Liability from terrorist attacks/disaster

Thanks to little-known governmental guidelines, an article in the July 25th. issue of BusinessWeek magazine reports, “companies could find themselves fending off huge liability claims from possible terrorist attacks even as they struggle to get operations back on track.”

“A collection of crisis management pointers first assembled 10 years ago by the National Fire Protection Association, the 46-page set of guidelines was dusted off in 2004 by the 9/11 Commission which urged they ‘should be the standard of care owed by a company to its employees and the public for legal purposes.’” Congress has been pressing the Dept. of Homeland Security as well, and the article relates that some courts have been suggesting “once-unthinkable threats must now be planned for.”

The Department of Homeland Security has been urging such preparedness and posts overviews and advice for both businesses and individuals/families on its “Ready.gov” website.