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Message: [QUOTE="selles, post: 2868756, member: 1176"] A couple things. It's not a situation where you're going to be legally responsible for 1/3. You'll be responsible for all or nothing. So I'd base your calculation on whether to get a lawyer on 4600, not 1500. Getting something from the contractor indemnifying you is not going to prevent the gas company from getting a judgment and seeking to collect against you. You're not truly protected until the contractor actually pays up (or you win the lawsuit). You should check your homeowners policy as you may have coverage for this, and if you do have coverage maybe the insurer will pick up representation. I assume the lawsuit is in General District Court? In VA, General District Court is relatively informal. The first court appearance is called the "return date" and is not for substantive argument. At the return date plaintiffs generally ask the Judge to order the defendant to provide a "grounds of defense", which is a list of reasons you don't think you should be liable to the plaintiff. Defendants generally ask the Judge to order the plaintiffs to provide a "bill of particulars", which is a more detailed explanation of the plaintiff's claim. Someone in your situation would generally want to file what's called a "crossclaim" against your fellow defendants. A crossclaim is basically saying "if I'm liable to the plaintiff then the other defendants are liable to me". All Judges are different so you never know, but if you ask on the return date what you need to do to file a crossclaim most Judges in General District will be helpful. Finally, even though it seems like your contractor should have primary liability here (and may be talking a good game at the moment), that's not worth much to you if they can't or won't pay. Your description of their operation and their comment that they might get a lawyer or something because they think $4600 is outrageous wouldn't fill me with confidence if I were in your position. If the homeowners insurance doesn't pan out you might want to think about lawyering up so you that you assert any available defenses against the gas company (I'm not sure there's going to be much) and you're at least in position to recover something from the contractor if you have to pay the gas company to protect your credit. [/QUOTE]

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