Posted on March 2, 2009 by Debbie Ausburn

E. coli Breakout at Day Care Center

You never want an article about your day care center to begin, ""Twenty-one children and one adult have contracted E. coli."  You particularly don't want it to note that the outbreak was "linked to a lack of handwashing."

At least the day care has taken responsibility for sanitizing the center,  and is trying to reimburse parents for out-of-pocket medical costs and expenses of having to stay home with their children.  Even if it were only a PR move, it would still be the right thing to do.

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Posted on December 29, 2008 by Debbie Ausburn

Crisis Response

Parents of a teenager killed by a tiger at the San Francisco zoo have filed suit.  The zoo spokesman gave the traditional (and not helpful) "no comment" response to media inquiries.  Fortunately, the spokesman for the City Attorney said what needed to be said: "We recognize that this was a terrible tragedy, and our hearts go out to the [teenager's] family for their loss."  

As I have said eariler, if you ever find yourself answering questions about an injury in your program, always express your concern for your client and his or her family.   Recognizing that a child was injured is not the same as admitting liability for the injury.  Not only is focusing on the child a good PR strategy, but it is simply the right thing to do.

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Posted on December 16, 2008 by Debbie Ausburn

Everything I Needed to Know About Crisis Management . . .

The Food Law Liability Blog posts about a seminar presentation on crisis management, titled "Effective Crisis Leadership: 5 Basic Rules You Learned as a Kid."  The rules were: (1) Clean Up Your Mess, (2) Share, (3) Tell the Truth, (4) Apologize, and (5) Keep Your Hands to Yourself.

Check out the post.  It's a great reminder of how to apply to our problems the same principles that we teach every day.

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