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How do I avoid lawsuits?

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Wyatt Houtz said:
Dear Experienced Professional Photographers with a Sole
Proprietorship,

No matter how good I am, someone is bound to sue me because of the
selfish nature of man. What can I do to avoid the spirit of the
McDonald's Coffee Spilling, Frivalous Lawsuitss for Millions of
dollars, send me to prison for the rest of my life and take
everything I own, because you think you look too fat in that dress
average Joe?

Are there special contracts you use to protect your photographs and
personal assets from lawsuits? Any wavers you require, or standard
legal documents?

Wyatt

-- http://www.asmp.org/index.php
Wyatt Houtz
email: [email protected]
http://www.havenofbliss.com
aol: wyatthoutz
Click to expand...
--
I love photography
 
frety wrote:
To clarify, I am referring to personal injury type liability. Not
to a host of other potential suits. I may have misunderstood the
origial question.

--
Joe Sesto

PERSONAL INJURY is a bit of a confusing term itself, as it is used by attorneys to describe their pursuing BODILY INJURY and PROPERTY DAMAGE claims on behalf of their clients injured/damaged in auto accidents, businesses operations, product malfunctions, etc. It is an umbrella term that defines their area of expertise.

However, in the insurance business PERSONAL INJURY coverage does not cover physical/bodily injuries to a person or damage to his property.

Insurance policies that provide PERSONAL INJURY coverage include the perils of libel, slander, defamation of character, invasion of privacy, false arrest, wrongful eviction, malicious prosecution, etc....the exact coverages differ from carrier to carrier. Damages are to the character or reputation of the person, not to his body or property...hence the name PERSONAL INJURY coverage.

For businesses PERSONAL INJURY can be extended to cover things like false advertising and other perils not in a normal business liability policy.

Packaged contracts like a BusinessOwners Policy (commonly called a BOP) provide many property, general liability and personal injury liability coverages in a program designed for most main street businesses. It's kind of like a Homeowners package for businesses.

Just thought I would clarify the terms.

Also, no amount of insurance will preclude a suit, in fact it is more likely to generate a suit. If someone is seriously injured by another party that carries only $25,000 in liability protection...that insurer will do everything in their power to try to get the injured party to settle for the $25,000 in exchange for a full release of liability for their client. They would not be so generous if their client carried $1,000,000 in coverage...and a suit would pretty much be a routine result.
 
Wyatt Houtz said:
What can I do to avoid Frivalous Lawsuitss because you think you look too fat in that dress average Joe?
Wyatt
Click to expand...
Don't let "Joe" wear a dress
--
Regards....Matt K
' Why isn't Phonetic spelled the way it sounds ???? '

'You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn't waste either.'....Galen Rowell
 
Hello Wyatt
Wyatt Houtz said:
No matter how good I am, someone is bound to sue me because of the
selfish nature of man.
Click to expand...
first thing you should do is to get out of that religious stuff. Most people are good people, if it were not the case we would never have been able to get out of caves.


Georges J.
 
You're right, no business form will protect your personal assets if you were personally negligent in causing an accident, harm, etc.

However, negligence is not the only cause of action for a lawsuit. In certain circumstances incorporation or an LLC can provide protection of your personal (non-business) assets. And while it's true that judges can "pierce the veil" of a corporation to gain access to personal assets, they cannot do so arbitrarily or in every case.

It's important to realize that NOTHING, no contract or business form, protects you if you are negligent or commit a crime. But that does not mean there is no value to selecting one business form over another. There are situations where it does make a difference.
frety said:
The LLC has a lot of interesting features. Protection from
lawsuits from your own actions is not one of them. Your lawyer
should have explained this to you. Ditto the LLP, C-sorp, S-corp
or an other legal entity you care to set up. Think about it. You
drop your camera on clients head. They won't need to sue the LLC.
They will sue you directly. Exposed will be your personal assets
including any stake you have in the LLC. If your employee drops
the camera on clients head, client might sue the employee directly
(your safe) or sue the LLC (your non-LLC assets are safe). Get it?
MarkLe said:
or LLP
(talking about personal assets).

Actually LLC is the most used here in NYC, around the photographers
I know.

http://www.imagingphotographics.com
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Yes, I was speaking imprecisely. Always appreciate clarity.
Joe Sesto said:
frety wrote:
To clarify, I am referring to personal injury type liability. Not
to a host of other potential suits. I may have misunderstood the
origial question.

--
Joe Sesto

PERSONAL INJURY is a bit of a confusing term itself, as it is used
by attorneys to describe their pursuing BODILY INJURY and PROPERTY
DAMAGE claims on behalf of their clients injured/damaged in auto
accidents, businesses operations, product malfunctions, etc. It
is an umbrella term that defines their area of expertise.

However, in the insurance business PERSONAL INJURY coverage does
not cover physical/bodily injuries to a person or damage to his
property.

Insurance policies that provide PERSONAL INJURY coverage include
the perils of libel, slander, defamation of character, invasion of
privacy, false arrest, wrongful eviction, malicious prosecution,
etc....the exact coverages differ from carrier to carrier. Damages
are to the character or reputation of the person, not to his body
or property...hence the name PERSONAL INJURY coverage.

For businesses PERSONAL INJURY can be extended to cover things like
false advertising and other perils not in a normal business
liability policy.

Packaged contracts like a BusinessOwners Policy (commonly called a
BOP) provide many property, general liability and personal injury
liability coverages in a program designed for most main street
businesses. It's kind of like a Homeowners package for businesses.

Just thought I would clarify the terms.

