Small Business Owner – Workers comp legal advice?
I am a small business owner. I sell signs and contract people to make them and install them. Since I work out of my house, I do not have workers comp. I hired a person to do an installation as a subcontractor, and he did not have workers compensation. One of his helpers, whom I did not know then, had an accident on the installation. I was not aware of the accident at the time, and the person I have hired, once the job was finished asked me to give me a check with a different name on it, telling me that his account was overdraft, and he cold not deposit the check on his account. Since I knew the person for so long, I did it.
Turns out that a few weeks later I received a claim from an attorney office, representing a person I did not know, saying that he was my employee and that I had to be responsible for his medical expenses and disability. I read the name on the claim, and seemed familiar, so I checked in my checkbook, and noticed that it was the same name on the check I had written.
To make it worst, turns out that this person is an illegal alien
I will be contacting an attorney, but I meanwhile I would like to know what consequences I could be facing. I feel like I was framed, and I don’t know what could happen. Any advise would be great.
Hello there,
Man, how can you have been that dumb? Sorry, no disrespect intended. But you are a business man. You have some amount of business experience and with that comes an awareness of responsibilities. To write a check in the name of someone you did not know as a so-called favor was asking to be trapped. Yep, you got suckered.
I do some business law, but not workman’s comp matters. That is pretty much a specialty area. From a business law stand point, you have a fair defense, but proof will be difficult to say the least. This is not just a matter of your word against the guy you actually hired. Presumably he is going to deny your story. Then the guy who got hurt is going to agree with him in refuting your story. Then there is the check with the name of the guy who got hurt on it. That is a lot going against you.
Perhaps a good lawyer who practices in workman’s comp will be able to defend your story. He is going to earn his money.
Before you go in and meet with the attorney, I suggest you go back through your records and documents to find any thing that tends to support your story. Any phone messages from the guy you hired. Any form of correspondence from him. Even things from prior job dealings with him will help your attorney show that you had a business relationship with the guy you hired. When the company that made the signs and (presumably) delivered them to the job site, see if they maintain any documents showing who signed for the receipt of the sign. I do not know what sort of other document that may have formed a trial left by the guy your hired. I would think he had to take out a work permit with the city/county for that job site. You know your business better than anyone else, much better than I or your attorney will. Think what sort of things are normally associated with any such job. What documents will the name of subcontractor appear on. You got suckered once. Now use your knowledge of this business to show them that they were not successful. Think about what sort of paper trail the subcontractor will have left (not just with your, but with anyone else). There will be things generated in the normal course of business that will show who the subcontractor was on any job.
Perhaps a little late, but I would like to offer two points of advice. In the future, have all subcontractors sign an agreement that as a condition of taking on this job they agree to and covenant to you that they are covering the workman’s comp and unemployment tax matters on anyone they have working on this particular job. Include a provision that the subcontractor must carry adequate contractors liability insurance on their work. If they refuse, give the job to another subcontractor. Times of lean and you have the power on your side to make demands. Lastly, before you make final payment to the subcontractor, have him provide signed waivers by any subcontractors that he used stating that those subs have been paid before you release the final settlement. If you pay him and he does not pay one of his subcontractors, that unpaid sub can file a mechanics lien against the property requiring the homeowner to pay this subcontractor’s claim. The homeowner is going to either bring you into the litigation as a co-defendant or cross claim against you, or (in the case of out of court settlement) he is going to seek the money from you to pay the unpaid subcontractor. You are then stuck with the bill and have to try to get the money back from the subcontractor you hired and paid. Generally not a easy process.
Later,
You likely have legal standing that the person you contracted, and
contracted is the key word here, was not an “employee”, but just
that, an “independant contractor”. If you simply told him where the
sign was to be installed, ie address, location on the building,
used his own tools etc. And you agreed on a dollar amount before
hand, but did not tell him how, or when, or whether or not others
were to be involved, then he would likely meet the independant
contractor rules. If that is the case, YOU are not responsible for
industrial injury of this person, or any others he may have
employed in the completion of this job. Talk to an attorney…
don’t rely on a message board for legal advice. You get what you
pay for here… and a consult with an attorney shouldn’t cost
anything either. At least you can see the color of his/her eyes.
You may think that your readers don’t want to see info re-hashed,
but I think there can be a lot of value in presenting your content
in a new way, Often, your readers don’t get a chance to read
everything, so they appreciate it when you put it together in one
place. And, you have new readers who may have missed your best
stuff.
The word ‘lol’ also describes a similar meaning in German and since
English is closely related to Germanic it may as well have shown at
some point (Pennsylvania Dutch
small business are great for start-up ventures to know if the
market is good-”-