've got

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all of that and you know cash flow you know especially in my world you know i don't work on an hourly basis

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so I don't have you know contingency I don't have a influx every month of you know residuals

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so I have to anticipate some months are going to be lean some months are going to be yeah I’m going to be these hits

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because we're straight continuously I don't control when the other side cries off yeah you

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know I can just help them see the light make sure you get there but when a case gets set I mean we know

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trial can be so it can be delayed some hearings can take months to have you know judges

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you know clients I’m sure also get weird the other side gets weird for a lack of

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legal terms you know businesses and mine was not immune to it either you know everybody

11:39

had some everybody had to deal with some level of adjustment when coveted right

11:47

because everybody's cash flow if they were most businesses were affected in some

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regard in our business we were affected because we couldn't get trial dates right you know and you know

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everybody in the hospitality business was effective as people weren't coming down Florida and people weren't allowed

12:03

to have to eat people at the bars and so how do they anticipate those problems and traveling they couldn't even come

12:08

here if they wanted to but getting with an accountant um and a

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business lawyer from the beginning to establish those relationships are critical

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I try and practice whatever what I preach not always most of the time and

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you know we've got we've had the same accountant for forever the same business lawyer forever

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you know I try and have the same office staff forever and the woman that answers my phones at the

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office is the same woman who was there when I was hired in you know back in the 90s

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that that speaks a little of your environment then because it's hard to keep people in there that's actually you're doing something very

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hard you know it that takes you to the you know the other part of operating business and making sure you get sued is

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business is treat your people well oh yeah oh my lord the the problems you could

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avoid if you just treat people well you know that'll say number kids right treat

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somebody like you want to try it if you do that you're not going to get sued no

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you're not and people are going to be happy and my office like you know Regina so and so you know like sometimes I have

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to put these policies these important policies together they're like there's only one guy everyone else knows the rules or

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whatever I’m like yes but because you this could happen this can happen we're going to put it together but don't penalize everybody else

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by making things stricter because of one guy now you know but they said Regina this

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happened she thought I was going to pay her for this time off and I didn't think it was and I said you know what I’ll be

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honest she's going to play I should always been there for you okay then

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air in the side cut then pay her you treat her well okay treat people well and do exit interviews

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so that you know what happened so you can learn also if you have a bad manager or someone doing certain things that are incorrect or possibly very

13:59

um on their own outside of a company policies or procedures you're able to identify that potential risk that's

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going to come down the road if someone is just firing somebody willingly not giving them warnings not doing the way

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you've taught that manager to act or not in accordance with the company environment different problems yeah and

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potentially and it's a lot harder to get new voice it's more expensive it's an unknown it's

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better to just have a whole conversation just about that in this world I mean every industry I think across the board

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has been affected by that yes you know I talked to my friends in finance in the restaurant business or insurance

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everybody's got the same issues the legal feel I don't know what it is we can't draw oh it's been crazy

14:41

absolutely crazy

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if anybody knows a good legal assistant you know let me know because we are hiring yes

14:53

anybody knows you know what I mean I just told him eyes off mine yeah no I

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don't listen I don't coach I know people that do and I don't like it yes so no I don't watch yes yeah no it's just funny

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because it is actually really hard and I have found myself restricting some of the things that I do particularly in the

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difficulty of finding more employees or more attorneys I’d rather keep the quality than try to continue to expand

15:18

in some ways and I just can't maintain a certain level of quality correct your growth is sort of dictated in large part by the quality of

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the people that you have out front can they self-sustain can they start managing more tests and taking more

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responsibility do I have the ability to sort of let them go and can I start

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attracting new business and sort of leading them on their own you know with obviously supervision and that's a

15:42

that's a balance but if you have quality people you can you can make that strategy you treat

15:48

them writing and they also want to see their growth they like to be treated reminded that they're

15:54

uh that includes you know bonuses where you can increase in pay um sometimes my you know my staff

16:01

doesn't even realize I get like they just just give a bonus you know 100 shows here and there we pay for you know

16:06

whatever you can do I listen carefully to their lives as well they're all pretty good about we all

16:12

have reports we're humans it's not as if we don't have things going on in our lives so it's a distinction between an

16:19

employee that always brings other personal problems to work versus just someone going through something that might need a little bit more flexibility

16:24

at the time but they want to use so you give it to them exactly

16:30

like my clients see that as well they're happy think about it you know

16:35

you know we can't deal with our clients all the time so sometimes they have to deal with our legal assistance and paralegals and I have 100 confidence in

