[Paddlewise] Insurance and legal action

I'm curious.  After reading all this fear and loathing regarding insurance 
and being sued - can anyone site a real case of a kayak club being 
successfully sued.

Actually I'd like to see 10 such cases. A stand alone case would hardly 
constitute a trend.

Without hard evidence I think these fears are just another urban myth - 
like the sewers of New York being full of lawyers. Sorry I meant alligators.

Every time some US judge, who may or may not be legally trained, decides 
that Ben should be paid $10 billion by Jerry it makes head lines.  When the 
final appeal comes along and is over turned it makes the back page of some 
rag.

I'd like to hear from all the former executive leaders of clubs who have 
been successfully sued.  I'd like to know for how much and why they were sued.

I once heard a respected kayak instructor, at a local kayak club meetings 
say, " A car rental company was just sued for $10 million."    In his mind 
that meant we had to take out a ton of insurance and avoid all risks just 
to avoid the same fate.  The fact the company had rented a car with no 
brakes was omitted in the discussion.  The fact that the decision was being 
appealed was also ignored.

I listened to this line of thought and concluded that our kayak club should 
not rent out kayaks without first checking the brakes.

The club I use to belong to was great at talking the talk.  You must 
improver your skills, you must do this and that, good leaders do these 
things and so on and so on.  At one point the club bigwigs even tried to 
regulate non club kayak trips!

But when it came time to step up everyone of the club leaders refused to 
walk the walk.  Oh no we aren't leaders we're uh, uh, facilitators or 
coordinators, or organizers - anything but leaders.

Ok I confess.  I actually know that in New Zealand 263 kayak clubs have 
been successfully sued for a total of $11,213,456 and 97 cents.  All 
figures in NZ dollars.  That's the truth. Really.  No I mean it.  Really 
you can trust me.  Go out to your next meeting and quote those figures.

skeptical
In Victoria BC
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