May I Have Your Attention Please:  All CEOs, CISOs, CFOs, CROs, COOs, CDOs, Superintendents, Deans, Principals, Board Members, Trustees, Mayors, and other leaders too.

A paradigm shift is taking place and leaders need to be aware because it involves a legal strategy that attorneys are using to win lawsuits and settlements.

The legal strategy involves attorneys filing lawsuits that claim organizations are negligent because they “ignored red flags”. The legal strategy has been very successful and is being copied by private attorneys as well as multiple State Attorneys General and others who are winning lawsuits and settlements using this successfully proven legal strategy.

In Opioid lawsuits across the nation, multiple State Attorneys General are filing lawsuits and winning their cases, and in some cases huge settlements, by exposing how drug companies “ignored red flags” and failed to take the appropriate and right actions to prevent drug abuse.  (Examples below)

In numerous Education (K12 and Higher Ed) lawsuits across the nation, attorneys are suing school districts, institutions, and their boards/trustees for “ignoring red flags” and not protecting children (and adults) from sexual abuse, bullying, suicide, shooters, and more.  (Examples below)

Why are so many attorneys filing lawsuits claiming organizations “ignored red flags”? Because red flags are almost always exhibited, observed, and even reported before incidents occur, and organizations have a duty and a responsibility to provide a safe working and safe learning environments.

Validations that red flags almost always existed before incidents have come from FBI reports, DHS reports, and most recent in a US Secret Service report (Nov 2019), which stated red flags (warning signs, concerning behaviors, suspicious activities, etc.) are always exhibited by shooters (at-risk individuals) before they attack.  But it is not just shooters, red flags are observed and leaked by at-risk individuals before most acts of violence, sex abuse, drug abuse, and suicides and other incidents and tragedies.

This serves as the wake-up call for ALL LEADERS that “Plausible Deniability”, claiming you did not know, is no longer a defense. And neither is the absurd defense that if we know, we are more liable.

The proven and the better defense is to:

  • Eliminate hundreds of common and dangerous Gaps, Silos, and Disconnects
  • Centrally collect as many red flags as possible from all incident reporting options
  • Equip Team Members to take appropriate and immediate actions on the red flags
  • Document assessments and ongoing intervention actions to prove “red flags not ignored”
  • Prevent more incidents and tragedies before they occur

Children and adults deserve better prevention and most everyone wants better prevention. Return on Prevention can be millions of times better than Return on Regret, lost lives, and dealing with the costs of lawsuits, settlements, negative headlines, and other costly consequences.

If you are curious about how you can prevent more incidents, save lives, bottom lines and improve your legal due diligence and make your organization safer, contact Awareity today.

Opioids Lawsuits – Ignoring Red Flags

Education Lawsuits – Ignoring Red Flags