Hiring Someone to Work on Property - Liability

[Username Taken]

You had me until the last line but that’s for another day.

You may have heard the story about a town with one starving lawyer. He was in pitiful financial shape until another lawyer moved to town. In a year they were both rich.

Lawyers are like a pair of scissor. They cut up everything that comes between them but only sharpen themselves.

In the US, there is one lawyer per 240 people, which is easily #1 in the world. We have 1 Doctor per 385 people, which is below the developed (and much of the undeveloped) world average, BTW. Nice.

Think about that for a minute. The 240 people? That includes men, women and children.

So if a Lawyer needs at least $150,000 a year to survive (they do, and that figure is low) then that means that every single solitary human being inside the United States has to contribute $600 per year to support lawyers. Somehow, some way, you do.

Now, eliminate people who can't pay anything.... Children, the retired, the disabled, the poor and how much do you think each working Man and Woman has to contribute to a profession that is completely and totally dishonest and mostly unnecessary?

Japan keeps the number of lawyers in their Country low. On puprose. Approximately one for every 4,200 citizens. And they don't even like having that many. They recognize that the profession is inherently dishonest and uniformly corrupt. Up to, including and especially, Judges.

But the average American will gleefully turn on the TV and watch hour after hour of programming that practically canonizes them, worships them, portrays them as the Heroes Of The People.

Go figure

 

[two_bit_score]

Preach it brother! @Username Taken

 

[sunandsand]

There's a LOT more involved in law than nasty lawsuits.

Lawsuits usually have a winner and a loser . . . which means somebody is going to be REALLY unhappy about their encounter with the legal "system" and won't be shy about telling people about it. Nor do I blame them, sometimes people do get hammered. When people are in divorce court, the time for reasonable discussion is long over.

Disclosure - I've been married to a lawyer for 25 years, and I'm still alive. (No, my theme song is not "They're coming to take me away, ha ha".) She's good to me, I get 10% off the first $500 of my legal bills every year.

She was a Public Defender way back when. Everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law (even though it seems if you have a lot of money, your protection will be somewhat more equal), and that's what Public Defenders do, they defend people who don't have any money.

One case involved a guy who got sent up the river for ten years for allegedly exposing himself to his girlfriend's 13 year old daughter. On review, it turned out the girlfriend and the daughter concocted the story to "get even" with him for breaking up with the girlfriend.

Now here's a guy, somewhat handicapped, a little developmentally slow, ethnic minority, and now he also has a criminal record (for no valid reason). Who in the world would hire this guy when he finally gets out? Final result, he got sprung, the record was expunged, and the girlfriend and the daughter are now enjoying the hospitality of the state for fraud. He's got an honest job and is supporting himself.

After a few years of that, she went into child protection. Daddy's in the slammer (again), mommy failed her drug test (again), the kids are filthy, bug-bitten and malnourished. I am going to tell you right now, you cannot even begin to imagine the twisted, sick s**t some people deliberately put their own kids through, and you know what, you don't even want to begin to imagine it.

I did some back-office work for her, filing, etc., and after a while I asked her to stop taking these cases, it was just too distressing and depressing. Eventually she did.

She's now semi-retired, and is the magistrate for the city. She reviews code violations and tries to work them out instead of just slapping them with fines. 99% of the time, that works, everyone goes away if not happy, at least not unhappy.

She also does some occasional minor work such as powers of attorney, fixes errors on deeds, does minor revisions on wills, stuff like "Your divorce isn't final, sign it here and go file it.", things like that.

Her bill is usually $50 or $100, more often she doesn't even charge at all. This is a small town, these are neighbors, and we help each other out. You'd be amazed at the number of people who have small, unresolved legal issues which don't bother them right now, but if they aren't fixed, they will be a BIG problem later.

Besides, she can't be an ambulance chaser, her Subaru just isn't fast enough.

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

 

[two_bit_score]

Some lawyers live in fear of the Malpractice Lawyers.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

There's a LOT more involved in law than nasty lawsuits.

Lawsuits usually have a winner and a loser . . . which means somebody is going to be REALLY unhappy about their encounter with the legal "system" and won't be shy about telling people about it. Nor do I blame them, sometimes people do get hammered. When people are in divorce court, the time for reasonable discussion is long over.

Disclosure - I've been married to a lawyer for 25 years, and I'm still alive. (No, my theme song is not "They're coming to take me away, ha ha".) She's good to me, I get 10% off the first $500 of my legal bills every year.

She was a Public Defender way back when. Everyone is entitled to equal protection under the law (even though it seems if you have a lot of money, your protection will be somewhat more equal), and that's what Public Defenders do, they defend people who don't have any money.

One case involved a guy who got sent up the river for ten years for allegedly exposing himself to his girlfriend's 13 year old daughter. On review, it turned out the girlfriend and the daughter concocted the story to "get even" with him for breaking up with the girlfriend.

Now here's a guy, somewhat handicapped, a little developmentally slow, ethnic minority, and now he also has a criminal record (for no valid reason). Who in the world would hire this guy when he finally gets out? Final result, he got sprung, the record was expunged, and the girlfriend and the daughter are now enjoying the hospitality of the state for fraud. He's got an honest job and is supporting himself.

After a few years of that, she went into child protection. Daddy's in the slammer (again), mommy failed her drug test (again), the kids are filthy, bug-bitten and malnourished. I am going to tell you right now, you cannot even begin to imagine the twisted, sick s**t some people deliberately put their own kids through, and you know what, you don't even want to begin to imagine it.

