[wplug] Need to protect my websites with a corporation

[Pat Barron]

<this_is_absolutely_not_legal_advice>

It's easy to incorporate in PA.  I've done it.  It costs about $100.  
I'd be more than happy to walk you through the process. Though of 
course, then you have to deal with all of the "corporate process", 
required meetings (even if you're just meeting with yourself...), 
required recordkeeping, filing corporate tax returns, etc., etc.  
Setting up an LLC instead of a corporation might be easier from that 
standpoint but accomplish the same goal for you, though I've never done 
one of those.

That being said...  Just be sure that incorporating (or setting up an 
LLC) actually does for you what you want it to do.  Incorporation is not 
a complete shield from individual liability - especially if a potential 
plaintiff can make the case that the only reason you set up a 
corporation was for the sole purpose of trying to protect yourself from 
individual liability...

I'm assuming your goal is that, if someone sues the corporation, they 
can only recover assets from the corporation (and not from individual 
officers or shareholders) - so if the corporation, per se, only owns 
$50.00 in assets, then anyone who sues the corporation can only recover 
$50.00.  But if your corporation is undercapitalized and you're just 
putting money into it as you go, if you're the sole officer, sole 
director, sole shareholder, and it's otherwise apparent that the 
corporation is really just an alter-ego of yourself - then you can still 
be subject to personal liability.

Review this link of some examples of "red flags" that could open you up 
to something like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piercing_the_corporate_veil

Plus, of course, there is the old saying about "You can beat the rap, 
but you can't beat the ride" - even if a potential plaintiff would not 
prevail in a suit against you, that doesn't necessarily stop them from 
actually filing the suit, and subjecting you to the costs of defending 
it - even if you ultimately prevail.

Bottom line:  you should definitely talk to an attorney and get a read 
on the risk you are exposed to, and the best ways to minimize it.  I 
know there are attorneys out there who specialize in issues related to 
community activism (if I recall, there actually used to be one of those 
on this very mailing list, but I'm not sure if he's still out there or 
not) who'd be good resources to consult with.

Good luck!

</this_is_absolutely_not_legal_advice>

On 1/20/2015 3:57 PM, John Lewis wrote:
> I need to protect the websites on my VPS with a corporation, especially
> http://www.busybodybreakdown.com/ which will a local politician an
> bureaucrat database.
>
> I feel that I need to get it protected by a corporation because I am
> sure at least the contractor that develops the government websites in my
> is going to attempt to sue me to prevent them from looking bad after I
> find the necessary Joomla extension that will properly display the bbbr
> database on my Postgres server in the Joomla site.
>
> Could any of you provide me any direction?
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