So will be interesting to see if Tardus gets named in any of this stuff if the lawsuits start to fly.  

This means that you will probably need to pay registration and filing fees in at least 2 states if you don’t buy CA property as a CA resident.Any lawsuits should be limited to the assets of the LLC and not your personal assets (assuming you run the LLC appropriately and the corporate veil is not pierced, some debate as to SMLLC).

Albert asked about filing a lawsuit against the tenant, which apparently involves a tenant's complaining of personal injury resultant from being in the unit. 

Prince Georges County MD loses a lawsuit on this about every 5 years or so because Pitbulls are illegal there.

Your definition is correct for "legal non-conforming".The "legal" part of "non-conforming" is dropped when it doesn't apply so most commonly people call these units "non-conforming", "finished", "in-law suite/unit", or "bonus unit".Non-conforming: Any property that doesn't meet current zoning requirements.Legal non-conforming: A non-conforming property that was lawfully established under previous zoning regulations and is allowed to continue its use.Based on his posts @Mario Morales is referring to a non-conforming unit.

If there is a law suit yes the lawyer can find you, of course.

I would go so far to say in that less than 10% time when your property causes the lawsuit, you’re going to get sued personally as well.

Would be curious to know what the exact details of this lawsuit are?

Plus, I then ran across this lawsuit...it does not look good but I am not an attorney.

Most likely the state where the property is located is where lawsuits would be brought if they are something for personal injury like a trip and fall or something of that nature because the “cause of action” arose in that state.