Policy and Procedure Defense

Many government and private managers fail to recognize that, in addition to their employees, the governmental units or private corporations have direct liability in civil litigation, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and similar statutes.

Municipalities are liable under federal law for the actions of employees who are implementing policies, procedures, customs and practices. Private corporations who are engaging in traditional governmental function, like providing healthcare to prisoners, have the same legal liabilities.

Per the U.S. Supreme Court, any policies, practices, customs or procedures that deprive a person’s rights allow that person to recover money damages.

Employees interacting with members of the public who implement such policies and customs open up their employers to liability. This includes police officers or healthcare workers who deny medical care to a prisoner with serious medical needs. For instance, per the jail policy, jail staff may refuse to send a prisoner with a serious medical need to the hospital without approval, and could make the prisoner wait for the jail physician to see the patient the next day.

Such violations leave the governmental unit or private employer open to lawsuits and substantial financial consequences, including the possibility of paying attorney fees to the individual winning such a lawsuit. Governmental and corporate managers lose sleep over the threats of such lawsuits and the substantial costs of defending or paying compensation in such situations.

However, with the right legal assistance — preferably from a law firm that handles healthcare law, administrative law, and civil litigation defense — these employers can avoid such liabilities with proper planning and litigation strategy.

That’s where the civil litigation defense attorneys at Chapman Law Group come in.

Our national attorneys can review existing policies and practices for potential violations, then put forth corrections that will provide a strong defense for future claims. Second, our national correctional healthcare lawyers can aggressively pursue the defense of these lawsuits, obtaining early dismissal and saving substantial fees typically caused by engaging in extended litigation, discovery, and trial.

Chapman Law Group has successfully defended hundreds of these “policy and procedure” claims across the U.S. by filing early motions to challenge them.

Federal law is specific that the plaintiff must plead specific information regarding the alleged policies and procedures that have violated their rights. Many plaintiff’s attorneys are not experienced in bringing such claims, or they simply fail to recognize the degree of specificity that must be plead in such situations.

Challenging the failure to properly plead such claims often end up in early dismissal of the lawsuit against governmental units and private corporations. If early dismissal is not an option, our attorneys have thousands of hours of experience in completing discovery that will demonstrate no 42 U.S.C. § 1983 violations by our clients.

Further, our lawyers aggressively pursue filing dispositive motions with support from experienced experts in the industry to dismiss lawsuits prior to trial.

Policy and procedure claims need not be a significant threat to the financial health of governmental units and private corporations engaging in governmental work. We at Chapman Law Group will help in the prevention and defense of such claims and allow managers to focus on their other responsibilities, secure in the knowledge that experienced attorneys are working to dismiss the claims as soon as possible.

At Chapman Law Group, we have 3,000-plus correctional facility healthcare lawsuits in Michigan, Florida, Ohio, and nationwide under our 35-year-plus collective belt.

Our four national healthcare defense offices are in Detroit; Miami; Sarasota, Florida; and Los Angeles/Southern California. Reach out to us today to learn what we are all about.