16:43

everybody in my office dealing with even the most you know difficult clients because they're good people you know I

16:51

like them you know I’m a tough guy to get the standard approval and I like you

16:57

my clients are going to like you and it just it makes life you know so much easier yes yeah that you give them that level of trust

17:04

because people want to feel valuable yeah and if you give them the you know the

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runway to have responsibility and to be valued and to treat them right you're going to

17:16

eliminate that worry about somebody coming back and suing you at the end of the day for some stupid little

17:23

HR violation or some technicality or some not paid time off or I didn't get my

17:30

attendance like

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something that is clear or something that is you know own up to it and communicating the communication this is

17:50

another huge thing because again I mean you know the business is a reflection of us and if you're if you're

17:57

somebody who is tight-lipped you know doesn't like to talk a lot that's going to reflect in problems down

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the road you have to it's almost like when you when you have a business you have to flip a switch yes you have to become

18:12

a business leader that has all of these different traits because if you don't you'll have problems and if it's not

18:18

natural to you well then you can either right you up or you have to get someone that's going to help compliment you exactly a partner or

18:24

a manager or somebody because it still is you know everybody's got their strengths

18:30

and weaknesses right I mean far from perfect but it's balanced by my partner

18:38

he makes up where I fall short and hopefully I make up where he falls short and that's just

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the way a good business runs but we I’ve been with my partner for

18:50

23 years so we have a good relationship and that's again another key to avoid being

18:57

sued is have a good relationship with your partners and if you don't you know again it's that that friction

19:03

that underlying dysfunctionality is going to come out yeah well listen I mean if you come from a dysfunctional

19:09

family like I do right I mean there's most of us yeah

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it's easy to sort of see how that can become a problem in your business you know this functionality so boy I

19:21

made these mistakes in my personal life I kind of don't want them yes in my business so

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you can learn yeah because if not you will bring those issues that that you carry with you and how you deal with problems into your business and you

19:34

spend some time doing business so much time doing your work and you know and a business and doing business in general

19:39

is that you need to it's going to reflect there personal relationships and business relationships I agree I have

19:45

another question also speaking of that in short staff I have definitely noticed and actually

19:51

become a little bit I’m cranky don't get me wrong but a little bit like I’ve had difficulty

19:56

even at doctors in my doctor's offices most places I go and I think some of it has maybe because of the shortage and

20:03

staffing so I and I understand that as well I mean trust me I hear this from all my business owners so I kind of go okay that's

20:09

all right you know okay you know this is more complicated and I try to calm down although some days of serena knows

20:18

but has that how do business owners deal with that right because can that sometimes affect safety legal issues you

20:25

know all the different things that we just talked about that can go into a business right sometimes I can actually without meaning to right all of a sudden

20:31

you have a difference different role will have been right yeah I mean at the end of the day

20:37

you got to remember you know most of this we're in the customer service business yeah so

20:43

you know we have to it's we have to be accessible we have to

20:49

be accountable we have to listen and we have to listen we have to take everybody's concerns seriously and

20:56

it's a lot you know it's a lot of listen to it dealing with one person's problems or this vendor's problems or this you

21:02

know referral attorney's problems or my breadth suppliers problems you have to listen to people's problems and

21:09

business is not about you know kicking your heels up on the desk and watching people yeah

21:16

the little tests maybe on tv but not in the real world business

21:22

is a job and you have to treat it like a job and if you don't order it if you don't nurture it if you don't treat

21:29

everybody well people listen to people if you forget that you were in the service business you know you're going to have problems

21:35

down the road and I always you know I come to my job a little bit differently than

21:41

others like um so you I think you told me you were from New York right well I was actually going to raise money

21:48

so there was there was this old-time tv commercial in New York and some people may know what I’m talking about

21:54

it was called the hair club for men I don't know if you remember that yeah so the guys the guy's schtick was well

22:01

I’m not I’m not just a uh I don't just run the business I used to be a member and he pulls up

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so I come into this into my world never forgetting that lesson in this regard I

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was a client before I ever became a lawyer before this because I

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my background is my brother got into a very terrible motorcycle accident as a as a kid when I got a kid

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when we were in school and I had a higher level I had to I had to do all that and I had

22:35

to find the person you know make sure it happened and so I remember the anxiety yeah and I wear that every day I

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understand what it is to be a client and I understand what it is to have that

22:47

anxiety and if you always put yourself in the shoes of your customer what does

22:53

my customer expect you know what does my partner expect you know what can I do to bring value to that to

