Top Franchise Legal Players: Ambika Sapra, Co-Founder and Partner at Sapra & Navarra, LLP

As co-founder and partner at Sapra & Navarra LLP , Sapra said franchisees are often blindsided by a very specific type of claim: continuous trauma — a repetitive injury over a period of time rather than a single-instance slip-and-fall.

“The franchisees never know what’s coming,” she said. “There’s no reporting of an injury, there is no treatment and there is no modification of work. So they’re flabbergasted when they get a claim for continuous trauma.”

Many franchisees believe that an employee would have to work for them for a long period of time in order to file a claim like that. Sorry to burst the franchisee’s bubble, Sapra said: Even if an employee has worked for a franchisee for mere hours, they can still file a continuous trauma claim.

“It's a really big shock for the employers or franchisees, and continuous trauma claims are very difficult to defend in California,” she said. “Almost one in five indemnity claims in California is for continuous trauma, because there's a lot of money in it, and the employers better have a sharp litigation strategy to defend.”

Together with the universal challenges brought on by the pandemic and minimum wage increases impacting franchisees’ bottom lines, continuous trauma claims make up the trio of major issues facing Sapra’s industry right now.

“Don’t chase after unicorns,” she said. “Employers think there is some magical fairy dust or some magical cure that will either make the cases cost a lot more or make the frequency go down. And that just doesn’t exist. You will get sued, so be ready, and don’t be surprised by it.”