What is the difference between Liability and Medical Payments?

Liability coverage applies when your organization is sued for negligence causing injury or damage. Medical Payments coverage applies to minor injuries sustained by volunteers or attendees regardless of fault or lawsuit, helping cover immediate out-of-pocket expenses.

Does General Liability cover social media posts?

Standard General Liability may not. However, AIM offers a Media Liability endorsement that covers misuse of logos, copyright infringement, and invasion of privacy on social media.

Are liability waivers required for coverage?

Waivers are not strictly required to extend coverage, but they are strongly recommended as a deterrent to lawsuits. AIM provides sample waivers for students and participants.

General Liability

Home General Liability

Don’t put your personal assets at risk due to an injury at a sponsored event.

Let’s face it, everyone involved in a Parent Teacher group is volunteering for the same reason… the kids.

Even though you put your valuable time and effort into making your Organization the best that it can be, there are still certain risks that you could be exposed to as a volunteer.

For example, while attending your fall carnival, a child falls down and gets hurt.

You may not see this as a risk that concerns you personally, but what if the parents don’t have health insurance? They will be looking for someone to help with medical expenses. After all, it was your event at which their child was injured.

Your personal assets could be at risk if that incident leads to a lawsuit against your Organization and, as a volunteer, you are named in it. The General Liability policy protects not only your Organization but also you as a member.

Bodily Injury and Property Damage

Bodily Injury & Property Damage are covered in 2 parts under your General Liability policy:

Liability – $1 or $2 million per occurrence and a $2 million General Aggregate to cover damages for bodily injury or damage to property of others.
Medical Payments – $5,000 standard limit per person to cover medical expenses (outside a lawsuit.) Higher limits available.

The Liability portion will come into effect for lawsuits in which your Organization is being sued for bodily injury or property damage of others. You have up to $1 or $2 million (depending on the policy you choose) per occurrence per policy period to compensate for any judgments made against you.

The Medical payments portion will come into effect for minor medical injuries that are sustained by a volunteer of your Organization, a board member, or a third party at one of your Organization’s sponsored events.

This is by no means a health insurance policy. The medical payments clause of your liability policy will pay secondary to any personal health insurance that the injured party may have.

Medical Payments coverage helps protect your Organization and its members by deterring a lawsuit while helping the injured party cover out of pocket expenses they may incur in seeking treatment.

Exclusions

The following is a list of specifically excluded items under General Liability:

Archery
Automobiles & Vehicular Transportation of Any Type*
Asbestos Exposure
Bungee Equipment or bungee Jumping
Athletic Activities- organized sports including (but not limited to) sport clubs, sports camps, municipality teams, school teams (public or private), sports leagues, college teams or professional teams
Hot Air Balloons
Lead Exposure
Mechanical/Motorized Rides at Carnival*
Nuclear Exposure
Parasailing
Rocketry
Scuba Diving
Scouting
Watercraft*
Weapons, including but not limited to guns, knives, Swords, bows, axes and sling shots/catapults
Workers Compensation Claims
Zip Lining

*Note: While the asterisked events are excluded in the event of a lawsuit, Medical Payments coverage may be available.

Proceed With Caution Activities

The following activities are those which ARE covered under your General Liability insurance policy, but we ask that you follow the outlined precautions to limit the risk of a claim.

Volunteer Baby Sitting – Baby sitting is something that you may provide during Parent Teacher group meetings or sponsored events. We ask that you have two adult volunteers (18 years or older) in the room at all times. This dual rule is in force to protect against any molestation claims, to provide a second witness to rule out false claims, and to provide extra assistance in the case of an emergency. Paid baby sitters are not covered under this policy.
Athletic Events – Your General Liability policy covers athletic events such as fun runs, field day, and donkey basketball as long as they are being run by your Organization. Your General Liability policy does not cover athletic organizations which maintain a regular practice and competition schedule such as a football team or cheerleading squad. Your Parent Teacher group insurance policy is only meant to cover those 1 or 2 day events that your Organization runs…not the football team, the cheerleading squad, or the band.
After School programs – Your General Liability policy covers your after school programs. For the after school program to be considered your program your Organization must both organize, and manage the program. If your Organization participates in an after school program that is organized and managed by the school, that program is not covered.

Liability Waivers

We receive many calls from Parent Teacher Groups asking about “waivers” of liability. It is very important to be aware that you can never sign your liability away regardless of any document or waiver. A waiver will not hold up in court if your Organization is found at fault for an injury occurring at one of your events.

However, a waiver is a tool used to help deter the lawsuit mindset. By having all participants sign a waiver, you are helping to plant the seed that the participant is responsible for their own actions.

