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The need for personal liability insurance


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With all the discussions about the potential for lawsuits over recent policy changes made by the BSA, do you, as a Scout leader, feel that it may be necessary for either you or your Chartered organization to take out personal liability insurance to protect yourself / itself against lawsuits?

Is anyone already doing this? 

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1 hour ago, cchoat said:

With all the discussions about the potential for lawsuits over recent policy changes made by the BSA, do you, as a Scout leader, feel that it may be necessary for either you or your Chartered organization to take out personal liability insurance to protect yourself / itself against lawsuits?

Is anyone already doing this? 

Absolutely. As I understand it; BSA, my CO, and I will all be named in the lawsuit if something unfortunate were to occur. National Council's team of lawyers first reaction will be to comb through the details looking for some G2SS infraction that disqualifies our event from being a "BSA Activity." I have no confidence in Irving stepping in to protect me or my CO.

My church (CO) provides insurance for all church activities and scouting. This is primarily to protect the church but, as it has been described to me, it won't let you lose your house in a lawsuit. YMMV.

The difficulty is that many umbrella policies require you to already have maximum coverage on your home, car, and watercraft.

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Pale Horse, that's a good catch.

What I mean to say is with all the controversies swirling around scouting today, and the increased potential legal issues that could arise due to the policy changes in admission of girls into the program, possible gender discrimination, YPT issues, potential for medical issues involving scouts under one's care, etc.., should scout leaders carry liability insurance?

 

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2 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

With one set of parents making a veiled threat at a parents' meeting to sue all the volunteers if anything happens to their Scout on one of out trips, I am in the process of getting it.

How could you hear the threat under the whump-whump-whump of the helicopter blades?

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22 minutes ago, Pale Horse said:

Who was sued for the first pregnant Venturer?

Don't know about first pregnant Venturer, but wasn't the Chicago council the first to be sued in the early to mid 1970s when Exploring went coed, and this happened.

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On 6/19/2018 at 9:18 AM, cchoat said:

With all the discussions about the potential for lawsuits over recent policy changes made by the BSA, do you, as a Scout leader, feel that it may be necessary for either you or your Chartered organization to take out personal liability insurance to protect yourself / itself against lawsuits?

Is anyone already doing this? 

I would start with having a signed permission slip with language similar to what is on here:  https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/19-673.pdf. I can't say that the waiver is ironclad, but I see no reason NOT to have it signed by every parent.

I suspect that our CO has insurance, but I've never asked.  

I have contemplated getting an umbrella policy.   My recollection is it is around $350 a year for $1 million and $450 a year for $2 million and $600 a year for $5 million.  As @Saltface said, make sure that there isn't a gap between where your home and auto policies stop and the umbrella kicks in.  Remember, the order is your home or auto, then the umbrella up to the limit and then your assets.  So don't determine the amount of the insurance by the amount of your assets.  That is, if you have $500,000 in your house, savings and retirement plan, don't think that $500,000 of insurance is enough.  A $1 million verdict will be satisfied by the insurance and then by your assets.

The major consideration is the likelihood of someone actually bring a lawsuit against you personally and their likelihood of success.  A broken bone on a camping trip isn't likely to result in a lawsuit (assuming the person has health insurance and doesn't have any significant out-of-pocket costs).  A car accident is more likely to cause a lawsuit.  If something happens on a BSA outing, the person bringing the lawsuit is more likely to be looking at the BSA's insurance and the CO's insurance than your assets.  Unless, of course, you have enough assets worth looking at.  One of the things to look at regarding insurance is if they insurance company will cover the cost to defend you against the loss.  If they do, then the premium is probably less than you will spend for two hours of a lawyer's time.  Remember, even if you win, you still have to pay the lawyers.  

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  • 1 month later...

I've been thinking some more about this.

Suppose G2SS and all other applicable BSA polices were followed at an event but someone still managed to get hurt. Would BSA defend the SM in a lawsuit (legal fees, pay the settlement, etc.)? Or would the SM be able to ride BSA's coattails for legal defense as National would probably also be named as a defendant?

 

Edited by Saltface
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