FW Pomeroy’s statue of Justice atop the Old Bailey by Ben Sutherland from Flickr (Creative Commons License)
If your plans for 2015 include starting a business, you need to understand what a statutory agent is.
Starting a business usually begins with filing paperwork with your state’s corporation commission to create an LLC or a corporation and paying a fee. (Talk with your accountant to determine which entity is right for you. And yes, every business owner needs an accountant.)
Filling out the paperwork is a fairly straight forward process, and part of that will be designating a statutory agent for the business. A business can be sued just like a person. In the event that the business gets sued, the process server will need to know how to serve the business. They can’t serve a building – they need to serve a person. Your statutory agent is the person who will accept service (notice that you’re being sued) on behalf of the company. You have to provide a name and a street address.
As long as you live in Arizona, you can be your own statutory agent. Most business owners I work with choose this option. The only thing I remind them about is this information is publicly available on the corporation commission website, so if you’re running a home-based business, you’ll be using your home address. For people who live out of state or who don’t want to be their own statutory agent, there are companies who will provide this service for you. You pay a monthly or annual fee and they agree to accept service on your behalf. Many of these companies will also provide your business address as well.
In the event you are in a position where you want to sue a company, you’ll have to look up that company’s statutory agent to determine where to have them served. It’s an important part of beginning a lawsuit.
A gentleman called me a few weeks ago asking me to explain what a statutory agent is. The phrase “statutory agent” can sound scary to some, but the scope of the position’s responsibility is very narrow.
If you want to chat with me about your business plans for 2015, feel free to connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or you can email me.
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