Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: laws regarding idependent contractors

It's all about liability whether it be civil or workers' compensation.

Remember, the yacht company is a private business, not the government and thus does not need any type warrant to look at any of your agreements that you have.

With this said, the yacht company has a right to exercise it's discretion as to whom they choose to do business with. You can simply decide not to show your agreement to the yacht company, but they then have the right not to lease you their yachts.

Again, what they're really probably interested in is, "Who will be on the hook for payment, an accident and/or a workers' compensation claim."

Perhaps if you make them feel good about those issues without showing them your actual agreement, that may be enough.

Should you need legal assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me at 818.943.0462.

David B. Lupoff, Esq.

Re: laws regarding idependent contractors

Probably. You may have to comply to continuing working for them. You can obviously refuse, but you need to assess the consequences.

On another note, if you are operating as a general partnership, or a sole proprietor, I highly recommend forming and operating as a corporation. Not only are the tax benefits better, but a corporation will limit your liability.

We can help you form the appropriate entity for your business.

Re: laws regarding idependent contractors

No, indeed, they do not have any such right.

However, companies doing business with firms which are organized as general partnerships may have legitimate and reasonable need for some (not all!!) of the information about the partnership which a partnership agreement would usually contain. Such a legitimate need may underly the rather snoopy request (or demand) for a copy of your private documents.

There is a graceful way around this impasse by which you can supply information about the formation, existence and organization of your general partnership without revealing details that customers don't need to know. That is to file a Secretary of State Form GP-1, called the "Statement of Partnership Authority," which, when filed tells the general public all it really needs to know about the nature and existence of the partnership.

It might just be a great way to handle inquiring customers to either tell them to inquire of the Secretary of State to get the partnership's basic structural agreements, or to be able to furnish a certified copy of your filed GP-1.

Otherwise, my advice would be to weigh your pride and need for privacy against the possibility of losing a major customer that perhaps innocently asked for more than it was entitled to, when in fact it genuinely needed some more basic and less personal information.