Q: Can you be sued for referring another professional? Ex. can a cabinet company be sued for a counter top company referral

A: The bad news is that anybody can sue anybody else for anything any time. Our legal system is fairly efficient at then weeding out the baseless cases, or at least more efficient than most, but you simply cannot stop somebody from suing if that is what they are bound and determined to do.

Now, with that said, let's examine whether or not there might be any merit to a case for referring another professional. Basically, in order to establish liability, there would have to be some kind of duty, some kind of breach of that duty, and some kind of damages. So, do you have any duty to the person to whom you make the referral? It's hard to imagine that giving a stranger a referral would give rise to a duty, but what if the relationship is a closer one? What if you were actually installing the cabinets in a customer's home, and you recommended the counter top company to your customer? Well, maybe there's some duty in that kind of circumstance. Of course, this is all just speculation based on the limited facts you have provided.

Then moving on to whether or not there is a breach, we again have to speculate, but there are some general concepts to consider. Let's say that you have experience with the cabinet company and have seen the quality of their work. If they have been competent and professional in the work you have witnessed, then recommending them would be a reasonable thing to do, and the fact that they might later botch the job has nothing to do with you, so likely no breach. If, on the other hand, you have seen them botch jobs in the past, but you still recommend them, that's maybe a different story.

Of course, finally, the counter top company would then actually have to botch the job and cause damages before any liability could arise on your part. Again, all of this is just speculation, but these are the relevant ideas to ponder.