I was talking to a lawyer the other day—one of the good ones. The kind who’s seen too many “it’ll never happen to me” business owners get chewed up in court.
I asked him a simple question:
“How do you make sure you don’t end up in court?”
His answer?
“You don’t.”
If you’re running a business long enough, he said, you’re going to get sued.
Didn’t love that answer. So I did a little digging.
According to the U.S. Courts and some light number crunching:
- There are 33.2 million businesses in the U.S.
- 40 million lawsuits are filed each year.
- About 473,000 of those are civil cases that actually make it into court.
Translation?
If you run a business, your odds of getting pulled into a legal mess are better than your odds of keeping your inbox at zero.
But Let’s Get to the Real Threat: Cyber Lawsuits
We’re not just talking slip-and-falls or vendor disputes anymore.
The number of cyber personal injury lawsuits—yes, that’s a thing now—is exploding. These are lawsuits where someone claims they’ve been harmed by the way you handled their data.
And here’s what separates the businesses that walk away clean… from the ones writing six-figure settlement checks:
Evidence.
Not intentions.
Not effort.
Not good vibes or “we tried.”
Cold, clear, third-grader-level evidence.
The Lawsuit Is a Performance. Here’s Your Role.
The lawyer I spoke with said it best:
“My job is to make you look like a complete failure.”
They come at you with a list of reasons—real or imagined—why your business dropped the ball. Why your cybersecurity was negligent. Why your data handling was reckless.
They throw everything at you, hoping you’ll scramble.
And if you respond with a few email threads and a spreadsheet?
You’ve already lost.
But if you have a clear plan, documented policies, mapped standards, and real security evidence—you become the worst kind of target.
A hard one.
Posturing Isn’t Just for Court. It’s for Courtroom Avoidance.
If you can respond quickly—with documented proof that your cybersecurity program aligns with an industry standard—you change the game.
You’re no longer an easy payday. You’re a battle they don’t want to fight.
No one sues the company that looks like it’s going to win.
But they’ll absolutely come for the one that fumbles when asked for proof.
What’s the Next Move?
Have a plan.
Have a cyber liability program.
Have your evidence locked, loaded, and ready.
That’s how you kill lawsuits before they happen.
Are you prepared?
Let’s find out. We’ll run a Cyber Liability Assessment and show you exactly where you stand.
Because in today’s legal climate, “we have security” isn’t good enough.
You need to prove it—or be prepared to pay the price.
