Starting a club...Whats the liability?

Some buddies and I are looking to start a diving club in minnesota. The big concern that I have with starting a club is that IF anything happened to anyone, there is always a lawyer itching to take the case. There would be no charge to participate, no instruction offered or guarentees made. We would offer nothing more than a time and place where other divers would meet. What areas of liability does everyone feel we would or would not need to cover? Thanks, Scubadog76.

...when a half dozen diving buddies can't get together and call themselves a club, without worrying about litigation!

Don't get me wrong, I worry about litigation too and may soon abandon my little 'pumpkin' business for fear of being sued by some Detroit lawyer when little Jonny or Suzie fall down and cut themselves on an exposed nail from a pallet. It's just too darn bad that we have let ourselves get into this kind of a position.

Good luck with your question, I look forward to reading the answer....

scubadog76:

Some buddies and I are looking to start a diving club in minnesota. The big concern that I have with starting a club is that IF anything happened to anyone, there is always a lawyer itching to take the case. There would be no charge to participate, no instruction offered or guarentees made. We would offer nothing more than a time and place where other divers would meet. What areas of liability does everyone feel we would or would not need to cover? Thanks, Scubadog76.

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I would suggest having them join this board so that they can get to the Instructor's forum. That is really all that I should probably say on that. A dive professional's liability whether they are acting in that capacity or not is different than a diver without professional certification. Dive professionals are required to carry liability insurance for that reason.

Now, the suggestion that I just got done reading would be to find a lawyer and draft a very basic waiver. If your club has no actual assets, you should be all right. This doesn't need to be the "have SO sign the waiver and have it notarized" type of waiver, just basically a piece of paper that says "I know that diving has risks and I am acknowledging those risks so that I can dive with these people."

Hey, NEWrecks or AZAtty (or any of the other "suited sharks" on this board), you are more than welcome to join us for this discussion.

Hey S-Dog

I built the largest independent scuba club in the Pacific Northwest (Moss Bay Divers) http://www.mossbaydiveclub.org/portal/index.php with over 500 members. Additionally I have begun a consulting company that specializes in creating dive clubs for dive centers and have been actively working at this with shops from all over the world.

In my Opinion

Liability is always and issue and you can't skirt it. There are two routes you can go.

1. Stay completely away from calling yourself a club at all, ever, anytime. this will help distance you from any association with Responsibility or Stewardship for extended members of the group. (your personal dive buddy will always be a different story)

2. Do it right and form a legal club as defined by the laws of your state. Run it properly and make sure you get a good liability release signed by each member preferably one for each year and in addition one before each day of diving.

Not charging for membership does not limit your liability and in fact could possibly increase it. Implied is a term you need to worry about because by simply offering a diving opportunity you are implying that certain outcomes will happen and if they don't...

I have yet to find an insurance company that would write a policy for a dive club so that's out unless you know of one and if you do I would sure appreciate it if you would let me know what company that is.

What I am saying is that this could be a much bigger "fish" than what you want it to be so if you are not really serious about wanting to "fight it all the way to the boat" you may want to just go diving and forget about he club designation.

Whatever route you choose I wish the best for you

I was hoping that someone would see this who has some experience in the matter.

Again, thanks for the assistance.

Thank you all for the help. One has to wonder is if the world would be any different, if a lady had not won a lawsuit for spilling coffee on her own lap. We'll see what a lawyer tells us and let you know. Thanks again, Scubadog76.