Q: I just got served in a civil action lawsuit against a company I'm an independent contractor for, and have no ownership
The Civil Action Lawsuite is against Fresh Central Trading LLC., it names its President and Owner A.G., and also then names me. When I read the documents it states that I'm an owner and officer of the company and I'm just an independent contractor from Canada who is here on a TN Visa working as a management consultant. Not sure why they are also suing me because I have nothing to do with the money that Fresh Central Trading LLC, borrowed from the company suing them, they are called Silo Technologies, Inc.
A:
You should hire an attorney.
Your attorney will tender the defense of the case to the employer and contact the opposing side to tell them to drop you from the case (which they may or may not do, or may want to wait until discovery is done to show your lack of involvement).
Protect yourself, get an attorney.
A:
If you are named as a party in the lawsuit, you have less than three weeks from when you were served to hire an attorney to file an answer on your behalf to the lawsuit. (In Texas state court, your answer must be filed no later than the first Monday following the expiration of twenty days from the date you were served).
If the lawsuit is only against the company--and not against you individually--but erroneously names you as an owner and officer of the company for purposes of service of process, send the lawsuit papers to your contact Fresh Central Trading LLC and to Mr. Garcia with a note indicating when the papers were served upon you.
It is possible that the plaintiff-company and its attorney do not understand you are just an independent contractor and mistakenly believe you are an owner and officer. It is also possible that Mr. Garcia and/or other people within Fresh Central Trading LLC erroneously told the plaintiff-company you are an owner and officer, or said or did something to foster the mistaken belief.
If an attorney does not timely file an answer on your behalf, the allegations in the petition that you are an owner and officer of Fresh Central Trading LLC will be taken as true if the plaintiff-company moves for a default judgment against you.
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