23:01

them to this relationship you're going to it sets up for success

23:06

yes it is yes and you'll catch something that's lacking or when there's a miscommunication you're going to see where you're not connecting that's

23:13

personal yes so um what would be and he had to I know it must vary by

23:19

industry as well type of businesses but is there something you would say to businesses that's

23:25

crucial is it documentation of incidences is it is anything that one thing that sticks out across industries

23:32

that like doesn't say well yeah I mean it's very varied right it

23:37

really is depending upon the business and what you what you do I mean the financial services business is different

23:43

than you know the bakery or the restaurant or the bar but I think it focuses in if I can speak

23:50

sore more sort of globally on this I think you have to this is a little cliche but you have to

23:56

mind the shop you have to understand what it is and always be on always

24:02

looking at your six always you know what's behind you because your guard down you can't you can never let your

24:07

guard down it's it is a never ending cycle and if you don't have the stomach

24:14

for it be an employee yeah you have to always have that vigilance

24:20

always understand that something can go catastrophically wrong today and just keep your eyes open

24:26

anticipate half of this is anticipation you know if you can anticipate yes you can prevent

24:33

in many occasions exactly yes but there are strategies you can do to minimize that like you can have very

24:39

clear written policies procedures that your employees are trained on that your

24:44

staff understands you can have clear unmistakable consistent documents

24:49

okay um exactly safety rules for sure and you can you can standardize things a certain

24:57

way to make sure there's no variation that somebody doesn't go wrong

25:02

no people are always going to go some people yeah you can’t protect everything in life but no but at

25:09

least where there's somehow a rogue once in a while it's not something you're likely to catch but if they are doing it

25:14

for years or months I mean by that point you probably should have got it oh yeah for sure especially when you know we talk about like financial crimes oh

25:21

yeah you're not checking the books and if you are not watching and making sure every penny goes yeah you know

25:28

absolutely somebody and you could have the greatest part in the world somebody can be leading you down a very

25:33

ugly path yes a lot of like a lot of my uh my alumni clients

25:38

are trusting with certain things well we had this arrangement or we did this or this is my business

25:44

partner I put a hundred thousand dollars in and this occurred and now he's saying I’m not even an owner and crazy stuff

25:49

and I’m just like you know you just can't let your guard down if this was the business deal if they were edgy or sketchy about putting

25:56

something in writing about your rights that's the first thought exactly right yeah and it's like

26:02

they get sort of pulled into this well it's a good opportunity if it's sound look what's your saying if it sounds too

26:08

good to be true it usually is probably exactly and a lot of times I guess particularly in Miami yeah you know yeah

26:15

well Miami was like another story I’ve heard like four new frauds this week and I’m like oh my gosh I think it can't get

26:21

worse Miami’s special yeah we are there is so much and you see it obviously so much more than I do

26:27

you know all the different ways people try and you know play these fraud games with people I mean I’m sure you've got

26:33

stories they're not legitimate they do yeah they look absolutely genuine so you know

26:39

again pointer vet who you're going into bed with right I mean

26:44

listen this is the age of what is it tinder and swipe left and so uh

26:49

not me I’ve been married I haven't been there for a very long time so yeah but it's insane gratification and you

26:55

think you're going to you know like you have you can see a lot of things too you can find out a lot of things on the internet nowadays where you could not

27:00

easily find out about people before and I actually you know oh yeah you know me I’m your

27:08

sister's cousin's friend so and so you know I wouldn't do that to you and your family and those are

27:15

that's our year back library flag red black you know let that light up and you've got to be careful with one of those

27:20

that's the first one because it's always like you don't need a writing a lawyer is there a pain they're

27:26

ridiculous you know it's like okay and they come to me later 300 000 later

27:31

and they're like I gave them this money and I’m like do you have it anywhere check or

27:36

anything you know and it's sort of like and then and then they're actually hostile with me like they don't trust me anymore

27:42

because now of course they've been duped so bad they don't know who to trust and then I tell them how difficult it is and yes this is the united states but

27:49

this is what you have to do if it's this kind of action I you stole my money and I have to pay all this money to try to

27:56

sue them to then get it back I’m like that's the system that's also why it's better to just have

28:01

things in writing have a contract and even then people still require exactly I mean like you

28:06

know I’m my wife I’m a lawyer and she's she does land development real estate

28:12

that nation so she's getting into a an arrangement right now with a local well-known

28:18

developer to joint venture property and everything's a nice guy great

28:23

relationship you know and breakfast with everything's wrong but you know he and both we all insist well we're going to

