Your club can be held legally liable if it is proven that it was negligent or failed to take ‘reasonable care’ to prevent injury to a member of the Public or members of the club or damage to property. This liability arises because the club and its members have a duty of care to avoid carelessly causing injury to members of the public or damage to their property through the negligent act of the club and/or its members. This insurance is designed to pay compensation and legal costs that arise if your club or any of its members are found to be at fault.
This insurance provides protection against clubs’ legal liability for bodily injury to third parties and damage to their property. If members of the public come to your club or you take part in activities away from your club (away games, presentation evenings) then your club should have Public Liability Insurance.
It is not enough for the other party to state that injury or damage had been caused and expect compensation. They have to prove that members of the club have been negligent in some way. In today’s growing compensation culture there is an ever increasing chance that a member of the public, or even a member of your own club, will attempt to find someone responsible for injury or damage to themselves or their property.
It is important to note that the Public Liability insurance excludes ‘participant to participant’ (player to player) incidents that occur on the field of play e.g. – one player tackling another. This is where Personal Accident insurance can play an important role.
Example: A member of a club was hurt after colliding with a goalpost suffering severe injuries. The goalposts were in a poor condition with rust and protruding metal hooks. Therefore the injury to the player was more serious than it should have been and the club was negligent because they had failed to ensure that the equipment was in a safe condition.