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WHY
DO
CHURCHES
NEED
PROTECTION? There was a time when few people would even consider filing a lawsuit against a church. Those days are long gone as church litigation has increased dramatically over the past 10 to 15 years.
Not only do
churches face an increasingly litigious and regulated
environment, but
a church today can be sued even for doing what
is right, according to its beliefs and practices.
In addition to
potential liability for the culpable acts of its employees and
volunteers, churches can be sued and held liable for church
discipline matters and other internal disputes.
Thousands of churches are sued every year in the United States, often by their own members, or ex-members. And plaintiffs are becoming more creative and much more aggressive. Church lawsuits are often triggered by power struggles, the sharing of confidential information, questionable counseling practices, sexual misconduct, membership issues, a church's failure to recognize and manage unreasonable risk, and even unforeseen circumstances. Such lawsuits are couched in a variety of claims, including:
SOME CHURCHES FACE A GREATER RISK OF LITIGATION. Larger churches (300+ members) face an even greater risk of litigation because of their larger memberships and staffs, as well as a busier and more complex schedule of activities. In fact... The increase in litigation against larger churches surpasses the more modest increases in litigation for society as a whole! The legal costs of defending against even a simple lawsuit can quickly reach the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, most churches are not prepared financially or otherwise to sustain prolonged litigation when faced with a lawsuit. When a church loses a case, awards for actual damages often exceed $100,000 and can reach $1,000,000. And punitive damages awards can be even higher, climbing into the MILLIONS of dollars. Even if a church should ultimately prevail at trial, it will rarely recover its legal costs. LAWSUITS HURT CHURCHES IN MANY WAYS! Apart from damages awards, litigation can pull a church down faster than almost any other crisis. The mere threat of a lawsuit can cause major disruptions in a ministry. Lawsuits demand a great deal of time, energy, and attention from church leaders, pulling them away from important ministry responsibilities. Litigation can also attract damaging publicity and divide a congregation as members argue over who is to blame and how a suit should be handled. This can go on for years until the legal process runs its full course of complaints, motions, depositions, hearings, trial, judgments, damage awards, sentences and appeals. But it doesn't end there, the threat of personal liability against individual officers, board members, ministers and even church members is always present, even when a church is incorporated. This is particularly true for damages awards related to counseling, confidentiality, sexual misconduct or church discipline. Or, when a church has failed to adequately provide for potential damages awards. If insurance does not cover all the litigation costs and damages awards, and it usually doesn't, a prevailing plaintiff can recover damages from a single church leader. That leader may then be compelled to sue fellow officers and board members to force them to share that cost. In the end, insurance can never compensate a church for the lost time, strife, frustration, hurt, pain, anguish and diversion from ministry that occurs when a church is sued. ONCE A CHURCH INVITES LITIGATION, IT HAS ALREADY LOST! It's a sobering reality that no one wins in litigation. In fact, it's not enough for churches to conduct their activities in such a way as to prevail at trial when they're sued. Instead, churches must do everything possible to prevent a lawsuit. This troubling trend of litigation means that church leaders must learn to identify and understand legal risk, then implement appropriate risk-management strategies to protect their ministries. It's also true that litigation is most often invited by a church's failure to appreciate risk and implement an appropriate risk-management framework. The best time to do so and and avoid litigation is at the earliest possible opportunity; long before any allegations of wrong-doing are lodged. Risk-management structures not only help reduce the risk of getting sued, but more importantly, they help safeguard the congregation, its functions, and especially its most vulnerable members; teens and children. Even leaders and youth workers should be protected against false accusations. Implementing an appropriate risk-management framework begins with a church taking a good hard look at itself. That can normally be accomplished with the aid of a broad questionnaire that is used to conduct a comprehensive Legal and Corporate Audit of the church. After an in-depth review of a church's responses, extensive interviews, other fact-gathering efforts, a written Audit Executive Summary, and feedback and questions from church leaders, written commendations and recommendations are finalized to address all areas of risk and shore up where the church is doing well. The result should be a comprehensive, individualized and responsive set of Policies and Procedures, training, and consistent enforcement. It goes without saying that, the only thing worse than not having a comprehensive set of policies and procedures is never even making the effort to generate them. Once you have them, enforcement is critical. Jesus, Justice and Me is the only training seminar we know of in Texas that is specifically focused on training Christian church leaders how to protect their ministries from the devastating consequences of litigation. |
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