The reason behind carrier demands for risk management controls
Youth sports organizations should consider carrying a sufficient sex abuse molestation limit to cover these types of claims, which can evidently reach $1.9 million per claimant and higher – as in the Sandusky case.
Penn State settled with its first claimant for an undisclosed amount but has set aside $60 million to b
e dispersed among 31 claimants for an average settlement of $1.9 million per claimant. Not including this amount set aside for settlements, Penn State has already spent $50 million on attorney fees, public relations, and other mitigation expenses.
No wonder the insurance carriers that insure youth sports organizations for sex abuse/molestation demand that risk management controls be put in place prior to offering coverage. Not only can the damages per claimant be very high, butdozens of claimants can be victimized by a single predator.
The controls required typically involve the running of criminal background checks on all staff with access to youth, written policies and procedures to make an incident less likely to occur, and having a written incident response plan including a requirement to notify law enforcement.
Sadler Sports and Recreation Insurance provides its clients with a full array of free sex abuse/molestation risk management tools, including training videos and word document templates of written programs that can be adopted by a program. We offer versions ranging from one page to seven pages but all include the essential risk management controls.
