Recent Rulings & Actions Mean Less Protection For Florida Businesses, According To Local Fraud & Asset Expert

Jacksonville, FL  Small businesses and professional associations form corporations or limited liability companies (LLCs) to protect the owners from litigation, but increasingly courts are wiping away those protections, leaving business owners more exposed than ever before.

The primary purpose of any business entity — legal structures such as corporations and LLC’s — is to separate business assets from personal assets, limiting the liability of business owners.  So, if a pedestrian slips on the sidewalk in front of their business, or feels they were unfairly treated on a product return, the business may be deemed liable but not the individual owners.  Or, conversely, if the owner’s teenage daughter has an accident while driving the family car, their business cannot be held liable for damages.

“This ‘wall of separation’ is the cornerstone of our legal system that limits liabilities to what is reasonable and practical,” according to Landen R. Blair, MBA, CPA, CFE, CICA.  Blair knows how damaging it can be when a court sets aside legitimate entities.  For decades he has served as expert witness on dozens of cases for major law firms and other groups in cases involving owners, members and partners.  This extensive experience gives him unique and deep insight into what constitutes core asset strategies for greatest security.

“The fact is that today business owners can be held personally responsible in a lawsuit — even for charges they have nothing to do with.  This terrible trend opens the door for ALL of their business and personal assets to be considered ‘fair game.’ No matter what the outcome is in a lawsuit, it always costs money and time. Attorneys and litigants seem to already know they have a better chance at a bigger payday than ever before.”  Consider:

• In a study of cases where a motion was made to pierce a business’ corporate protection, litigant attorneys had an 85% success rate and 91% received monetary award for their client (source The Northwestern University School of Law, Law Review).

• The U.S. Employment Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reported 99,947 lawsuits by employees against employers in 2011, the highest in the agency’s history (source www.eeoc.gov).

• $844 million was spent by personal injury and other plaintiff lawyers on advertising in 2010 to find prospective clients, and reached almost a billion dollars in 2011. (source Kantar Media report, instituteforlegalreform.com)

• In 2009 Florida had the second-ranked national TV advertising plaintiff law firm, spending $8,642,112 (source http://www.pbdi.org).

• Medical Professionals have even more to fear:  The AMA ranks Florida a TOP 21 Medical Liability Crisis State and doctors here pay the Highest Malpractice Premiums in the nation–even higher than California (Source: 2009 Medical Liberty Monitor, Inc.)

• 60% of doctors and 90% of surgeons over the age of 55 have been sued at least once, and 95% of medical practices have been sued (Source: AMA, August 2010).

Blair recommends small businesses practice a “Triple-Braided Cord” approach to their entity structures and asset security.  “First, a business owner needs more than just a single LLC or corporation.  They need to have different core asset strategies in place for their personal assets as well as their business’.  Second, unlike promoters of ‘secrecy’ or ‘hiding assets’, you need to have total legal transparency — if a judge thinks you’re hiding assets they’re more likely to strike down all your protection in a lawsuit.  Third, compliance involves much more than filing corporate minutes; compliance is a daily obligation that is absolutely essential for your security, yet I rarely find businesses who are in compliance regardless of their size.”

Today Blair does limited private consulting for clients around the country.  He occasionally does private workshops for client managers and staff.

He will be instructing a rare one-day Core Asset Strategies workshop (www.CoreAssetStrategies.com) open to local business owners and medical professionals Friday July 13th.  Attendees will receive a wealth of information and materials they can use to clearly identify their risks and better protect themselves in our increasingly litigious, anti-business society.  The event has limited seating and is participation is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

About Landen R. Blair, MBA, CPA, CFE, CICA (www.BlairChartered.com)

Landen R. Blair is a high-performance, well-rounded financial & legal expert with exceptional knowledge, skill sets and expertise. As one of the country’s leading forensic fraud experts & top national asset protection specialist, Mr. Blair’s expertise has been called on for over 20 years to help uncover fraudulent activities hidden behind corporate veils. As Expert Witness and Litigation Consultant on dozens of court cases, he has learned what it takes to help honest professionals & businesses create solid protection to legally & safely secure their assets.

In every case where Blair’s asset protection plans have been attacked they have successfully protected his clients’ assets.

Professional Certifications

He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA, ret.), and a Certified Internal Controls Auditor (CICA). In addition Mr. Blair has extensive advanced and highly-specialized training on fraudulent financial transactions, investigation, criminology and law, business valuations, business interruption, and related litigation issues. He was CEO and founder of his own Certified Public Accounting firm for 24 years, specializing in medical clients and their asset protection and tax needs, before starting Blair Chartered and Brantley Blair Group in 2010. While it is common for “financial planners”, even attorneys and CPAs to rely on off-the-shelf boilerplate forms to protect their clients’ assets,

Mr. Blair’s expertise is recognized by the Library of Congress, which has granted copyrights to 79 of his legally tested and proven asset protection forms and structures.

Mr. Blair has served on the adjunct faculty at University of North Florida, Franklin University, and Boise State University, and has conducted seminars for various state Societies of Certified Public Accountants. Mr. Blair has written ten books, including Protect Your Assets, the 412 page Authoritative Asset Protection “Bible” used by accountants and attorneys nationwide, as well as three books of fictional short stories about some of the criminal and fraudulent activities he has been witness to.

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