Liability in any situation is a highly fact dependent determination.
I would look more to the following factors to focus on for an opinion letter to a client, or in the preparation of a case (plaintiff, civil defendant or criminal defendant):
1. Experience of the instructor running the class.
2. Student to instructor ratio.
3. Complexity of the material taught vs the experience of the students.
4. Medical plan in place.
5. The quality of the liability waiver.
6. The circumstances under which the waiver was executed.
That’s by no means an exhaustive list of things to look at, but those are my first thoughts on the subject.
Addressing my #5 & #6 for a moment, I’ve noticed that the firearms training industry has really poor practices when it comes to liability waivers.
Some of those waivers are written by...I don't know...seriously, do instructors get some of these waivers off the internet on "Idon'tneedalawyerbecauseIstayedatanamebrandhotel. com"?
Don't tell me. I don't want to know.
Also, pretty much every liability waiver I’ve ever signed in a class has been presented on the first day at sign in.
Contracts, even good ones, signed under duress are of questionable validity.
Now, what constitutes duress varies, but were a case to survive to presentation to a jury, I’m going to bet that a contract first show to a guy who has planned on the class for six months, made plans around it, taken the Friday before the weekend off to drive 400 miles, paid a non-refundable $500 for a class and is told when he arrives, “Sign it or get off my firing line…” is going to be looked at in a suspect manner.
If I was someone who was addressing liability for an instructor, I’d be much more worried about that than the holster methodology an instructor permitted in his class.
A far better practice would be to have the waiver written by a professional describing in detail the risks involved in the class, the activities to be performed, making it clear that the student would receive a refund if they didn't want to sign and insuring that the waivers were notarized & executed, and returned to the instructor by a set time prior to the class beginning.
But, you know...that's just my thoughts on how I'd avoid being sued in the firearms training industry.
It's not like I'm a vulture searching for prey on a daily basis or anything...
Nope. Don't know nothing about sniffing out weaknesses in other people's behavior and never look to how I can chisel money out of an insurance company...
Wouldn't do that...
So. A-IWB. Yep. Focus on that in regards to liability.
Please.
Originally Posted by Mitchell, Esq.
Liability in any situation is a highly fact dependent determination.
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