28:30

put everything in writing oh yeah and that's the best way nobody's going to get their feelings hurt because we're professionals we understand it

28:36

you know there's got to be an operating agreement you know and if you run a business if you have any sort of partnership with

28:42

between venture you must must get with a lawyer to draft and operate yes

28:48

because if you don't oh I’m supposed to do i thought that you were saying yeah no no you said I would

28:54

do that yeah how much am I supposed to contribute well who gets paid out first I mean yeah exactly but I worked all

29:01

this and you only gave this that's not fair yeah exactly but it was fair three years ago yeah right so but if it's

29:07

spelled out and done yeah you don't have no it's a lot of times you're like well so then I’m half owner so this I’m like

29:13

yeah but you know what the statue says you don't know what this is you're like it was all these problems

29:19

you know and they locked you out and you're not getting your salary anymore completely just like okay it's going to be

29:24

six or seven months maybe before I can get you back in assuming the judge assumes that's the best solution you

29:30

know so in mind you're having an operating agreement I’m going to give i had an agreement it says

29:38

that it makes it a lot easier as opposed to oh you guys need a trial on this yeah let's have a three-day

29:45

trial so I can figure out what's what yes as opposed to being spelled out in a document and that's just the

29:50

best practice right and honestly if you have legitimate business partners that really mean business because if you have

29:57

someone that does things loosely you have to decide whether you want to be in business with that person

30:02

you know right because it may not be your style may not be your cup of tea or you're not willing to risk the same way they risk but that's how you know by

30:08

putting that agreement together yeah like put your money where your mouth is yeah exactly so if you're not willing to actually put

30:15

down what you say in writing then is it really is it really is it really there

30:20

yeah they want a fluid they want a fluid situation that's another one's exactly awesome you know you're not

30:26

going to hurt my feelings by like listing it out uh we're all adults here no this is not

30:31

some high school club where somebody's going to get their feelings hurt this is the real world the business world put it out on people this is our money yeah

30:38

like I don't I’m willing to invest in this I’m not unwilling to invest in something that can turn into something else over

30:44

here so either we have a deal or we don't want to do it and

30:53

you know okay so you may be walking away from an opportunity but was it ever was it a really good opportunity right yes

30:59

exactly or are you walking away from a potential night there

31:15

there's so many ways something can go wrong yeah and just little let me count the ways

31:22

and they're like hey you're like doomsday I’m like no hold on a second I hope it could go very well too

31:29

but you're going to have trouble if you have these issues you know not

31:34

down the line what's that point in having a great bit by the way you know how many businesses broke apart they did very well

31:40

in the first year or two and now someone wants to get greedy about what they're going to take what kinds they're going to take what expenses they can deduct

31:46

when it's not proper and you have no agreement and now you're going to have people surrounding going

31:52

uh sure I want to buy them upgrade they're fighting which goes back to what you said at the

31:57

beginning right have a good lawyer that understands it's been around the block a few times because this is all

32:04

about anticipating what can go wrong yes and you as you know business owners and novice they how many cases have

32:11

you litigated Mr. you know restaurant

32:22

especially general counsel for numerous businesses too even on that I’m like listen you can't you know incorporate even

32:28

simple stuff I always want to meet entrepreneurs uh when you get here make sure you're looking into insurance

32:34

requirements you know I try to give them a schedule like when they should be coming back you're thinking about these things if there are growth patterns

32:40

and I even say even when you're stable you want to go back and make sure every so often you do an audit of your HR

32:46

employment policies and certain things to make sure you're up to date and you know what's going on

32:51

it's a little bit you know expensive initially but trust me these lawsuits are much more expensive

32:56

you said something very crucial there that a lot of people just don't think about or anticipate or revisit this

33:02

insurance yeah that's one of the questions the amount of problems that could be

33:08

solved about where the the anxiety that can be eliminated if you are well insured

33:13

is night and day so many businesses just again they don't want to pay that line

33:19

item and they're starting and I get it capital is it's hard to come by and you've got to worry about keeping lean

33:26

and mean fine but you've got to protect your downside and

33:31

insurance is there you know for a reason for reasoning especially we're in Miami it's a litigious place there

33:38

it just is and a thousand percent if anybody walks away here with only one piece of advice for

33:45

me it's make sure you are well insured and well insured for the risks that your

33:50

business takes like you know this may sound crazy but it's actually

33:55

true you know some of my cases involve you know death and personal drinking

34:02

so it was one occasion where a young man was visiting from New York

34:07

and he wanted to rent a paddle uh stand-up paddleboard keep this game and

34:13

so he rents a paddleboard and he doesn't want a life vest he doesn't know how to swim

