Ten Things for Your Sports Organization to Know About Negligence

​​Negligence should be of concern for all sports organizations. It is important to arm your staff, volunteers, and athletes with negligence education so as to shield your organization from exposure to liability. Not only is it important to protect your organization against a lawsuit, but it is the right thing to do to keep people safe and to prevent property from being damaged. Below are ten things about negligence that should be shared among those in your organization.

1. ​​Each person must act reasonably in any given circumstance. Plan to protect other persons and property from foreseeable harm. At the very least, follow what is required and/or customary for your sport and follow what is done for similar sports in your geographic vicinity. Then when something unforeseen arises, know if you have an obligation, or duty to respond. Any response must be reasonable according to the skills of the person providing the response. In other words what is expected of an expert, like an athletic trainer or a doctor, may be different than a layperson with no medical training.​
2. ​A person may not create or keep an environment that would likely cause another to be hurt. Inspecting and repairing premises and equipment will immensely help create a safer environment. Knowledge of proper storage of chemicals and other equipment can also help. Again, it is best to follow what is customary for your sport as well as for your facility. There are numerous ways in which the environment can contribute to injury so prepare accordingly to reduce the likelihood of liability.
3. Injuries may cause physical, emotional, financial or property damage. When preparing to protect against losses, anticipate injuries other than just those that physically affect another person or damage property. The bottom line of a sports organization may be also be affected by emotional and financial injury. Therefore, create a plan for ways to minimize the array of injuries.
4. If a person has an opportunity to avoid being injured, the person should do so. All persons are expected to act reasonably, including victims to injury. For instance, when your team travels to other facilities, each team member has a responsibility, when possible, to avoid injuring his or herself. The rationale is that negligence may partially be attributed to a victim who had an opportunity to avoid the incident. If a victim’s actions are also seen as negligent, a victim’s chance to recover from another negligent party may either be reduced or barred completely.
5. An impairment, disability, or incompetency of the mind is not an excuse and such person can still be held responsible for causing another person to be hurt. Under the legal theory of negligence, a person can recover from an injury that was accidentally caused by another. Thus, it does not matter the mental state of the person who caused the incident, and that person can still be held responsible for his or her actions. For instance, if you are running a camp in which you have been given the responsibility to watch over a person with a mental disability, be especially aware of that person’s actions. To help minimize harm, guardians should help their charges with mental impairments avoid being negligent.
6. Kids can also be held responsible for causing another person to be hurt. Just because a minor is the cause of creating an incident, the status of someone being a minor does not shield that minor, or the minor’s guardian from liability. Thus, guardians, or coaches who have assumed the role of caretaker, should help a minor avoid being negligent.
7. In an emergency, a rescuer cannot leave a victim in a worse position than when the rescuer intervened. Emergencies are bound to happen in sports. It is human nature to want to respond in the event of an emergency, and a sports organization may have a duty to respond in the event an emergency occurs. However, regardless if you have a duty to respond to an emergency, do not place a victim in more harm and then leave the victim in that worse position. If you create a worse environment for a victim, you may be negligent for the increased harm caused to the victim.
8. A rescuer might be able to recover from his or her injuries caused by the rescue. If a member of your sports organization creates an emergency situation and a rescuer becomes injured, the rescuer may be able to recover from the person who created the emergency. Prepare an emergency action plan and train your personnel on how to provide a proper response in the event of an emergency.
9. To recover monetary damages for negligence, an injury must have been sustained. Even if your sports organization breaches a duty and causes an incident, damages will not be awarded unless there is something for which you are obligated to compensate. In other words, someone or something must have been hurt before you are must pay for the harm caused. No injury means there are no damages.
10. Purchase a commercial general liability (CGL) policy to cover your sports organization and your staff. While you can prepare and respond in ways to minimize your exposure to negligence, it is always smart to have an insurance policy to cover incidents that do occur. Although a variety of insurance policies should be considered, at the very least, your sports organization should purchase a CGL policy.

Check with your attorney or a risk management company, like Nohr Sports Risk Management, LLC for ways to prevent and protect your organization from negligence.