Have you heard of the "Consumer Protection Act?" If so, do you think there should also be a "Small Business Protection Act?"?

Small businesses have an inordinate burden under our system of government. I don’t believe in protecting them from lawsuits, but I do support tort reform including eliminating frivolous lawsuits.

I am not an attorney, but it would be interesting to think about ways to identify and stop serial suers. I know they exist. I have met several.

Wow, you ran into a whacko. Sorry to hear it, but it’s not unusual. When dealing with all humans, there are a few bad eggs in any bunch.

Personally I don’t think there should be laws, because I can’t trust the government to create the right laws for any business really. I mean, look at what they’re doing now with the lead testing of children’s toys, if they don’t make an exemption for small businesses a great majority of Esty sellers will be forced to shut down versus send their one of a kind objects to be lead tested (and destroyed) for $10,000. This is the government’s definition of trying to make children’s toys safer, but look, they’re causing harm because they don’t know everything about the issue.

I’m a web designer who runs my own small one woman web design and hosting business. I have learned to deal with bad customers from my end of things, and I’ve learned when I was burned, and I’ve modified my business practices to help ensure I won’t be burned again. I believe this entrepreneurial spirit will in the long run let me create a more successful business than if I had relied on some government law.

And there are other laws that can be applied. As @Marina says, there must be some way to detect and present serial suers. At the least, you fix the problem the suer found, and you move on with a stronger business.

I’m sorry you got hit with that… we certainly ought to be able to weed out those serial lawsuit hounds. They give legitimate lawsuits a bad name! As to a small business protection act, I don’t see how that is doable. Some small businesses deserve to be sued (not trying to say yours did). Properly insuring a business is one way to protect yourself, but certainly not a perfect method.

@augustlan Sure some businesses deserved to be sued! But the consumer protection act almost forces the courts to go with the plaintiff, even when the suit is so totally bogus, as the one we were hit with was….and there was no protection act for us. If he’d won what he wanted, it might have put us out of business. As it was, the judge just found in his favor for $450—which is what we agreed to settle for outside of court. But then the guy started making all kinds of other demands, so we went in to see the the judge. And I think that’s why he awarded the guy $450—because we’d already agreed to it.

YES!! There should be, especially to protect us against (some) evil employees!!

And yes, if you’re not insured, it will ruin your business if some clumsy person slips on your floor and cracks a hip! It’s insane…..