INSURANCE REPs Insurance Scheme

A REPs Registered Instructor who arranged cover for his normal weekly classes while he had surgery. This led him to question whose insurance covered the class and who would be liable, should a client sustain an injury. Ian Hayter, Product Development Manager –

Leisure, of Thistle Insurance Services Limited, writes: have been postponed or cancelled and that they only continued was for commercial reasons. In short, they would look to argue financial gain was placed ahead of the safety of the client.

The first thing any REPs Registered Instructor should ensure in this situation is that their temporary replacement has their own liability insurance. An insurance policy is primarily intended to provide cover for the actions of the named policyholder.

The question of legal liability can only be determined by the specific circumstances of the incident. However, if a client sustains an injury while attending a class, one would expect the injured person to first direct any claim against the person who was leading the session at the time. The class participants are under the direction of this person at the time and there is therefore a clear duty of care on this Instructor’s part.

In this day and age, however, the apparent absence of fault for an accident is no guarantee that you won’t still be drawn into a time- consuming and costly legal dispute.

Legal representatives of an injured person will often cast their net as far and wide as possible in order to find a potential compensator – especially so if they discover their primary target does not hold insurance cover. Lawyers may argue that, even in the REPs Instructor’s absence, a duty of care was owed to their client at the time. The injury occurred while they were attending a session arranged by the REPs Instructor and safe cover should have been ensured in his absence. They may argue that the sessions should

Members of REPs are required under their Code of Ethical Conduct to hold public liability insurance cover with a minimum limit of indemnity of £5 million. A good insurance policy will not only provide this but also provide for costs incurred with the insurer’s consent in defending them against any allegations of negligence on their part. The Insurance Scheme negotiated by REPs for their members recognises this and provides for such costs.

To find out more about the REPs Insurance Scheme please call 020 8686 6464 or visit www.exerciseregister.org

www.exerciseregister.org

25