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Athletes Injuries Not Covered Under Sports Liability Insurance

sports liability insuranceI bet you didn’t know that athletes injuries are not covered under sports liability insurance when you signed up for beer league softball this year?!

When you are involved in any type of sports league, youth, adult, co-ed, etc there are two types of policies that you need, commercial general liability (in this case sports liability insurance) and accident/medical insurance.

Sports liability insurance is fairly straight forward and is the policy that everyone thinks of first.

Here are two examples:

  1. Little Leaguer fouls off a pitch which strikes a car driving by the field and causes an accident.  The driver of the vehicle sues the league for the damages.  Boom! Commercial general liability, no problem…
  2. A participant in a men’s recreational soccer league kicks a ball which veers off course and blasts a wife watching the game.  She has to be rushed to hospital and sues the league for her medical bills.  Boom! commercial general liability, no problem…

The tricky coverage, the coverage that most league officials don’t know exists, don’t understand, and don’t have explained to them by less adequate insurance agents and sports liability insurance direct writers is Accident/Medical Insurance.

New Example

Let’s use the second example from above again because it is the one that I have actually come in contact with.

However, this time instead of the ball striking a spectator lets say that ball strikes another participant in the face who wasn’t paying attention.

The player who is struck (who was actually on the same team as the Kicker) immediately hits the ground and needs to be rushed to hospital.  Once coherent the injured player sues the league for his medical expenses.

Do you think the general liability insurance is going to cover this?  NOPE!

Participants in a sports league are NOT covered for their injuries under the commercial general liability policy (This goes for Dodgeball leagues, Badminton leagues, Horseshoe leagues, etc).

Sports Leagues = Athletes Not Covered

Unless the league has sports liability insurance (if you need sports liability insurance call us at {518} 456-6688 for a quote).

There is hope!

Accident/Medical insurance contained within a sports liability insurance policy provides coverage for participant medical expenses (And was used by the league in the example above to cover the player that was blasted in the face).

For most carriers the minimum policy provides $25,000 in medical expense coverage but I have seen policies that cover up to a $500,000 (An incident) and I’m sure they go higher if there is adequate need and you can afford it.

I do not participate in leagues that do not have sports liability insurance containing accident/medical insurance coverage, period.

Try suing a local sports league for your medical bills, good luck.

I would also be careful of stand-alone aerobics class studios (Nothing against these studios, it has been my experience that these owners just aren’t always aware of this coverage).

If you get injured doing aerobics and the owner does not have an accident/medical insurance coverage in place you are not going to be happy.

Questions? Interested in a quote for sports liability insurance? Call us at (518) 456-6688 or Click Here to contact us via email.

Thank you,

Ryan Hanley