Legal liability definition

What is Legal Liability?

A legal liability is a commitment imposed on a party as the result of a contract or civil action. This may result in the impacted party having to fulfill the designated commitment to a third party, either in the form of a financial settlement or the completion of certain services or the delivery of goods. Alternatively, a legal liability may be covered by insurance. It may also be voided by the legal structure of a business; thus, the legal liabilities of a corporation do not extend to its shareholders.

Examples of Legal Liability

For example, being the party to a contract to provide services to a customer imposes a legal liability on the seller to provide those services. Or, a court finds that a firm has a legal liability as the result of a lawsuit brought by a customer, due to a broken product that damaged the property of the customer.

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