Most youth sports board members assume they cannot be sued personally for what happens in their league. They count on two shields: the belief that nobody sues a volunteer, and the volunteer immunity laws on both the federal and state level. Both shields have holes in them. Over my 35+ years insuring sports and recreation organizations, I have watched volunteer parents discover those holes at the worst possible time: after the lawsuit was filed.
The first shield: “Nobody sues a volunteer”
Plaintiff attorneys name everyone connected to the organization: the league itself and its directors, officers, employees, and volunteers. In one Sexual Abuse & Molestation claim against a coach that settled for $321,000, board members who had never met the accused were named in the lawsuit anyway. The allegation against a board in these cases is usually failure to screen or failure to supervise, and it attaches to the people who held the title, whether or not they ever met the offender.
Families sue for more than one reason. Sometimes out of anger, and I have seen that anger run deep in abuse cases and in the worst concussion cases. Sometimes for nothing more than arithmetic: a serious injury produces six-figure medical bills, and a lawsuit is how a family reaches the insurance that exists to pay them. Either way, you do not need a villain in the story to end up named as a defendant.
The second shield: volunteer immunity laws
The federal Volunteer Protection Act and similar statutes in most states do give volunteers some protection. I hold a law degree, though I do not practice law for my clients. What it gives me is an edge most insurance agents do not have: I read these statutes the way a plaintiff’s attorney will, and I can tell you they protect a volunteer far less than most boards believe. Four reasons.
First, immunity statutes generally do not apply to allegations of gross negligence, recklessness, or willful misconduct. Plaintiff attorneys know this, so that is what they plead (ex, allegation of gross negligence). The pleading alone gets them past the shield and into the case.
Second, immunity laws protect the volunteer, not the organization. The league can still be sued, and the league still needs a defense.
Third, most of these statutes carve out injuries arising from the operation of a motor vehicle. A volunteer who causes an accident while driving on league business, to and from a game or practice, to the bank, to the sporting goods store, is typically outside the protection. The coverage that answers it is called Non-Owned & Hired Auto liability, and every league needs it.
Fourth, and this is the part that surprises people: immunity is a defense, not a force field. It gets raised after you have been served, by a defense attorney someone has to pay. We live in a litigation happy society, and even frivolous litigation can result in legal defense costs. Without insurance, those costs come out of someone’s pocket, and the someone may be you.
What actually protects a volunteer
Five protections do the real work. Most leagues carry only one or two of them.
1. Directors & Officers Liability (D&O). General Liability responds to bodily injury and property damage. It generally does not respond to how your board runs the organization: a contested suspension, the dismissal of a coach, a discrimination allegation, a failure to follow your own bylaws. That is Directors & Officers Liability, a separate coverage that we offer once you have purchased General Liability. For a local organization it typically runs $350 to $750 a year. If your league has a board, and almost all do, D&O is the coverage standing between a volunteer and a personal lawsuit.
2. Sexual Abuse & Molestation coverage. This is the exposure no youth organization wants to imagine, and it reaches the volunteers personally. When an abuse claim is filed, board members who never met the accused are routinely named too, on the theory that they failed to screen or failed to supervise. Carry it at $1M/$2M or higher if available, not a token sublimit. And know the reassurance built into it: many abuse policies stop covering a specific individual once it is determined that person was the perpetrator, but the organization and the innocent board members and volunteers stay covered. Covering the league never means covering the offender.
3. Non-Owned & Hired Auto liability. When a volunteer causes an accident while driving on league business, to and from a game or practice, to the bank, to the sporting goods store, the league is exposed, and volunteer immunity will not help. Non-Owned & Hired Auto answers that exposure. Every league needs it.
4. General Liability that covers your premises around the clock. This is one of the major coverage flaws, and most boards have never heard of it. If your league owns its field, or holds a long-term lease that makes you responsible for the premises, your exposure does not stop when practice ends. A claim from years before I joined the firm makes the point: a young trespasser rode a motorcycle onto a field after midnight, hit a chain that had been stretched across a road, and was seriously hurt. He sued the field owner under what the law calls attractive nuisance, the principle that you can be held liable to someone who was not even supposed to be there. He won. Many policies are written to respond only during scheduled games and practices. Coverage for your around-the-clock ownership exposure is sometimes built in and sometimes requires a special endorsement, so ask which one applies to you. And remember this: the legal defense costs alone are often greater than the settlement. Paying for that defense is one of the main reasons you carry liability insurance in the first place.
5. A written risk management program. Start with a written Sexual Abuse & Molestation plan that complies with the federal Safe Sport Act, carrying as much weight as the background checks behind it. Add concussion protocols with documented return-to-play clearance, a sudden cardiac arrest plan, and a heat illness plan. Then basic financial controls and regular oversight of the league’s books. Most organizations just pay risk management lip service, and the claims that never happen are the cheapest claims of all. Insurance that helps prevent claims is better than insurance that only pays them.
What to ask before your next board meeting
You do not need to become an insurance expert. Bring four questions:
- If we own or control our field, does our liability coverage apply 24/7, or only during scheduled activities?
- Do we carry Directors & Officers coverage as part of our General Liability program? (Budget $350 to $750 a year.)
- Do we carry Sexual Abuse & Molestation at $1M/$2M, and Non-Owned & Hired Auto for volunteers driving on league business?
- Where is our written risk management plan, and does it cover Sexual Abuse & Molestation as required by the federal Safe Sport Act, concussion, and sudden cardiac arrest?
If any answer is “I don’t know,” download our free Sports Organization Insurance Coverage Checklist and run your current policy through it. Over 90% of organizations fail it. Finding out before renewal is the whole point.
This article is a general overview for typical local sports organizations, and it is not legal advice for your situation. Larger organizations, or those with more complex exposures, need customized programs beyond the scope of this overview.
When you are ready, you can review General Liability coverage for sports and recreation organizations and get an instant quote. Directors & Officers protection is available once that General Liability coverage is in place. The worst that can happen is you will have spent a few minutes learning something new.
