Online event planning - liability? [sort of NA]

[CJones]

My wife and her friend are about to go together on their own online venture. As a part of their plan, they will be planning and advertising events on their website that will be attended in real life by visitors of their site. It will be fairly informal 'planning' on their part - mostly "Let's all meet at xyz at 7pm on Saturday" although it will fall under a "our website get-together" umbrella.

Is there any sort of liability that goes along with that type of informal event planning? They will be meeting at public places - mostly local businesses that have agreed to host their small events.

I'm trying to decide if it is worthwhile to create LLC just for a little bit of extra shielding for us personally.

(The reason I said 'sort of NA' is because this discussion could be applicable to online aviation sites as well)

 

[steingar]

If Mrs. Jones or her pal have assets worth bogarting, someone might try and sue after they stub a toe. I'd do the LLC thing were it me. They certainly don't cost much.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

What Michael said. I'd do the LLC, but probably not bother paying a ton of $$$ in liability insurance. <$100/year? Maybe.

 

[denverpilot]

Marsh and others have liability plans for groups/organizations.

Ours just went up for one organization I sit on the BoD of. $200 year, $1M liability, virtually nil medical but there's some, which gives a bit of a cushion to those willing to serve on the BoD.

Most of us also have liability "umbrella" policies via our homeowner's insurance for anyone deciding that we did something they dont like as BoD or Officers, if we have assets we wouldn't want to lose if the entire BoD were sued.

We can add "un-owned or leased vehicle coverage" if the organization regularly requests the use of people's vehicles, for another $200/year. We're debating that one, but it's more likely we'll just have folks sign a waiver that they're choosing to use their personal vehicle for the organization's purposes at their own risk, standard boilerplate liability waiver, etc. The organization never requests to have a non-owner operate a vehicle, etc.

The riders on homeowner's policies are usually a decent deal for folks who volunteer in leadership roles.