Agent v. Independent Contractor

7. An independent contractor is someone employed by a principal to do a specific task who has control over her own work. Independent contractors are distinguished from agents by their control of their own work.

Because an independent contractor controls her own work, she is solely responsible for her own torts. A principal who employs an independent contractor is only responsible for that contractor's torts where:

1. it is shown that the contractor was actually acting as an agent of the principal (i.e. a court determines that a true independent contractor/agent relationship did not exist);

2. where the independent contractor commits a tort while engaged in an ultra hazardous activity at the principal's bequest (e.g. dynamiting, use of toxic chemical, nuclear bombing of lobotomized birds (;);

and

3. by estoppel, where a principal holds out the contractor to the public as to give the appearance of agency, she is estopped from denying liability for that contractor/agent's tort.

Read here about pros and cons of working as an independent contractor.