Liability/Insurance question

[mikehussy1990]

Well first off all you need to answer few questions. How much do you have invested in your project, are you and your staff certified and licensed (if applicable), how long have you been in this business, what is your accident history, have you ever been sued, how much would it cost to replace something that one of your men might destroy in the course of business, etc.
Sometimes insurance is to much expensive, you need to talk to attorney, that cost lot of money, so analyze your risk and cost and then decide for insurance.

so you just need to decide that does insurance cover your damages and you have enough profits?

[SavageSunJeep]

There are a ton of guys out there that are doing various fab on rigs...I do and I work on off road rigs. That said, I would not do a cage for anyone, anytime under any circumstances.

Jeep sells the wranglers with what is calls a 'Sport Bar'. Call it a roll bar or cage and get out of the way of the law suits. That is WHY Jeep does not call it a roll bar, simple as that.

You need to remember what the cage does: It is there to save you life or prevent serious injury in the event of roll over. If they die or become seriously injured in SPITE of the fact that: They were driving off road at night, UNDER the influence and past the DUI std, lights off, on posted property, and drove off a 50' drop off...has NOTHING to do with it. YOUR cage/roll bar failed!!!!

If you are a CERTIFIED welder then they OWN you. Non-certified welders generally have less liability in many cases.

[Portable Welder]

I've had insurance for the last 21 years and very thankfull that I have never had to use it other than auto accidents.

JS Fab and Body Bagger are right.

Liability insurance covers you while your doing the work and say the car catches on fire.

In the case of a Roll Bar you need what my insurance company call completed operations which covers you after the car leaves your garage.

I friend that has been doing cages for the last 8 years and is now up to the level of cars as fast as 7 seconds.
He says he hates doing them now ( The cool factor has worn off ) but he does them to support his race car habit.

I never do them because theres no real money at it unless you have a reputation at the pro level.

I can make way more money building hand rails than roll bars ever paid.

[con_fuse9]

The burden of proof in civil cases is "a preponderance of the evidence," or in other words, can a jury of schmucks with absolutely no understanding of mechanics be convinced (or confused) that there is more than a 50% chance that the plaintiff is right.

Careful there.

The right answer is to talk to a lawyer. It may be as simple as your buddies or whomever signing a waver. Something like "The car is not suitable to be moved - if you do actually move the car (under its own power or otherwise) all warantees are null and void and the mover assumes all liabilities"

Some states you pay percentage of the fault. For instance - a certain drunk baseball player just signs a $20Mil/year contract for 5 years. Hits a tow truck on the side of the road that was picking up a disabled car. The family of the deseased baseball player sues the tow truck owner, operator, owner of car sitting on side of road etc. Why? Well if they can prove that they are even 1% at fault, the family will collect .01 x $20Mil X 5years or $1Mil. Did the tow truck driver delay at all? Take a sip from cup of coffee? etc etc.

As for setting up LLC or partnerships or other such business entities - remember, if a business gets sued, so does the president of the business. And if your dumb enough to put your wife as president (minority owned?) you expose not only you, your wife, but all your combined assets. Again, talk to a lawyer, talk to him about truely limiting your liability.