Will Liability Waivers Protect You?
Caring for children in your family child care home can be a risky business.
You know how easy it is for a child to be injured. The most common injury in a child care home is a child falling down. Such accidents can easily cost thousands of dollars in medical bills.
Some child care providers try to reduce their liability risk by putting a waiver in their contract. The language of such waivers might read: “Child care provider is not responsible for medical expenses resulting from an injury to a child in her program.”
If you are thinking that such a liability waiver will prevent a parent from successfully suing you - you are wrong. It won't.
Parent liability waivers are not enforceable in court. This is because your clients can’t give up their right to sue you. Even the children in your care can sue you years later (usually up to age 18 or 21). A child care provider once told me about a three-year old child who was seriously injured while in her program. Fifteen years later a lawyer for this child sued the child care provider, claiming that the child (now 18) could not work.
The best way to protect yourself from liability risks is to buy adequate business liability insurance. If you have an insurance policy that has "occurrence" coverage you will be covered as long as you were insured when the injury occurred, even if you have been out of business for years. In the above case the child care provider did not have insurance and was faced with hiring a lawyer to defend herself.
To protect yourself against a child who may later sue you, keep copies of all your business liability insurance policies until you go out of business and the last child in your program at that time turns age 18 or 21. Check with your state attorney general's office for the age cutoff.
Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com
Image credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/child-tree-climb-to-play-garden-419415/
For more information on legal and insurance issues, see my book Family Child Care Legal and Insurance Guide.
