Why to have your own counsel than rely on the company's counsel?

Why you should have your own lawyer?

Recently I was having a discussion with a friend of mine who was asking my opinion. My friend was working with a company ("A") which supplies heavy machineries to other businesses. One of the machine malfunctioned due to which an employee of a customer ("B") lost his hand. A criminal case was registered against A, and their employees for negligence.

The facts, as explained to me is A has followed all the standard procedures, giving standard instructions etc to B, but because of the negligence of B’s employees in maintenance of machine the unfortunate incident happened.

However, when the investigation was conducted, B named my friend and A, as the responsible party for the accident. Of course B will not say we didn’t follow the standard operating procedures and to escape responsibility and liabilities, they shifted blame on A and their employee.

What A did in this case was also very disappointing and even when a case was registered against my friend, instead of appointing a lawyer for my friend, A asked the company’s in house counsel to follow up with the authorities and counsel my friend. To my understanding, the in-house counsel is not so interested in my friend because A has already got the green chit.

Feeling frustrated, my friend spoke to me and said he is not getting any updates regarding the case and he doesn’t know what is happening etc. I suggested he appoint his own lawyer and not depend on the company’s counsel because:

1. A’s counsel is not his lawyer.

2. A’s counsel is protecting the company, not him.

3. In case he has to save between him and A, counsel will protect A.

4. With due respect to in-house counsel experience, it is better he engage a litigating attorney or a firm which has expertise in disputes related to you.

Often people trust their company too much and end up going to jail, which I believe could be avoided if they will act smart from the start and engage own counsel. There were many other things as well which are sensitive to be shared, but you should always have your own counsel.

? 2021, KHALID KHAN.