Why Do Field / Facility Owners Require To Be Named On Sports Insurance Policies?

Field / facility owners such as recreation departments, school districts, schools, and municipalities often allow outside user groups to use their premises under a lease or permit. These relationships are beneficial to all parties involved. However, field / facility owners expose themselves and their insurance carriers to liability arising from injuries that may occur on the premises arising out of the lease or permit. This is true even though the injury may be due to the 100% negligence of the outside user group.

Field / facility owners are almost always shot gunned into these lawsuits as a deep pocket even if they are 0% at fault. The defense costs and possibility of settlement or adverse jury verdict can be very expensive. This can result in unbudgeted out of pocket expenses (in event of self insurance or large deductible insurance program) or in a large loss that is paid by their insurance carrier. When these losses are paid by insurance carriers, such insurance carriers may non renew or may ask for large rate increases. Therefore, field / facility owners have a lot to lose when they make their premises available to outside user groups.

It makes sense that the group that is responsible for the injury and resulting lawsuit should be financially responsible for paying the damages. Therefore, prudent field / facility owners require outside users to carry their own insurance that meets certain minimum standards that are drafted by risk managers or attorneys employed by the field / facility owner.  Such insurance requirements specify the types of policies to be carried, minimum limits of coverage, and special coverage endorsements such as “Additional Insured” status for the premises owner.

Requiring outside user groups to be financially responsible for their own injuries and lawsuits is a good business practice. Even high limit insurance is surprisingly affordable and easy to obtain when reputable sports insurance and event insurance specialists are contacted.

Do Standards Set Up Sports Organizations For More Liability?

What Should a League Do If a Registered Sex Offender is a Parent or Spectator?

In many of our national organizations, criminal background checks of coaches and volunteers are required in order to screen for sexual offenders. Throughout our risk management materials you will find that regardless of a requirement, these screenings are highly recommended.   But what should a league do when the known sex offender (per public record) is a parent or a spectator?

The first direction would be to consult your local attorney since they would be familiar with the particular states laws.   Also make sure that the organization is following its own rules and bylaws. The general liability policies that we write for the national organizations may require that volunteers be screened, but not the parents that are not volunteers.  This is because as a general rule, only a volunteer who has repeated access to youth is in a position to “groom” them for molestation. 

Whether background checks are required or not, a lot can be accomplished by educating the team/league, the volunteers and the parents on inappropriate boundary invasions.  More information can be found in our article Protecting Children Against Sexual Abuse and Molestation.

Eight Year Old Sues for Hard Softball

The eight-year-old claimant had joined a softball team for girls of her age group. While playing the infield, she was struck in the face by a ball thrown by a teammate, resulting in a fractured nose. The claimant’s parents filed suit against the softball league, the coach and the child who threw the ball. The main allegation in the suit was that the plaintiff and her parents were deceived by the defendants because the softball wasn’t soft and actually was quite hard.

Source: Liable to Laugh Copyright 2004 American Specialty Companies, Inc.

Court Rules Cheerleading Is Contact Sport

Catastrophic Injury Survey In Amateur Baseball

Amateur baseball, like any sport, entails some element of risk of catastrophic injury. However, the frequency of such catastrophic injuries is surprisingly low. To summarize, the overall rate of catastrophic injuries such as deaths and disabilities is only one per one million participants.

Our insurance clients, Dixie Youth Baseball and Dixie Boys / Majors Baseball,  participate in this study by completing a survey form on an annual basis that requires the reporting of any catastrophic injury. Other participating organizations include American Legion, Little League, Babe Ruth, PONY, NAIA, NCAA, National Baseball Congress, National Federation Of State High School Associations, National Junior College Athletic Association, National Association Of Police Athletic Leagues, AABC, Cape Cod Baseball, and NABF.

The final report includes eighteen years of data collection from 1989 through 2006. Participation numbers for that period of time included 82,687,876 amateur baseball players in 13 organizations. Catastrophic injuries for that same period of time included 39 fatalities, 26 disability injuries, and 30 injuries with complete recovery. The catastrophic injury rate for the eighteen years is 0.11 injuries per 100,000 participants or approximately one injury per 1,000,000 participants. This figure is very low. The eighteen year injury rate for fatalities was 0.05 per 100,000 participants, 0.03 for disability injuries, and 0.04 for serious or recovery injuries.

See Report by USA Baseball Medical And Safety Committee and National Center For Catastrophic Sports Injury Research: http://mlb.mlb.com/usa_baseball/article.jsp?story=medsafety12