[Belisarius]

Hi, All-

I just got some news through the grapevine yesterday that I am supposedly a party in a lawsuit.
I have been self-employed as a Design-only sole proprietor since September doing projects for a number of different companies. One of my clients from a small company (someone I knew for several years) came to me for 4-5 designs in that time which I did for him.
Usually I never had any contact with the customers. He would bring me the survey and basic plan info and supplied me with his company logo and business card, etc. to include with the design package.
Long story short, it turns out that he did in fact work for that company but only for a few months. When he left them he took all the info he needed to continue representing himself as their salesman, paid me to do some of his designs, sold the project to the customer, and then never contacted the customer again. Apparently he made off with tens of thousands and has a warrant out for his arrest.
Apparently, the company he was misrepresenting and the customers he cheated think I am in cahoots with him as my name was on the plans as "designed by" Today I should find out who exactly is suing [either the company or his customer(s)] us.
My question is: Is there some contract I could use with my clients to absolve me from anything should there develop problems between them and the homeowner?
Not asking for legally binding advice just fishing for some knowledge so I can more intelligently pursue that advice.

Thanks,
David

[Lanelle]

What form of payment did you receive?

[Belisarius]

He always paid cash. Half up front, half upon delivery.
I'm not sure how he was paid, though. If checks, how could he cash them- but that's a whole different question.

[NCSULandscaper]

i would let your attorney handle it all, they would know best.

[Stonehenge]

And as soon as your attorney gets this squared away, your next step is to set up an LLC or S Corp - too much exposure as a sole prop - one weird case goes south and they own your cars and home.

[Busy Bee]

Stonehenge, You just said it all.

[Paul]

Ok let me get this straight, they are suing you for what they contracted someone else for? You are a party to it by suppling the drawings. You supplied the drawing for which you got paid, so you fulled your contract. There are no warrants for you and you might be named as a third party?

Your lawyer would ask you to bring your drawings and receipts to court and the judge would throw out the law suit. They did not contact you and as far as you know they got what they paid for. A drawing from you!
Now then you should be joining the law suit against the the person that had you do the designs for defamation.

All of this is going to cost you a few bucks by todays standards, say $15 to $20K.

One more thing never take cash payments from companies, you want a check and a contract!

[Belisarius]

I want to thank everyone for their replies to my question. I was having so much trouble getting info on my lawsuit that I finally called the customer who brought the lawsuit and asked him whether I was on it. He said no, he was suing the salesman who had took his money and had no beef with me at all.
I will act on the other advice given here and treat this "near miss" as a positive learning experience.
Does anyone here put disclaimers on their designs to protect themselves from lunatic lawsuits?

David

[Jake Wolf]

It's pretty simple. Use a contract that spells out what services you are providing, a payment schedule and get everyones signatures on it. Make sure you have the proper liability insurance and look into getting an llc or corp.