Poor Planning Leads to Predictable Legal Surprises

What does “Skins,” the new MTV hit drama featuring the sexual, drug induced, exploits of renegade teenagers, have in common with straight laced banking giant JP Morgan Chase? Oooooooh, more than appears at first blush. Seems they both failed to plan ahead in anticipating in predictable legal surprises.

Let’s start with “Skins” – you know you want to. 

A recent news report notes that the racy show fears its third episode, scheduled for broadcast on January 31st, might violate federal child pornography laws. According to The New York Times, Viacom, which owns MTV, has been testing the limits of obscenity on TV for a while with reality shows like “Jersey Shore,” among others. But episode three of “Skins” has the top brass worried. In its original cut, it showed a 17-year-old actor, nude from behind as he’s running down the street while the gag ties into the familiar “ . . . if it lasts for more than 4 hours you should seek immediate medical attention” punch line.

It’s not clear whether he’s running to see doctor or someone else. But with a largely underage cast (they range from ages 15 to 19) what MTV could have anticipated, based on the script and casting premise alone, before they had spent a nickle on filming and editing this, or any other, episode was the potential for a child pornography claim. With more foresight instead of hindsight (no pun intended) they really could have seen this one coming. They're lucky they caught it when then did.

And what about our friends at JP Morgan Chase? Another robo-signing scandal?

No, the latest report has the bank admitting it overcharged more than 4,000 active-duty military personnel on their home loans and mistakenly foreclosed on 14 of them. Under the law, military personnel are entitled to a reduced interest rate when on active-duty thanks to the Service Members Civil Relief Act.

Once Chase realized the big “oopsie” the bank wanted to refund $2 million, apologize, and call it a day. But, as a lawyer representing one of the service members in a lawsuit said, “[t]hat’s just not what ought to happen in cases like this.” This particular lawyer, a former prosecutor, is also aiming to turn the case into a class action suit. Ouch.

Better foresight and improved legal literacy would have helped to protect everyone’s assets in these two examples and illustrates how it really does pay to know what legal boundaries define your business playing field before you get called for a foul.

With a little advanced planning, legal liability does not have to be an inevitable a cost of doing business.

Hanna Hasl-Kelchner is a business legal strategist, author, speaker and trainer who teaches and coaches business people on how to avoid lawsuits. She is the author of The Business Guide to Legal Literacy: What Every Manager Should Know About the Law and forthcoming How to Turn Your Business into a Litigator’s Chew Toy: Taking the Bite Out of Legal Liability Follow Hanna on Twitter @nononsenselawyr and her Chew Toy sidekick @acelitigatorwit. Subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed to get the latest updates.