JJ McIntyre, the manufacturer of the machine that took Nicastro's fingers, calls you and asks for advice.  They have been sued by a California resident who works at another plant and just received a summons.  Evidently, JJ McIntyre decided to try to sell their machines to California companies, attending trade shows, doing mailings and email blasts to California companies.  They signed up a Los Angeles marketing company to work on this, and the VP Sales has been in California to see customers several times.  JJ McIntyre thinks that since they did not have an office in California, and since they won last time, they can ignore the summons.  

1. Should McIntyre ignore the summons? Why or why not?
2. Using the FIRAC method, how do you think a Court will hold in this case? Why?

 

JJ McIntyre & the FIRAC Method

Q 1

McIntyre should not ignore the summons because such a matter may ruin the reputation of the company and lead to hefty legal implications. According to McCall (2019), responding to summon implies filling an answer that lets the court acknowledge that the person/organization intends to defend the case.

The organization should adopt a culture of dealing with problems head on because every issue no matter how small impacts the progression of the company in the market. McIntyre should take this opportunity to shape the reputation of its brand by showing compassion and empathy for the injured victim and focusing on determining the root cause of the problem. Furthermore, scandals still leave consumers speculation, therefore, it is not wise to think that ignoring the summons is okay since the company won the last court case. Some cases may result in unfavourable and undesirable outcomes that even lead to legal restrictions for selling the machines to California companies.   

Q 2

The FIRAC method is an acronym for a five-step analytical process where one considers Fact, Issue, Rule, Analysing and Conclusion. In the case of Fact, suppose the court finds McIntyre guilty of selling a flawed machine. The court will determine the exact laws that were violated. In the case of Issue, the court will further investigate specific issues related to the problem, the circumstances of the case (Haniffa, 2019). The Rule is the text of the law or the legal principle (Haniffa, 2019). According to Haniffa (2019), the words of the Rule help to generate the information needed for the conclusion. In the Analysis, the identified rules are applied to the issue at hand (Haniffa, 2019). According to Haniffa (2019), the application is the most important section of the FIRAC. The aim is to answer the issue at hand. In the Conclusion, the section restates the issue and provides the final answer (Haniffa, 2019). The conclusion will answer whether McIntyre is guilty of a rule violation in the case.