Patience, patience

It's been a few days. I was waiting to update you all on the issue I recently presented to you by telling you how the trial turned out. Looks like that's going to have to wait a few days. The Court has three criminal cases (which, under the constitutional right to speedy trial, have to be tried first) ahead of us. So, as soon as I have a trial date set, I'll alert you and we'll see who accurately predicted the outcome.

In the meantime, we can talk about internal policies. I know, fascinating stuff. But, as most of you are the owners of or employed in some kind of business, you might actually need to know some of this. About three weeks ago, there was a situation in which someone I know (who is not a client) wanted sue Bank A because the bank screwed up some checks, deposits and payments. The theory this "someone" wanted to assert was premised on the idea that Bank A has several internal policies and the mistakes it made violated these policies. Accordingly, the Bank is liable.

This is not the first time someone has come up with this as grounds to sue. Banks, privately held small business and publicly traded multi-national corporations have policies and policy manuals spelling out what is expected of employees and how to do things the corporate way. That's all fine, well and good, but it is not the law and the law is the only avenue you have to redress a wrong. While policies are good practice and, in some instances, having a particular policy enforced can create certain legal rights, the simple failure to follow an internally created policy is not a basis to impose liability.

No, the "someone" I know will need to actually have a lawyer crack a book and examine the law to determine whether the banks actions give rise to liability. The policies and the failure to maintain them, although not a basis for relief in and of themselves, can be introduced as evidence and serve as proof that the law was not followed.

Lesson: failure to follow internal corporate policies may be evidence of wrongdoing but do not give rise to a right to sue all by themselves.

Have a great weekend.