SMALL BUSINESS : Focus Is on Business Liability : Survey: The Southland firms are found to be optimistic about the future but lagging in providing benefits and in Web technology.

When Jesse Pena took part in a recent focus group about the civil justice system, it marked the first time he had given much thought to business liability. Then last week, the problem suddenly turned real for the co-owner of a thriving Long Beach bakery.

Pena got a $725 bill from a client restaurant to cover the costs of a crown that a diner said he’d busted on a Pena Bros. dinner roll.

“It’s the beginning of something,” said Pena, who looked into business insurance after taking part in the focus group but hasn’t yet purchased it. “This is what we talked about.”

The focus group was one of five conducted with the burgeoning Latino business community in Los Angeles County. Sponsored by Sacramento-based Civil Justice Assn. of California--formerly the Assn. for California Tort Reform--the project aims to teach Latino business owners how to use arbitration and to recruit them into the fight against legislation that increases their chance of landing in court, said John Sullivan, the organization’s president.

The organization contracted Sierra Group, a Los Angeles public relations and advocacy group, to conduct the study of Latino business attitudes. Like all small-business owners, Latino entrepreneurs find the costs of litigation and employment disputes burdensome, the focus groups revealed. What came as a surprise was the lack of planning to avert potential problems, said Sierra Group President Rebecca Barrantes.

“The system happened to them as opposed to them being knowledgeable and aware of it before it happened,” she said.

Her aim--and the aim of Sullivan’s organization--is to change that. At Thursday’s Latin Business Assn. expo, they plan to announce the formation of a coalition of Latino business owners and organizations that will lobby state and local officials on business liability.