This California Law Might Save Your Small Business- Here's Why.

If California law didn't require small businesses to implement and maintain a workplace violence prevention plan, would you still do it? Maybe. Maybe not.

As a small business owner, you already wear enough hats. So does your staff. There's a hundred other things demanding your attention, and resources only stretch so far. Besides — you hire good people. Not the kind who solve disputes with violence.

So devoting time, money, and human capital to something that feels unlikely to happen to your business just doesn't seem warranted.

But skipping it would be a mistake. One that could sink your business fast — everything you've worked so hard to build, gone in the time it takes to read a jury verdict.

I know this because I've seen it happen firsthand. For 30 years, I built cases for plaintiff attorneys suing businesses when violence happened at their location — lawsuits that wouldn't have happened had those businesses taken the steps California's workplace violence prevention law requires.

Some small business owners see this law as an unnecessary burden — an unfunded mandate. That's shortsighted. Complying with it might genuinely save your business from economic ruin. And that alone makes it worth doing. Here's why.

Workplace Violence Isn't What Most Owners Think It Is

Most small business owners picture workplace violence as something committed by a current or former employee. But that only accounts for 25% of all workplace violence incidents. 

California's law requires a prevention plan that addresses not just co-worker violence, but the three other source types responsible for the remaining 75%:

• Invitee violence — clients, customers, patients, vendors, contractors, and anyone else invited onto your premises as part of your business
• The public — especially people who come to your business to commit crimes like burglary, robbery, or sexual assault
• Personal connections of your employees — current or former partners, drug-seeking family members, and others connected to your staff from outside of work

By addressing the source types that are three times more likely than employees or ex-employees to commit violence, you dramatically reduce the risk your employees actually face.

Your Biggest Financial Risk Isn't What You Think, Either

If your employees are targeted by workplace violence, that typically falls under workers' compensation (though — as below — there's financial exposure there too).

But if your customers, clients, patients, vendors, or contractors are attacked at your workplace, that gets litigated in civil court, where jury awards and settlements can easily reach six or seven figures.

Something as simple as a client attacked in a parking lot, or one patient attacking another in your waiting room, can become a major lawsuit. Business owners are responsible for the safety of invitees to their workplace and can be held liable when an attack occurs against someone present in the ordinary course of business.

And if the attacker turns out to be one of your employees, that opens an entirely different can of worms — not just a third-party lawsuit, but potentially an intentional-tort exclusion in your insurance policy, meaning you could be paying damages out of pocket.

Complying with the law helps protect your third-party invitees by requiring you to assess your visitor processes and waiting-area safety, and to train employees in strategies to avoid physical harm.

The Workers' Comp Penalty Most Employers Don't Know Exists

We've covered your biggest financial risk — the civil lawsuit from a third party attacked on your premises. But there's a workers' comp risk most small employers have never heard of: the 50% "serious and willful misconduct" penalty. 

This is a 50% cash-out-of-pocket penalty added to a workers' comp payout — not covered by insurance, paid directly by you to your employee.

An employee attacked in a workplace violence incident can suffer physical and psychological injuries, and that can significantly increase the dollar value of a workers' comp claim. If that employee was injured because you didn't comply with the requirements of California's law, it can trigger this penalty.

As an example: that could mean paying $40,000 cash out of your own pocket, on top of an $80,000 insurance payout.

What would a $40,000 lump-sum payment mean for your business? For many small businesses, that's the difference between turning a profit, treading water, or closing the doors.

And we haven't even touched on the potential five- or six-figure penalties if Cal/OSHA gets involved.

The Bottom Line

Complying with California's workplace violence prevention law can literally save your business. That alone makes it worth doing.

The hard part isn't deciding whether to comply — it's knowing whether what you've already put in place would actually hold up, and what's still missing.

If you're not sure your current plan covers everything the law requires, I offer a free 15-minute Workplace Violence Compliance & Safety Snapshot call. We'll walk through where you stand and what (if anything) is putting you at risk. [Book your free Snapshot call →]