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	TRAINING, DRILLS & LIABILITY D. Chris Springer Director, AVERT The Davis County CERT Association has announced a CERT Training Conference for April 21, 2001. The conference will include guest speakers and various classes pertaining to CERT skills. The afternoon session will be a CERT competition (sort of a CERT Rodeo). A fee is being charged to cover costs such as building rental and the like. You may view this announcement at http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/emrprep/confinfo.htm.
Though I applaud their efforts to provide advanced training to teachers, I must point out that they are a government entity. They are actually part of State Government and enjoy certain immunities from prosecution except in cases of gross negligence. The fact that they are charging fees to participate does eliminate a few of these immunities, however, they are still relatively safe. Not so for us at AVERT and many "Connection" readers, I suspect. I received a call today from the Caribbean region. It was a coordinator (Ms. Spensor) of FEMA's Project Impact. She had heard much about CERT Instructors and Organizations being sued for injuries to students during classes. The first question was "How does AVERT deal with liability issues?” I explained that most CERT related organizations are citizen boards organized and supported by a municipal government. If these groups are actually providing training classes, their facilities are usually being provided by their government sponsor and the students normally will become "volunteer employees" of the government so that they would be covered by Worker's Compensation. Salt Lake County has trained and "employed" almost half of all the CERT trained citizens in the State of Utah.
When AVERT was first organized as a citizen board, we too enjoyed the comfort of knowing our students were covered by our Emergency Manager's "Volunteer Employee" program. AVERT had some forewarning of impending budget cuts to the CERT programs. Naturally, we did not want to dissolve because we recognized the benefits and potential of CERT. It took our all-volunteer board nearly two years to develop our CERT training program. When I presented our cost analysis and proposed our existing program, I was hit with the question of liability! This was one issue I hadn't addressed because of my expectation that the county would cover us.
Ultimately, we were forced to secure a "General Liability" insurance policy, which protected our students and facilities, but not our instructors! Instructors are considered employees and would have to be covered by Worker's Comp. We were able to protect instructors if they were volunteers rather than employees. With a bit of shopping, we were able to find a one million dollar policy for about $1300.00. This was factored into our cost analysis resulting in an average minimum cost per student of $50.00. This meant that the era of free CERT training would have to come to an end. If you or your organization are planning only one or two events each year, you might consider purchasing a one year policy shortly before the event, then canceling it afterward and collecting a refund on unused premiums. Ms. Spensor had a concern about the "TTT" instructor training programs offered by FEMA and Regional/State Emergency Managers. Unfortunately, these programs only authorize prospective instructors to teach modules 1 and 6. Most classes need to hire a certified firefighter and an EMT in order to teach the rest of the course. Here in Utah, an EMT course costs about $350.00 to $500.00. To become a "certified" firefighter, one must attend the Fire Academy, which costs quite a bit unless one is employed by the fire department. The minute a fee is paid for a class, the sponsor accepts a certain limited liability for the safety of the participants. The sponsor must identify potential safety hazards and take steps to reduce the probability of an accident. The court may find you negligent if you fail to plan for safety. That same court may also charge other parties (with deeper pockets), opening the way for large settlements. If a student were to be injured during a class, a "General Liability" insurance policy may help avoid financial ruin for both the organization and the injured party. It is unlikely (though always possible) that people would sue if you make an effort to protect them from financial burden. In most cases, facility providers require a million dollar liability policy to protect the facility from damages. AVERT has found that this limit is sufficient for most events. You may ask, "What about those liability waivers?"
	A properly worded waiver may be sustainable in court, but this usually implies that you (the sponsor) have taken all reasonable precautions and safety measures. If the judge finds you negligent however, that waiver will do nothing to protect you or your organization. Any event that you or your organization chooses to sponsor must have some method of explaining potential hazards to your participants as well as the reasonable steps you have taken to insure everyone's safety. This might be a simple statement such as "Personal injury is possible during this event! Please follow all instructions from our Safety Officers and report any injury immediately!"
Regardless of your organization's affiliation with government or private sectors, you should always plan for some general liability insurance during the event. You should also develop a liability waiver form that event participants can complete which will indemnify you, your organization, your affiliates, your agents and officers from claims of liability resulting from the participant's negligent actions or inactions. Never hold any event without prior safety planning. If you try to think of all the possible hazards you may face during the event, and if you have a plan to respond to those hazards if and when they happen, it is likely a court will find in your favor. Always remember that the participants are your customers! If you insure good customer service and your customers feel safe at your event, you and your staff will get rave reviews! A happy customer never goes to court; only unhappy customers feel the need to sue.

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