Student Pilot having a fatal crash?

[midlifeflyer]

That is true, if they can prove NEGLIGENCE, they can pierce the corporate veil to sue...and that is at it should be.

Just being a bit hyper-technical here, so forgive me. But misunderstanding what organizational limited liability means and doesn't mean is so widespread and potentially disastrous to the person who thinks there is protection where there is none.

An individual's responsibility for his own actions in the tort sense (causing injury to person or property by acting intentionally or failing to act reasonably) is not a "piercing" issue. There's no veil to begin with. The liability that these entities limit tend to be exclusively contractual.

That would mean that if the hypothetical dead student's family decided to sue =exclusively= on the theory that the student had a =contract= to receive quality instruction, the individual instructor would be out if the contract were with a corporate entity. But as soon as we move to "this CFI gave bad instruction" we are back to individual responsibility.

 

[FN FAL]

What I said, "Don't be negligent".

 

[BD King]

http://www.bdkingpress.com/bdking.html


I'm still laughing at this.

Glad you enjoyed it. It is a true story. My Aunt Ruth is 94 and offered to take a picture of the scar and place it on the website.

 

[NuGuy]

Heyas all,

In any kind of case like this, everyone will get sued. Negligent or not, it will cost $$$ to defend yourself.

Most CFIs escape because there are no assets. I don't know a single professional pilot who has more than 2 nickels to rub together that does primary training of any kind.

Nu

 

[wrxpilot]

Heyas all,

In any kind of case like this, everyone will get sued. Negligent or not, it will cost $$$ to defend yourself.

Most CFIs escape because there are no assets. I don't know a single professional pilot who has more than 2 nickels to rub together that does primary training of any kind.

Nu

'tis true. My Uncle is a captain w/ a major and is also my CFI. He taught a lot of students while he was in the air force and loved it. He told me he'd love to do it again, but the liability is WAY too high for him. So now he just teaches family.

 

[FN FAL]

Heyas all,

In any kind of case like this, everyone will get sued. Negligent or not, it will cost $$$ to defend yourself.

Most CFIs escape because there are no assets. I don't know a single professional pilot who has more than 2 nickels to rub together that does primary training of any kind.

Nu

I have 3 nickels to rub together...not much more than that. I hate to sound like a broken record, but in Wisconsin, we have a law. The law states that the value of a firearm, up to $5,000.00 each, cannot be valued in your net worth when it comes to time for the judge to cypher through your stuff in a liability lawsuit. Stick your money in a great gun collection, drive a leased car and owe money on your home. If a lawyer gets wind that he can't touch $5,000.00 each on your guns and Toyota Motor Credit or GMAC actually owns your car, what are they going to sue you for? Your house payment?

 

[Gutenberg]

We use a dispatch sheet drawn up by lawyers that students must sign saying they will comply with all regs. We also use a template for lesson plans and keep them filed,so notetaking is a no brainer and all lesson plans follow the Instructor handbook. I would recommend creating something similar for a little CYA.

 

[midlifeflyer]

I have 3 nickels to rub together...not much more than that.

I have quite a bit more than 3 nickels to rub together but beyond some simple planning, good record keeping, and carrying insurance, I won't intentionally try to amount to nothing financially in fear of the what I see as the relatively small chance of being sued over a student solo accident.

BTW, I wasn't arguing with the bottom line of what you were saying, and agree completely with yur "don't be neglogent" bottomline. But recall that you started the corporation issues with

Good recordkeeping and professional flight instructing methods help...as does incorporation.

Good record keeping and professional flight instruction methods =definitely= help. I was only making sure that folks here who were considering it realized that incorporating =doesn't= give =any= protection to the kind of liability we're talking about in this thread.

 

[FN FAL]

I have quite a bit more than 3 nickels to rub together but beyond some simple planning, good record keeping, and carrying insurance, I won't intentionally try to amount to nothing financially in fear of the what I see as the relatively small chance of being sued over a student solo accident.

What difference does it make if you get sued over a student solo accident or a car accident on the highway? Getting sued, is getting sued.

Leasing a car and not owning property is not the same as "ammounting to nothing financially". You can invest your money elsewhere and still be something financially. Cars go down in value and the government can take your property to benefit society...just ask my brother and sister in law.

They were willed their family property...the nest egg of their parent's lifetime of investing. The state came along and took a huge chunk of their property and are building a high school on it. From what I hear, not only did they lose the land without any choice in the matter, they didn't get paid the full value of the land.