Also, no amount of insurance will preclude a suit, in fact it is
more likely to generate a suit. If someone is seriously injured by
another party that carries only $25,000 in liability
protection...that insurer will do everything in their power to try
to get the injured party to settle for the $25,000 in exchange for
a full release of liability for their client. They would not be so
generous if their client carried $1,000,000 in coverage...and a
suit would pretty much be a routine result.
Click to expand...
 
In any event, the majority of sole employee photographers are "judgement proof." :-)
Joe Sesto said:
frety wrote:
To clarify, I am referring to personal injury type liability. Not
to a host of other potential suits. I may have misunderstood the
origial question.

--
Joe Sesto

PERSONAL INJURY is a bit of a confusing term itself, as it is used
by attorneys to describe their pursuing BODILY INJURY and PROPERTY
DAMAGE claims on behalf of their clients injured/damaged in auto
accidents, businesses operations, product malfunctions, etc. It
is an umbrella term that defines their area of expertise.

However, in the insurance business PERSONAL INJURY coverage does
not cover physical/bodily injuries to a person or damage to his
property.

Insurance policies that provide PERSONAL INJURY coverage include
the perils of libel, slander, defamation of character, invasion of
privacy, false arrest, wrongful eviction, malicious prosecution,
etc....the exact coverages differ from carrier to carrier. Damages
are to the character or reputation of the person, not to his body
or property...hence the name PERSONAL INJURY coverage.

For businesses PERSONAL INJURY can be extended to cover things like
false advertising and other perils not in a normal business
liability policy.

Packaged contracts like a BusinessOwners Policy (commonly called a
BOP) provide many property, general liability and personal injury
liability coverages in a program designed for most main street
businesses. It's kind of like a Homeowners package for businesses.

Just thought I would clarify the terms.

Also, no amount of insurance will preclude a suit, in fact it is
more likely to generate a suit. If someone is seriously injured by
another party that carries only $25,000 in liability
protection...that insurer will do everything in their power to try
to get the injured party to settle for the $25,000 in exchange for
a full release of liability for their client. They would not be so
generous if their client carried $1,000,000 in coverage...and a
suit would pretty much be a routine result.
Click to expand...
 
bad_idea said:
l_ombre_jaune said:
No matter how good I am, someone is bound to sue me because of the
selfish nature of man.
Click to expand...
first thing you should do is to get out of that religious stuff.
Most people are good people, if it were not the case we would never
have been able to get out of caves.
Click to expand...
Are we really out of caves? Have you noticed how we humans are acting lately? We are still the same creatures. We just carry different types of weapons.

Wondering what you mean about getting out of that religious stuff? I didn't see any mention of it.
l_ombre_jaune said:
Georges J.
Click to expand...
 
About the only reasons you could be sued are for:
1. negligence while driving a car
2. not delivering on a contractual promise

Use standard contracts, plan to get to the shooting location well ahead of the critical time, and don't drive faster than the speed limit.

Lawyers feel entitled to make $250 an hour and won't bother small fry with frivolous lawsuits.

Get an umbrella policy simply to have insurance company lawyers on your side if needed.
 
kyaku wrote:
About the only reasons you could be sued are for:
1. negligence while driving a car
2. not delivering on a contractual promise

I assume that you are just talking about photographers being sued for acts arising out of their premises or operations.

A brief business insurance course might be of interest.

Probably few studios/photographers own their own building. As a tenant, if a fire results from their negligence, or presumed negligence, the landlord's fire insurance carrier will not pay for damages to the building until the landlord gives them the right to sue the tenant. This is covered under Fire Legal Liability in the photog's business (and most home/renter policies.) There are ways around this, but few know about it.

Do you think people haven't been injured or property of others damaged by equipment malfunction, electrical mistakes, falling props, booms, light stands, unsafe shooting conditions (ocean scenes...animals...scenic overlooks, etc.)

No photographer has ever placed themselves too near a sports activity resulting in injury to a participant?

No student has ever been injured in the course of having pictures taken on bleachers, theater props, staged athletic shots, etc.?

No photgrapher has been sued for publication of a photo of a person photographed in a public setting because they considered it demeaning and offensive? Or that the photog made an income if only by the publicity it generated?

Nothing has ever gone awry in a photo shoot, instruction, processing, lighting, display setup, premises/studio condition, advertising product, so on and so forth?

Pro photographers and some amateurs can tell horror stories of how something benign and innocent turned out badly.

Get an umbrella policy simply to have insurance company lawyers on
your side if needed.

Good idea, but you can't get an umbrella policy unless you have basic liability policies (called underlying coverage) unless you have a minimum of $500,000 coverage to begin with and for some industries the underlying limits have to be in the $1,000,000 +...and some of those policies require the client to put in heavy cash before the umbrella even kicks in after the underlying coverage is exhausted.

There is a real world out here, and it is populated by some very litigious people. To ignore them or minimize the loss potential of any business is to invite financial ruin and future credit problems for over a decade.

--
Joe Sesto
 
mauriceramirez said:
For example, the Mcdonald's
lawsuit wasn't frivolous; they claimed to have determined the
temperatures for the coffeepots solely on the basis of what
temperature would taste best, a temp which happened to be far over
scalding. Mcdonald's was therefore proven negligent in that they
had not taken enough care in this regard.
Click to expand...
mauriceramirez said:
the multi-million dollar award was fair since they could
easily have prevented it had they simply followed due diligence.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but the multi-million dollar award was totally UNFAIR. Yes, it could have been prevented, but the idiot spilled it on herself, and millions of dollars is not fair compensation for a few burns.

Whenever I hear that "send a message" refrain from a lawyer I want to shoot him...

Which defeats the purpose, since I'd then need a lawyer.
 
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