Posted by James (Ala) on February 18, 2008 at 07:34:53:
Two thoughts:
If your LLC is being sued, then you are not being sued individually and you can’t proceed pro se. In most states, a business entity (corp., LLC, etc.) is a separate “being” (that’s why you set it up, right?) and must be represented by a licensed attorney.
Second, if these lawsuits are so frivolous that they are naming the wrong parties because they are not researching the owner(s)of real property properly, there should be some relief available to you from your state statutes. In Ala., it is called the Ala. Litigation Acountability Act; your state probably has something similar.
Finally, my thoughts are just suggestions–if I were in your shoes, I would hire competent counsel and ask them to seek damages for you, as well as defend against the lawsuit.
Good luck,
James (Ala)
P.s. Of course, this will all be moot if your insurance coverage applies because they will handle the defense of the lawsuit.
We have a LLC being sued for the second time.Our LLC has only the first name of the other LLC being sued.(ie: abc realty ours-abc church theres).This is the second time this happened.
The first time this happened we had a lawyer handle it because we thought innocently our name would be removed because of a error!It started with aletter and 100.00 and ended with court apperances and fees totaling 8000.00
We sent letters to the lawyer showing we did not own property in question with Dept of State filing showing we owned property in a different Boro,Tax Map,Title Ins,Ins etc.They still didnt want to release us and then they finally agreed we had no interest in the property
and released us.
No we have the same problem and took all summons and mailed to our insurance agent to foward to Ins. Co. something we didnt do the first time we were sued.
Any help on how to not be taken advantage of and handle this would be appreciated.
If this was just a matter related to Real Property and they were not seeking a money judgment against your company, all your attorney needed to do was file a Disclaimer of Interest with Court and that would have been the end of it. If they were seeking a money judgment against your company, your attorney should have been able to get attorney fees awarded to you.
First your ins. co., then your lawyer - Posted by John Merchant
Posted by John Merchant on February 18, 2008 at 10:35:30:
First notify your ins. co. and demand they defend this action as that’s what you’re paying for with your ins. premiums.
Secondly, if you don’t KNOW, beyond any doubt, that your ins. co. is going to file an Answer to that lawsuit, then you’ll need to file one, either pro se (for yourself, sans lawyer) or have your lawyer do it for you.
Frankly it sounds so simple, their suing the wrong LLC, that a hand written letter, signed by you for your LLC, filed at the clerk’s office in that suit, would probably be adequate to get the suit dismissed and recoupe any costs you’re out.
Posted by Rich-CA on February 17, 2008 at 20:08:11:
Usually if you get sued, you will need to file a response. While the advice of an attorney is best to ensure you do not step in a bear trap, you can draft the response yourself and have an attorney look it over. You also always have the right to represent yourself in court. You should prepare a motion to be removed from the complaint. If your prior case included such a motion to the judge, you should use it as a model making sure you address the facts of the complaint in such a way as to refute the complaint since, even though it is the 2nd time, it is likely that it has different details that need to be addressed. Then have an attorney review your finished work before filing it with the court.
Thank you. Will our Insurance carrier cover this type of problem? We sent all summons to our Ins. broker to foward to Insurance Co. Our Lawyer who received the summons did what you said to do but we cant afford him. There are about 5 different Corp. in the summons.
What other avenues could we go to resolve this?
Posted by Rich-CA on February 18, 2008 at 08:47:23:
If you are an LLC and not a corp, you can defend yourself in court rather than using a lawyer. Its not so difficult you MUST have a lawyer do everything.
Another possibility would be to form a new LLC, transfer the property you DO own into it and dissolve the LLC with the confusing name. For property ownership I use an LLC named for the property address - which does help reduce confusion on the matter.
If you are a Corp, then you can NOT rep yourself in court - one of the reasons for not using a corp. I would set up the LLC and move the property to it NOW to avoid the next problem that will come along. Something about the company that is really being sued is that their property seems to be an attractive nuisance.