Companies have been very successful defending Americans with Disability Act (ADA) cases in the federal courts. Employees won only 13 cases in 1999 while employers won 291, according to a survey by the American Bar Association's Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law. Employers often win when a summary judgment tosses the case out of court early.

The survey didn't include lawsuits filed and then settled or dropped for other reasons. Settlements often favor the employee. Yet even if an employer wins a court case, defending a claim is expensive, as are many settlements. The value of Employment Practices Liability insurance comes to light when it's time to defend or settle a claim.

For weeks, a dispatcher suspected that his new driver had a literacy problem. The driver always insisted on verbal directions and took trip reports home to fill out. Through further investigation the dispatcher discovered that the driver was illiterate.

As many as 36% of job applicants fail the reading or math portions of employer-administered tests, according to a recent American Management Association survey of mid-size and larger businesses.

Literacy problems are expected to increase as the immigration rate climbs. In 50 years, the United States population will increase by 50%, with immigrants accounting for almost two-thirds of the growth. A great many immigrants are literate in one or more languages other than English.

Our dispatcher picked up on the signs of his driver's literacy problem. Here are other common signs that your employees may be exhibiting:

Not only do reading problems hurt efficiency; they can also be dangerous. Warning signs are useless if your employees can't read them.

If you suspect a literacy problem, gently ask the employee questions to verify your suspicion. If a literacy problem presents an immediate danger, deal with it right away. Then develop a long-range plan to help the employee improve literacy skills. Today, more employers are offering English training.

So you've decided to sell your business. Before you go, don't forget your company's insurance. Liabilities may follow you long after you've closed up shop. You must pay attention to the non-business Personal insurance benefits that have flowed through your business.

Businesses usually provide retirement plans and various insurance coverages to owners, executives, and employees including Health, Disability, Life, Retirement, and Auto insurance. There are governmental requirements on how you can terminate retirement and medical programs for your employees. You may personally have to purchase non-business Auto insurance and new or revised forms of Life, Health, Retirement, and Long Term Care insurance.

If your business is incorporated, you can sell it in an asset-only sale, leaving your corporate entity to be responsible for future claims. A product defect claim is just one kind of claim that could arise years after your corporation has been sold. If your business isn't incorporated, you can still sell it through that route, but you'll find it difficult to pass all liability to the buyer.

Many former owners and partners of sole proprietorships and partnerships continue insurance coverage after selling a business. A sales contract may require the buyer to carry insurance for various risks such as Products and Completed Operations coverage.

Our agency can help you make these kinds of important insurance decisions. So, if you're thinking of selling, start an insurance review well before the sale is complete. Call us when you're ready to sell.

Establishing a customer base among the flood of new e-ventures is a major challenge. For example, there are about 5,000 Internet sites that sell cars.

What makes people chose a particular site? Answering these questions can help you distinguish your site in the rush to riches:

• Why would our customers want to contact us through a Web site?
• What would draw customers to our site?
• What advantages would e-commerce have for our operations?
• Do we have experience using the Internet for purchasing and other functions?
• Can our staff handle an e-commerce operation?
• Who would provide the technical expertise to create and maintain our site?
• Are our financial projections based on conservative numbers, or are we being overly optimistic?

In developing a successful Internet venture, you'll have to answer a lot of questions like these. Our agency will take care of getting the necessary updates to your insurance program.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says 2000 is the year that all qualified pension plans must be revised to reflect recent tax changes. If the IRS discovers that your pension plan hasn't been updated, you could be hit with huge penalties. Identify problems and report them to the IRS immediately to avoid the larger penalties.

The plans affected include qualified pension, profit sharing, 401(k), Keogh for the self-employed, and other less common plans. IRS Revenue Procedure 2000-20 contains the rules for bringing all qualified plans into compliance with recent tax code changes.

This will probably put Firestone out of business," is a comment heard frequently as the magnitude of the company's defective tire problem came to light. It will be a long time before every aspect of these tragic accidents is ironed out through recalls, negotiations, and court actions.

Don't count Firestone out yet. The largest chunk of monetary compensation for victims and their families is likely to come from insurance claim payments. Firestone's and Ford's Commercial General Liability policies will likely respond to negligence claims for losses from accidents, tire replacement, and loss of vehicle use.

Lengthy investigations will focus on whether Firestone and its suppliers were negligent and whether tire failures were caused by consumers using the product improperly. However, it's likely that the courts will make the ultimate decisions on liability.

Besides CGL coverage, other forms of insurance can play a major role in protecting the various companies and vehicle manufactures. Any business creating goods for the public should consider getting Recall insurance. It can cover the cost of recalling the product, notifying consumers, delivering a new product, and other aspects of a product's problems.

If you produce food products, another kind of coverage you should consider is Contaminated Products insurance, which covers bad food products. It covers voluntary and involuntary product recalls, the cost of inspections, withdrawal of the product from the market, destruction of defective items, and threats to contaminate a product as part of an extortion plot.

COPYRIGHT ©2000. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is under-stood that the publishers are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert advice is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

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