The wonders of lawsuits
by trixter on Apr.18, 2010, under Zombies
I recently became aware of a situation where all chapter members to a Zombie Squad chapter are liable for the actions of the group as well as anything they say or do. This liability is a personal liability and it is all members not just the ones that actually run the chapters. At least this is the case with the California chapter, which is the only one I really investigated.
This means that if anything should ever happen where a lawsuit could be filed then each member of the ZS chapter could be individually sued as well as the chapter itself. This means that all the members, whether or not they were even there, are putting their bank accounts, vehicles, houses and any other propery as well as a big percentage of their wages (garnishments) on the line each time the chapter does anything.
I have not yet fully confirmed if this exists nationally or not, but I think there might be a hook where that liability extends to all paid members so if ZS HQ does something that can result in a lawsuit each and every one of their members might be on the hook for it, even if they did not have any say in it. This may also extend to a ZS member doing something foolish somewhere in the world and everyone else becoming liable for that action.
I am glad that my membership was cancelled so that my liability is removed. With the predatory laws out there like the ADA that let people sue for virtually any reason, being able to take a couple thousand dollars from each member would be quite a bit and thus I can see people doing that (they already go after whole towns in these types of scams).
I am also willing to bet that most people who associate themselves with ZS have no idea what they are risking. Ultimately it boils down to a jury, but even if you win you can still lose. The cult awareness network won every lawsuit brought against it for religious discrimination by church of scientology members. It spent $1,000,000 on legal fees and declared bankruptcy. The church of scientology then bought it out of bankruptcy and delisted itself. The church spent approximately $4,000. This is just one of many examples of how winning in court does not mean winning at the end of the day.
It would not be difficult for someone to sue the entire member list individually (not jointly) and the members then have to defend themselves one by one and pay lawyers and all of that. The lawyers would probably encourage a settlement if the amount asked was under $5000 (what lawyers often refer to as a nuissance lawsuit which varies per state but is generally $5-10k). 1000 members @ $5000 each is $5,000,000 showing a nice motivation for some individuals.