34:19

you know where this is going so he's out there he falls off he drowns and does all right

34:25

problems yeah but he did a bigger problem for the business owner yeah she

34:31

thought she had insurance and she did but her agent um never told her that there was an

34:38

exclusion for paddle boards how can that somebody issue an insurance policy to a stand-up

34:44

paddleboard business oh my god you know like what do they need insurance yeah anyway

34:51

you must have don't try and again don't buy it from the tv commercials or Geico

34:56

or something like that get yourself a real you know licensed bonded insurance agent you know what your business is

35:03

make sure that the risks that you have are actually covered yes I mean

35:09

this that may sound silly I’d probably have two dozen stories like that

35:14

and it's and so think about what do I do I’m not going away no okay it isn’t my

35:21

problem that you didn't have insurance so either you're going out of business and I’ll put you there

35:27

or I’m going to make your life miserable until you give me an assignment to sue your insurance agent

35:32

yeah so you know some lawyers will go away but you're going to run into somebody like me I’m

35:38

not going to I know there's a since I’m kind of GC for a lot of business for a couple businesses a

35:44

lot of businesses in general right um they have insurance so I’m like okay hey you know if my insurance carrier they're

35:49

going to provide you a lawyer i don't that makes no sense you have an insurance company so go ahead and call them up um

35:55

they call me back Regina I’m not for this doesn't make you cringe it does I’m like

36:02

this is going to be painful yes I don't want to deliver this news no you know what I mean and then like oh and they

36:07

want like x amount of hundreds of thousands of dollars and this and that and um and that can happen also the

36:12

workman's comm it can happen general insurance we have actually numerous vans we don't realize that you actually might you might have

36:19

what appears to be a good policy but if you have two incidences in the same you know two sort of severe

36:25

same year or same time you may not you might not have enough coverage to cover both of them yes so people don't realize

36:31

that there's an aggregate each year yes one bad accident or one bad incident or

36:38

episode that's all it takes and sometimes they don't realize that it might even be like it's a hundred three

36:43

hundred but you might only get a hundred thousand for a particular incident and if it's a severe incident it won't be enough in lord the amount of problems we

36:50

solved with adequate insurance or some sort of umbrella coverage or anything it's like you know my job

36:56

has made me very paranoid because i see the way someone get hurt injured killed sued everything I mean I

37:02

got eyes in the back yeah you must be thinking of all the dangers

37:13

but you know part of that education is like me I’m very well insured and I need to be

37:19

because yes

37:30

so you have to be worried that these things can happen with their intentional some people do this intentionally

37:36

[Music]

37:49

it's destructive to the system it's destructive to legitimate business owners it gains the system it increases

37:55

the price for everything insurance goes up and then the prices for all the goods and services go up it

38:01

makes you know a lot more different and anybody that engages in that trade I have absolutely zeros before they should

38:06

turn the book at them whoever's involved with their lawyers their parents whoever gave birth to those people should be fried but okay

38:14

it's here it's here and it's not going away well I tell customers I mean our customers clients all the time

38:20

uh they drive an expensive car and they might come from a different country and they already they know

38:27

the risks in their country yeah because they understand the system very well they come here and they think that we might just be more

38:33

um straight so to speak like there's no issues here everything is like a lot of we have walls we have rules and I’m like

38:40

that car alone you will attract attention yes yeah that's why I don't I don't I don't wear jewelry

38:58

is you know this may be a small thing but it's not cameras yes everywhere yes save it for 30

39:06

have a have a document retention policy that you know you're retaining all the video for 30 days or whatever and it'll

39:13

be automatically take over but put that policy in writing yes so you can't be accused oh like messing around

39:19

yes but yet protect yourself with cameras because you will catch the fraud yes oh

39:25

lord yes you will and if there is a legitimate incident that happens yeah you don't see exactly what happens

39:31

you'll see exactly what happened give it to your insurance carrier and then resolve it yeah you know yeah there's

39:36

some times where people actually they might be assuming some of the plaintiffs kind of assumes that they don't people don't really realize that

39:42

but sometimes they depending on the activity the plaintiff is involved in there is possibly some liability to them too for their behavior

39:48

I’m not noticing that it's obvious exactly you know you can see the comparative negligence

39:54

but if there is a legitimate claim on there yes look you don't mess around and it'll keep it it'll keep the litigation costs

40:01

down and again you want to escape that episode with as little damage to your premiums or to your business or your

