It Is Imnportant To Know The Business Organization Of The Defendant In A Personal Injury Claim
A business can operate as a sole proprietorship which simply means that it is an extension of the human being who formed the business. For instance, Joe Jones doing business as the ABC Company may be a sole proprietorship. What that means is that the only legal entity that is involved in that business is Joe Jones himself. The ABC Company is simply a trade name or what some people call a fictitious name for Joe Jones himself.
Other forms of business organization are partnerships, corporations, limited liability companies and limited liability partnerships. There are other forms of organization but those are the most common ones. Most people before going into business form either a corporation or a limited liability company because that provides them with some protection from contract liability. That is, if the corporation enters into a contract which is not guaranteed by the people that are involved in the corporation then the only entity that is liable for that contract is the corporation itself. There are also other potential advantages in terms of forming a corporation for the pursuit of business interests.
In a general partnership the partners may be jointly liable for any liability that attaches to the partnership.
Knowing the form of business organization of the defendant is important in personal injury claims and in all other types of claims because the nature of the business organization may have some impact on your ability to recover money if it turns out the defendant is uninsured or underinsured.
See Brien Roches book Law 101 published by Sphinx Publishing for more information on this subject.
