Legal Question in Business Law in Washington

Re: business partnership

Whether this would be a bad business decision or not depends on a lot of things. Why does the friend have bad credit? (Because he has a child who got seriously ill at a point when he was out of work and had no medical insurance, or just because he can't handle money?) If the friend is just not good with money, will he be handling the company's money? As a partner in a general partnership, he has an equal right (never mind who invested the money) to say how the partnership money will be spent. The partnership will be responsible for his actions on behalf of the partnership, and if it is truly a "partnership" and not an LLC or corporation, your husband could also become personally responsible for financial problems the company could run into.

Sometimes good people have bad credit. If your husband's friend is a good guy, good at construction, and a worthy person for your husband to be joining efforts with, your husband might be wise to consider having an attorney help him form an entity and structure an operating agreement (for an LLC) or a stockholders agreement (for a corporation) that would protect his (and your) personal assets and also structure the working arrangement in a way that lets the friend participate in ownership while protecting the organization fom his weak points.