Incorperating LLC or S Corp.?

You nailed it Roadmedic !! Umbrella policies are relitivly cheap for the coverage you get. A $1,000,000.00 policy will cost you approx. $300. a year and buy a lot of attorny time !

 

very very true, I totaly forgot about that policy .. its worth the extra few hundread

 

Thank you

exactly why I was saying for this type of small operation. If you plan to grow to a large corperation then it will pay to start it now but I don't know about you but that's not my goal in life.
Any new corperation will have no credit so it will all be based of you!

 

umbrella policy

 

From what I have heard, it doesnt help you much unless you are making a bunch of bling, and when that happens, it only helps in terms of taxes.

*You are personally responsible for your driving so they can still come after ya.
*incorporating is not a "hey this will protect my bass if I schmuck up" thing
*they can't come after your house and the land its on...basically your main residence.
*if you have other properties, think about making sure they are in your wifes name or something else like that, not directly tied to you. If you trust anyone enough.
*Most lawyers aren't going to come after you unless they are going to get a million smackers from ya. Too many accident where they can rake in the big bucks.
*insurance is probably the best way to go.
*put your money in something like a 401k that can not be touched in a lawsuit like IRA's can.

 

The piercing the corporate veil argument doesn't really hold a lot of water with me. Yes it can be done but some form of negligence would need to be shown.

My use of the phrase; real corp, real llc, or real business is key to protecting your personal assets.

Yes you will be named and sued regardless but if you have been conducting yourself as a proper corp/llc you will be protected. You can sue anyone for just about anything, winning is a whole different story.

Flying down the road and a wheel falls off crippling a bus load of attorney's:

1) you had and have claimed a portion of your home as office space, you saved money by fixing that wheel bearing the previous weekend by working on it at home in your own shop and you are not trained as a mechanic and are not insured for this, you picked the load up at 8a.m. and had the accident at 10p.m. 840 miles away, the axle is later found to have been 2500lbs over weight, you have been using the company checking account as your personal piggy bank just having wrote a $15,000 dollar check for a new boat that is parked in your garage and a $3000 check for a new furnace in the house. (you're toast)

or

2) You just got the truck back from the dealer who charged you for replacing a bearing, your logs are all legal, your weight is legal, you park at home or a local truckstop while at home and a disinterested party says "I see him every monday and have no clue what he is doing for so long, but he checks the oil and then walks around the truck for a 1/2 an hour looking like he has lost his keys and they are hidden on the truck somewhere... I specifically remember this day because I called Ethyl and told her that guy is out there looking for his keys again...lol"

You still get named on the suit but your attorney has that tossed in short order. Further, you are now sitting at the table with the crippled attornies going after the dealership for a new truck since yours was ruined by there shoddy workmanship when the wheel fell off.

can you do your own work???? sure... but then you also have to stand behind that work and no your insurance company will not stand behind you unless you have been paying them to (aforementioned umbrella policy).

there are a million scenarios but IMO the corporate veil is only "pierced" when you leave yourself open to the liability. Most will do this without considering the possible consequences of their actions.

A properly run corporation is good protection, especially for the shareholders.

 

Driving the truck yourself is piercing that veil.

I'm not telling you not to LLC. I am just saying no to expect it to be a cure all. Corperate attorneys wouldn't be in business if there wern't people incorperating. I would still carry the unbrella policy.

Oh and I am a trained mechanic so your example doesn't exactly fit me.

 

My main issue is the fact that no matter what you have for 'protection' you are still the person driving the vehicle. Heck yeah, they can go after the dealership that worked on it, but you were the one driving, and hence, you're at fault. Or...moreso.

As far as the wheel falling off, all they need to do is find something, the smallest shred of evidence anywhere, and you can be found guilty. They can say that sure the wheel fell off, but that means you didn't inspect the wheel, looking for cracks, signs of rust. It could mean you didn't inspect the lugnuts for tightness, signs of cracks or rust or broken pieces.

Plus any good attorney worth their weight will know that most drivers fudge on their logbooks and if they can prove you fudged anywhere in any of the logbooks you have / carry, they can imply you were driving illegally. And Im not talking about just rewriting, they can double check your logs going back as far as they want. Some companies keep logbooks for 6 months. The attorneys can check all your reciepts, scale stops...etc, everything and if they find one instance where you were somewhere you claimed you werent, its ovah.

And as OJ knows, you can be found innocent criminally, but then guilty civally. There are lots of ways you can get taken to court.

 

As always, each to their own.