As long as you have assets that someone can reach, you shouldn’t be thinking about whether you will be sued or not – it is all about when you will get sued.
We have seen people that have survived risky careers without being sued and ended up getting sued for a simple slip and fall accident. So, lawsuits can happen anytime, without any warning.
Let us look at the different sources of lawsuits.
Premise Liability
As a home and business owner, you have people that assist you with tasks. You also receive customers on your premises. If a client was to fall and sustain injuries in your office, or if a worker falls and sustains injuries in your home or any other property that you own, you could be sued and be held liable for the damages.
You might not realize it, but you have potentially dangerous items on your property that might seem safe to you. These include a swing set, a trampoline or a tree that someone can climb.
If a person was to come to your property and sustain injuries on any of these items, then you are held liable as a property owner.
Car Accidents
Being involved in a car accident comes in two variants – you are the negligent party, or you are the victim. As a victim, you have the right to ask for compensation from the negligent party. If you are the negligent party, you will have to compensate the victim for the damages incurred and loss of income. Every year, car accidents in New York result in multimillion-dollar judgments.
Additionally, it doesn’t have to be only on the road for you to get sued for negligence. As an employer and one of the employees is involved in an accident while on the way to pick up an item for the office, you will be held liable for the accident.
Providing less than Stellar Security
We have seen cases where a store owner was held responsible for the wrongful death of a child abducted from his premises. In New York, we have laws that impose on you to provide enough security if something happens on your property.
Employee Liability
If you have employees in your premises, you can get sued for workplace accidents, wrongful termination, bias (gender, racial, sexual orientation, religious), negligent and racial harassment. When this happens, you will be held responsible for the damages that you have caused to the victim.
Product Liability
Just because you produce or sell products, it doesn’t mean you are shielded against lawsuits. The lawsuit might not come from you as a person rather from the product that you sell to the masses. If your product causes injury to a person that bought it, then you are held liable for the damages that were caused by this product.
Violation of Disability Rights
The Americans with Disabilities Act applies to all states across the country. When you come up with a business, the asset protection lawyer will tell you about this Act and how you can implement it in your business. Complying with the Act requires you to make your premises ideal for the disabled, and when you violate the Act, the lawsuits can run into millions of dollars.
Medical Malpractice
Doctors have a gigantic task when it comes to securing their assets. Studies show that most medical malpractice judgments exceed what the doctors have as insurance coverage.
Every year, thousands of medical practitioners get sued. A few of them survive the lawsuits, while most of them find themselves losing everything right from their homes to their premises.
The only thing that makes these doctors lose their homes is the lack of a clause in their asset protection plans to protect them against malpractice. Talk to an asset protection attorney today to know what to do to protect you against lawsuits.
The loss of property in a lawsuit can be avoided if you structure your assets the proper way. Once you structure these assets properly, you can know that your assets are safe from creditors.
Landlord Liability
If you own rental property, get ready to be slapped with a lawsuit after lawsuit. You will be at risk of premise liability, negligent security, mould contamination, accidents and more.
Prevent Lawsuits
With a properly structured asset protection plan, the assets can be secured against creditors and hungry plaintiffs. If a lawyer searches for assets to seize, they find that there are none to take. Work with an asset protection lawyer to come up with the best plan for your situation.