While a waiver isn’t a requirement to extend coverage under the General Liability policy, it is a step in the right direction to help protect your Organization against bodily injury lawsuits.

Please refer to our Insurance Guide for the following 2 commonly used types of waivers.

The first is a Parent’s Approval and Student Waiver. This would be used anytime you need a person under the age of 18 to sign for a specific event.
The other is a Participant’s Waiver. This would primarily be used anytime you want someone over the age of 18 to sign for a specific event.

Additional Insureds

If you are having an event, the event site may ask you to list them as an Additional Insured on your General Liability policy. We do not charge for these additions and will be happy to do this at your request.

As a precaution, you must know that adding someone as an Additional Insured means you share your limits with someone else under your policy.

For example, let’s say you have a fun run at the city park and the park requires you to add them on as an Additional Insured. If the park gets sued because of something that happens at your event, your policy would provide defense for both your Organization and the park, and you would SHARE total limits under your GL policy.

To process this request, please complete our Additional Insured Request form. Please note that some requiring entities may just ask that you add them as a “certificate holder” which does not extend any coverage to them.

Host Liquor Liability

Host Liquor Liability is NOT excluded under General Liability policies. Host Liquor Liability is defined as bodily injury or property damage arising out of the serving or distribution of alcoholic beverages by a party not engaged in this activity as a business enterprise. A liquor store or bar would be an example of a business enterprise serving or distributing liquor.

The liability policies protect you when you host parties and events where alcohol is served. There is coverage whether you give the alcohol away or charge for it. No matter where the party is actually held, your liability insurance goes with you.

The act of hiring a caterer to serve food and alcohol does not exclude your Host Liquor coverage. However, if you cater the event and the venue or caterer sells the alcohol, then they assume the liquor liability exposure.

You should verify that they have liquor liability insurance by requesting proof of insurance.

Supplements to your General Liability Policy

Extended Medical Payments

If you have General Liability, why do you need Extended Medical Payments Limits? How is it different?

Extended Medical Payments (Endorsement to General Liability)

If you read the General Liability section, you will remember that there is only a $5,000 provision for the Medical Payments component of your General Liability policy.

If you have a claim above $5,000, the injured party could sue your Organization for any amounts incurred. Also, because the Medical Payments coverage is a separate component of the GL policy, outside of a lawsuit, fewer exclusions apply.

The Medical Payments component provides additional coverage for out of pocket medical expenses and helps deter lawsuits. Extended Medical Payments coverage is an endorsement to the General Liability and is only available in combination with General Liability.

Coverage Highlights

The Medical Payments coverage provides medical payments to someone injured at one of your Organization’s events. It also provides potential coverage for things that are excluded under the General Liability policy such as:

Mechanical Rides (such as mechanical bulls, Ferris wheels, and motor driven trains)
Watercraft
Automobiles (including school buses and personal autos)
Hayrides (if pulled by an automobile or a tractor)
Parade Floats (if motor driven or pulled by an automobile)

This list is not all inclusive. If you have a question about a specific event or wish to inquire about coverage provided, please call AIM at 1-800-876-4044.

Extended Medical Payments Coverage Limits

Extended Medical Payments coverage is available for purchase in the following Increased Limit Options:

$10,000
$25,000
$50,000

Media Liability

As a supplement to your General Liability policy, we also offer Social Media Liability Coverage.

Media Liability (Endorsement to General Liability)

As a supplement to your General Liability policy, we also offer Social Media Liability Coverage.

This coverage is designed to protect you from liability in the event you accidentally misuse or disclose information on your website or other social media site. This includes misuse of the logo, copyright, pictures, confidential information and other misrepresentations or misappropriations.

Coverage highlights:

Pictures – do you have permission?

Invasion of privacy by posting a photograph that has not been released for use.

Outside company logos – do you have occasion to include company logos for events?

Infringement of copyright, trademark, or logo, when you accidentally post something.

Could someone feel you misrepresented details of your event and hold you responsible?

Do you make public ANY information that could be considered confidential?

You could be held liable for disclosing confidential information.

These are just some of the innocent mistakes made every day by well-intentioned people.

Media Liability Limits:

Media Liability is available for purchase in the following Limit options:

$25,000
$50,000
$75,000
$100,000

Terrorism

Under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, you have the right to purchase insurance coverage for losses resulting from Certified Act of Terrorism (certified by the Secretary of the Treasury).

Terrorism (Endorsement to General Liability)

General Liability Deductible

There is no deductible for a claim filed under this policy.

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