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Talk is Cheap: Except When You Are Sued for Cellphone Usage
By: Donna Ray Berkelhammer. This was posted Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Loading ...An Oklahoma woman is suing Samsung and Sprint because her mother was killed in an auto accident allegedly caused by a man talking on his cell phone who ran a red light. You can bet that if the man were making a business call at the time of the accident, his company would have been sued as well. While this suit most likely will be dismissed early on, it is important for businesses to consider cell phone usage policies to protect themselves from situations like this.
The cell phone policy should discuss how and when an employee may use a company-provided cell phone, the employee’s use of a company-provided cell phone for personal calls and the employee’s right to receive of personal calls throughout the workday, no matter who provides the phone.
The cell phone policy should be part of an overall technology policy (part of an employee handbook), including use of email, company computers, phones, PDAs, pagers, and company confidential information. The policy should integrate use of technology with the employee’s right to privacy.
This is a tricky area. For example, if your company has a cell phone use policy, it must enforce it and enforce it equally. Our employment attorneys strongly believe a company that tries to limit its liability may actually increase its liability if it does not enforce its policies.
Tags: cell phone, cell phone policy, right to privacy, Samsung, Sprint
Interesting post. I never thought about the person on the other end of the phone being held accountable.
Also, if she is suing Sprint, couldn’t she also sue the car maker, the dealership, the maker of the red light as well using the same logic?
Posted by: Dan | December 9th, 2009 at 11:19 amThere is such a thing as personal responsibility. Or at least there used to be. And for the reasons you are suggesting, it is unlikely that this plaintiff will prevail.
Posted by: Donna Ray Chmura | December 9th, 2009 at 8:01 pmThanks for the well-written article, bookmarked and rss subscribed…
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Posted by: Employment Lawyer | December 15th, 2009 at 1:45 pmI saw this really good post today. Well-written, and it describes…
Posted by: Employment Lawyer | December 22nd, 2009 at 2:11 pmAs we have been discussing the subject as lot as of lately, I felt this was a great follow-up
Posted by: Employment Lawyer | December 22nd, 2009 at 2:50 pmI was looking for something exactly like this and it will prove very useful for me. I am subscribed and bookmarked.
Posted by: Personal Injury Lawyer | December 22nd, 2009 at 3:58 pmFTA: “a company that tries to limit its liability may actually increase its liability if it does not enforce its policies.” That’s a really great point.
Posted by: Matthew Nederlanden | February 10th, 2010 at 10:24 amThanks for your post about phone..I got a lot of info from this post.
Posted by: Tech Review | March 28th, 2010 at 8:29 am