The Christchurch City Council has voted to discontinue paying its official wizard $16,000 a year to “provide acts of wizardry” for this New Zealand city. Ian Brackenbury Channell, known as The Wizard of New Zealand, lamented the decision, calling city council “a bunch of bureaucrats who have no imagination.”

As you can see from this sad state of affairs, acts of wizardry do not always get the appreciation they deserve. But fortunately it doesn’t take acts of wizardry to draft a solid independent contractor agreement.

A recent Illinois case shows the value of a solid agreement. In a decision earlier this month, a federal court ruled that a freight broker was not vicariously liable for catastrophic injuries caused in an accident involving a driver under contract to haul loads.

The driver had collided with a motorcycle, killing the motorcyclist. His widow sued the freight broker, alleging it was an employer and was therefore liable for the negligent driving of its employee. But the court reviewed the facts of the relationship and the terms of the contract, and it found that the driver was not an employee of the broker.

The broker did not provide equipment, select routes, or exhibit other elements of control. A Right to Control Test governed the analysis in this case. The broker did not retain the right to control the manner or means by which the work was performed. This lack of control was evident in both the facts of the relationship and the text of the contract.

When there’s a tragic loss, like here, it seems natural to point fingers at everybody, including the deepest pockets. But that doesn’t mean the deepest pockets are necessarily responsible for what went wrong. By drafting a careful and through independent contractor agreement, companies can avoid being held responsible for losses that are not their fault.

Although The Wizard of New Zealand undoubtedly has great powers of wizardry and although he is probably almost as much of a tourist attraction as the nearby penguins, he probably wouldn’t have the first clue how to draft a comprehensive independent contractor agreement.

Fortunately, it doesn’t take a wizard to draft a thorough agreement. But do make sure you do it right. Having a thorough agreement in place can make all the difference, especially in a catastrophic loss case when lots of parties — including those not really responsible — are going to be blamed.

You can read more about The Wizard here.

© 2021 Todd Lebowitz, posted on WhoIsMyEmployee.com, Exploring Issues of Independent Contractor Misclassification and Joint Employment. All rights reserved.