I did some back-office work for her, filing, etc., and after a while I asked her to stop taking these cases, it was just too distressing and depressing. Eventually she did.

She's now semi-retired, and is the magistrate for the city. She reviews code violations and tries to work them out instead of just slapping them with fines. 99% of the time, that works, everyone goes away if not happy, at least not unhappy.

She also does some occasional minor work such as powers of attorney, fixes errors on deeds, does minor revisions on wills, stuff like "Your divorce isn't final, sign it here and go file it.", things like that.

Her bill is usually $50 or $100, more often she doesn't even charge at all. This is a small town, these are neighbors, and we help each other out. You'd be amazed at the number of people who have small, unresolved legal issues which don't bother them right now, but if they aren't fixed, they will be a BIG problem later.

Besides, she can't be an ambulance chaser, her Subaru just isn't fast enough.

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

Lol, my best friend has a law degree, I considered it but didn’t. As many court cases and documents I’ve worked with I should have.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Some lawyers live in fear of the Malpractice Lawyers.

I spent a year and a-ton of time and $ trying to find a mal practice lawyer. ha, joke

Just like Drs, they will not go after one of their own unless it's an absolutely guaranteed open and shut case. IE, easy money.

I Been there. I had at least 3 lawyers tell me my lawyer was negligent but...they couldn't take the case. I mean, What would they say when they saw the guy at the country club later that day?

The best part was when I called the NC Bar and the secretary went way way way out of her way to help me! She hated lawyers more than I do because, she knew them well. That was funny.

Here's the best test. Go find some late middle aged women, a little dumpy, who work as paralegals in a-law office. They are over the hill so none of the guys are sniffin anymore.

I knew 2 that met that description and you can not believe the stories they told and the hate in their eyes. A woman scorned.

I know all lawyers are not as above but the system is a joke. Until you been there, then it's not so funny.

 

[Hay Dude]

You ever research who lawyers donate the most money to?
Its a real eye opener

 

[MoKelly]

You ever research who lawyers donate the most money to?
Its a real eye opener

Yep.

Same as teacher unions.

MoKelly

 

[Hay Dude]

Yep.

Same as teacher unions.

MoKelly

If someone could just get in front of a national audience and articulate that so all can understand.

 

[Username Taken]

Here's what everybody has missed in this thread. Or maybe I missed it and if I did, sorry 'bout that.

But if a kid of 16, 17, 18 is working on your property and he skins his knee, I don't see a problem.

If he breaks an arm, then a decent human being would WANT him to be taken care of.

If he takes out an eye while weed-whacking, I would WANT him to be taken care of. I would want my HO policy to pay to its limit. That's what it's there for. (it is different state to state and policy to policy. Assume nothing)

I mean, what kind of people are we talking about here? Seriously. Is it all about you or doesn't the kid matter at all?

The kid matters to me. A lot.

I understand the plethora of 'slip and fall' lawyers infesting our Country. How can you miss them when they're on TV every night, every day, every morning on every TV show encouraging people to sue, sue, sue (Yes, Virginia. We have too many lawyers in this Country [even lawyers will tell you that])

Which is why, if it's just silly stuff like some weed-eating (Put those goggles on, NOW!) or the usual liftin' and totin' I'm not gonna get excited about it. My CPL should take care of most incidents. But if it won't, chances are you got the wrong kid doing the wrong stuff.

Common sense should prevail

 

[two_bit_score]

Common Sense is very UNcommon these days!

 

[Username Taken]

Common Sense is very UNcommon these days!

Then there's Horse Sense, which is even less common.

Not to be confused with horse's butt, horse feathers or horse manure.

 

[two_bit_score]

Which is better chicken feather, horse feathers or bull feathers?

 

[Username Taken]

Which is better chicken feather, horse feathers or bull feathers?

Hen's teeth

 

[MoKelly]

Bull hockey.

MoKelly

 

[two_bit_score]

Nope it’s caca.

 

[Hay Dude]

Bovine Scatology

 

[swnoel]

I am SLOWLY learning that if I am to keep my sanity I need to hire people to help me in life. My goal for the summer is to keep the weeds on my property at bay all summer long Last summer it was a mess, I was too busy with my shop build and the weeds got out of control. All fall I would walk around and end up with a hoodie full of burrs.

I am a school teacher and I plan on hiring one of my responsible enterprising students to weed eat at the property this summer. My question is about liability. I am assuming liability is lessened if you are paying that person to work at your property. Am I correct in this assumption? I do not think he is necessarily going to get hurt, just curious.

As soon as you pay them they become an employee... most home owners policies include some sort of workman comp provision. I would suggest as someone already did to investigate what your policy provides for.

 

[McLeanJennifere]

Everything has risks. For example, if someone hurts himself, you will be in trouble, but that isn't 100%. It would depend on your worker if it were his honest mistake. There could be fewer questions in that case. Try not to put workers at complicated technic because many accidents happen of nonexperience. And I'm proud that I lived on a farm and had the chance to get ready for the university. Nature is the best way of concentrating. Also, my dad's friend is a farmer and a teacher, haha. He suggested me this leading engineering recruitment agency for my next steps.

 

[newbury]

I didn't think I would ever utter this phrase: If you know your agent, ask them, exposure varies on many factors including your policy and the state you live in.


Best,

ed

That's the bottom line -
I've been looking for a good roofer in Mississippi.
Think I found one but he doesn't carry insurance for his employees. Too expensive.
Had my lawyer call our agent. She was told we are covered.