Liability Issues

I never worried about this. What are they going to do, take me to court? And say what?

I have found that if you are good, clients will either love you or fear you. Either way they won't sue you.

Grizabella said:

I can't imagine there being any insurance company anywhere that would give liability insurance to a Tarot reader or any other kind of psychic profession. She must be talking about something other than liability insurance for that.

And if she's making people sign waivers, there wouldn't be any need for insurance to cover her business activities, anyway.

Maybe you misunderstood her or she misunderstood you. It will be interesting if you can find out.

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I just sent my friend an email. I will report back what she has to say. Thank you all for your replies.

for entertainment purposes is more to deflect state or county laws against fortunetelling. Once or twice a year there seems to be a thread here where a reader is carted off to jail for breaking the fortunetelling law.
You should check your county/state/city laws about that first.

foolmoon just put up a thread on the subject
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=220282

l do pay insurance for my Reiki practice, but l have never paid insurance for doing my tarot readings. Perhaps some insurance companies cover both under one umbrella.
Would not think it necessary though for tarot reading unless you have that big black cauldron bubbling away and they happen to fall in

Well, it seems I was wrong about my friend having liability insurance for spirit readings. She said she has insurance to cover her against any claims of inappropriate touching during a reiki session.

My apologies. I still think it is an interesting topic.

She did, however, say that her insurance agent suggested licensing herself as an LLC/Limited Liability Corp to protect against any claims of fraud. Might not be a bad idea in this sue happy world.

Insurance salesmen want to sell insurance. If you want to buy a policy, I suppose they'll think of some way to squeeze it in and sell you a policy but then getting them to pay on it might be a problem in the end. They like to get customers' money but then they try to spend out as little as possible for incidents that should be covered.

Village Witch said:

Well, it seems I was wrong about my friend having liability insurance for spirit readings. She said she has insurance to cover her against any claims of inappropriate touching during a reiki session.

My apologies. I still think it is an interesting topic.

She did, however, say that her insurance agent suggested licensing herself as an LLC/Limited Liability Corp to protect against any claims of fraud. Might not be a bad idea in this sue happy world.

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Yep, it makes sense. They mentioned this in my Reiki class, too- to cover against people falling off tables, and claims of inappropriate touching.

As far as the LLC, I'm still not sure if it's enough or if an SCorp should be formed. I'm hearing an LLC doesn't protect against someone taking your house if there is a lawsuit.

It's all so confusing and is part of the reason I'm not set up to do anything as a business yet. Still looking into all this and trying to figure out what's really required and what's just overkill.

Village Witch said:

Well, it seems I was wrong about my friend having liability insurance for spirit readings. She said she has insurance to cover her against any claims of inappropriate touching during a reiki session.

My apologies. I still think it is an interesting topic.

She did, however, say that her insurance agent suggested licensing herself as an LLC/Limited Liability Corp to protect against any claims of fraud. Might not be a bad idea in this sue happy world.

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So they're gonna get blood out of a turnip??? Sue me and see what you end up with. I don't have anything anyone would want.

But again---insurance salesmen want to sell insurance, so they'll figure out some kind of coverage you can pay them for. Whether they'll actually pay out is the stickler, though, if someone does sue you.

^I'm in the same boat, basically.

It's my understanding that a lot of people set up LLCs not only to help protect against lawsuits, but also because of the way US tax laws are set up. If you're not in the US, YMMV. But oftentimes, people are taxed less as an LLC than they are as individuals. That depends on your state and what kind of LLC you have, though.

If you want to set up one, talk to an attorney. They set these up all the time and they can walk you through it.

As for suing because the sitter got bad advice? Sure, they can try, but I doubt any judge would take the case. You're an entertainer, not a doctor, and there's a huge difference. Mainly the fortune teller license bit is to prevent people from things like the 'setting lights' scam and things of that nature, as well as to make sure the reader's paying taxes. But trying to sue you because they got a bad reading smells to me like it'd be up there with suing your bartender because they gave you bad advice. It wouldn't fly in court IMO.

Here, it mostly seems based on public liability; someone comes to your house for a reading and slips on the wet path, someone comes to your table, the crystal ball rolls off and lands on their foot ... and other ridiculous postulated scenarios.

Why? Because we like to project blame on to other people or reasons ... not just 'bad luck', or the issue that WE might not have been aware enough to take proper care.

In the past, if you walked into someone's tool shed and knocked a hammer off a shelf and it landed on your foot, you would be told you were careless. Nowadays, with some people, they sue you for leaving the hammer there.

There have even been cases of where a burglar sued the owners of the house he was robbing because he got injured while doing it !

I'm sure the insurance salesmen and the lawyers love it!