Small Businesses Avoid Lawsuits Using the STA Method
"Avoiding lawsuits altogether...is the only way small businesses can protect themselves. Though there is no magic bullet to ensure that, there are steps business owners can take. Caffey proposed what he calls the 'STA method:' skills, tools and accountability.
Skills: Small business owners need to learn how to handle disputes more effectively, preventing the disputing party from suing in the first place. 'At the beginning of every lawsuit or potential lawsuit is a lost opportunity to resolve a basic dispute,' he says.
Tools: Small business owners should take advantage of tools available to keep them out of court, including contracts, mediation ('the greatest dispute resolution tool ever invented'), arbitration and warning notices.
Accountability: 'An accountable organization seeks business solutions to its business disputes and strives to improve its relationships with those who have a complaint,' rather than avoiding or denying such claims, Caffey says. It also refuses to see itself as a victim but rather takes responsibility for its own role in a dispute and seeks proactive ways to solve them, rather than just looking for someone else to blame. "
From this BizNewOrleans:article via this ESD post.