40:07

reputation as possible and so we're nobody's perfect we'll all make mistakes

40:13

but in this day for cameras yes they're not so expensive as they used to be no it's nothing it's just it's a very

40:20

small item it doesn't have to be anything super fancy and people can get these cameras

40:25

installed for you know just hundreds of dollars it's not tens of thousands okay no it used to be it used to be kind of

40:32

cost prohibitive and you know look one of the things that I do is negligent security cases and

40:39

premises liability and things of that nature and you would be shocked that the amount of places

40:44

that don't have cameras out there in high crime areas cameras are a

40:50

a level of deterrence yeah for bad actors and nobody must get caught and if

40:55

they see cameras everywhere they're likely they're like you get caught crime goes down um especially in high crime area you

41:01

want to put that but a lot of people don't do it I mean I’m litigating with a very big

41:07

um south Florida company right now negligent security case involving the

41:12

horrific death of the father of four that was needless and they had no cameras up there were you know multiple

41:19

requests for cameras and if they just had those cameras up in conjunction with some other things like

41:24

that this doesn't happen and you know

41:30

it doesn't need to be you don't need that heartache these people don't need to lose their father I don't need to work on that case

41:36

but people make their you know foolish decisions sometimes by not wanting their past it costs this

41:43

much time yeah they're paying to keep it in this and then that yes I know then don't go into business you know you know

41:48

then like I said just it's the vigilance we're talking about um because you know let's say some business owners

41:54

have been invisible for 20 30 years they kind of use the old school I get it but you have to be able to adapt too you do

41:59

and so the circumstances the most important things think about too if you're you know when we're consumers too

42:06

we feel good when we're on a property that has cameras yes I don't we feel good when we know that there's

42:12

surveillance there's lights exactly it's lit up and we have a feeling of safety and so if we enjoy

42:19

that if we have that good experience you know why can't you give that to your residents your tenants yeah

42:25

so it goes back to again you know the old saying of

42:39

I like that I think we've covered quite a bit today

42:53

I’m like my name is so it's wonderful but I think it's a

42:59

more it's a more fluid conversation and you know my hope was to bring some of these points to you know

43:05

my audience a lot of their business owners as well and of course there's plaintiffs out there too that they you know needed to they also know what to

43:12

look for if they ever have an incident as well so the technical term what kind of training you are and that's the kind of choice you'll be

43:18

representing you're interested in looks at these things as well and hopefully my business owners will learn why

43:24

there is a face to this there is a face other side there's a reason why we have to you know not just not just

43:29

because you want it yourself because I think that's the most important thing you want things that you want people to treat you the way you treat them or vice

43:35

versa what are they treated well and so many of my business owners they

43:40

they put their blood sweat and tears into their businesses they really do like I think most of us do and I think it seems like a boogie man

43:47

sometimes can come out of anywhere so sometimes we get an idea of like how to mitigate these things

43:53

how to look at a little bit more objectively to look not be so scared of things because sometimes they're so scared they just might actually retract

43:59

and be like there's too many things to fix or do I don't even know and there's people trying to steal from me

44:04

all the time and do this they can kind of put them in a little bit better length a different night I think you know it's going to seem so

44:11

overwhelming and hopefully I can impart them they put so much effort into their businesses that they I think they want

44:18

you want to keep making their bread you want to keep doing certain things this is part of doing that it is it is

44:23

it's just another part of business right yeah and so you know hopefully people have gotten some advice out of

44:30

this and some pointers and you know can't cover everything but yeah thing I always tell everybody whether it

44:35

be you anybody if anybody's got any questions I’m sure they can call you yeah and if anybody's got any questions

44:41

about what I do with my world yes I’m I’m accessible here I’m happy to talk to anybody

44:46

absolutely and we're going to put your link up in your phone number and everything we post everything so anyone has any questions

44:52

and thank you and if you have a business call Regina okay get protected from the

44:57

beginning not before it's too late my advice free advice right there

45:04

yes I’d like to help and trust me I’m one of those that I’m actually pretty proactive and try to be preventive

45:10

I want to thank you for coming it's been a great interview and a great time with you spending time with your name and helping us

45:16

yes definitely so we want to thank everyone for tuning in and hopefully this has been very helpful um if you've

45:21

missed any of our prior podcasts please feel free to go on buzzsprout or apple you know on the other platform or on

45:27

Spotify one various different platforms now which you can capture this podcast and I’ll follow us on social media

45:33

accounts and we look forward to seeing you in the future take care