Insurance & Risk Management
General Liability Risk Management
Quick Navigation: Elements of Liability | Planning for the Best & Worst | Waivers and Their Use
3.1 Elements of Liability
In planning a function it is imperative to understand your responsibility as it relates to liability. The following information is provided for use in conjunction with your normal planning process. It is important to clearly know for whom you have duty of care and that you have a responsibility to perform as any other reasonably prudent person would be expected to perform in the same situation.
DEFINITIONS
Prudent - judicious or wise.
Liability -Synonymous with responsibility and involves the concept of penalty when a responsibility may not have been met.
Negligence -Failure to do or not to do what a prudent person would have done in the same situation or similar situation.
ELEMENTS
In order to prove the negligence of another person, the following elements must be present in the situation!
1. Existence of a legal duty to protect the injured party from reasonable risks of harm that can be reasonably foreseen.
2. A failure to perform that duty of care. Ignorance and inexperience is no excuse. Inability to perform will eventually lead to problems.
3. An injury suffered by the claimant (person filing the claim). Injury
may be physical, mental or
property.
4. A reasonably close causal relationship between the breach of duty and the claimant's injury.
Your planning, documentation and training for the activities must reflect that you recognized those you have duty of care for, that you did what any normal reasonably prudent person would have done to protect that duty, and that you recognized the possible resultant injuries and planned accordingly.
3.2 Planning for the Best and the Worst
Nothing can replace the good management practices of planning, documentation and extension of that information to your representatives through good training. In order to adequately prepare for any activity you must prepare for the best and the worst to occur. While there is no inclusive list of items from which to plan your activity, there are some general points from which to start. The following are some items which may assist you in your planning process.
Items to be Considered When Evaluating Risk
Be aware of the necessity to know
- Types of activities
- Plan of supervision
- Location, number, and competence of supervisors
- Crowd control
- Safety procedures
- First aid procedures and practices
- Plant and equipment maintenance
- If at any time you fear for your safety, remove yourself from the situation immediately.
Be alert to dangerous conditions:
- Physical facilities and areas
- Participants: rowdiness, horseplay, general observations, discipline
Put overall administration into specific written procedures
- Medical treatment authorization forms
- Schedules
- Registration forms
- Do's and Don'ts for participants
- Emergency procedures (before and after accident)
- Safety rules
- Job descriptions (Includes Volunteers)
- Participant Insurance requirements
Ensure specific supervision criteria
- Communicate, so that participants understand the responsibilities of their position.
- Be sure all representatives understand and adhere to safety practices and procedures.
- Be alert to changing conditions which can bring about hazardous conditions.
- Ensure existing University policy regarding activity is followed.
Be clear on instruction given to those involved in activity regarding
- Skills needed for various jobs
- Instruction for safety, courtesies of the game, etc.
- Protective devices.
- Rules and regulations.
- WARNINGS
Complete all necessary forms
- Medical form
- General Waivers
- Equine Waivers, if necessary
- Accident insurance, if necessary
3.3 Waivers and their use
The use of a general waiver is recommended whenever possible. This waiver is different from that of the Equine Waiver which is described in Section 4.1. While the effectiveness of waivers may be questioned in the legal process, it is important to put those participating on notice as to what Virginia Tech feels they are responsible for.