My dive shop has me listed as Professional Staff under its group professional liability policy. Would this cover me when I train a friend to dive for free?
No. A group professional liability policy covers a dive shop’s staff only when the staff is providing services on behalf of that shop. There are many situations where you may not be covered under that policy:
- If you provide training or other “professional services” to anyone who is not the store’s customer. That means the store issues the training credentials, collects payment for course fees, and provides you as the customer’s instructor. If these are not the arrangements for the training, you will not be covered.
- If you train a friend or family member without charging them or charge them only for the cost of the training materials and the training agency’s cost of certification. It’s hard to say no to friends and family, but for you to be protected under the store’s group professional liability policy, you must do the training through the store.
- If you are on a dive trip — not for your dive shop — and find yourself leading a dive, providing supervision or instruction to another diver, or assisting with a rescue. If the trip was not part of your assigned duties as staff of the dive store, you are not protected. If something goes wrong, you could be sued and eventually held financially liable. While Good Samaritan laws in some states will protect you when you act as a rescuer, there are many states and situations where the Good Samaritan law does not apply. Some states actually create an affirmative duty that you must provide assistance to a diver in distress, and failure to do so can itself lead to someone suing you.
- If the dive store has had other claims against its group professional liability policy that reduce the limit available to pay for claims made against you. Each claim paid under a group policy erodes the amount available to pay the next claim. The basic DAN policy has a per event/occurrence limit of $1 million, with an aggregate limit of $2 million. If another member of the dive shop’s staff had a claim where the insurance company paid out $1.2 million in legal fees and damages, there remains only $800,000 in coverage for you. If there have been multiple claims, there could be nothing left for you.
To protect yourself against an absence of coverage or insufficient coverage under a group policy, you might consider buying your own individual policy. This policy will protect you both when working for someone or working for yourself. Your $1 million/$2 million limit is for you only, and actions taken by others don’t affect your coverage. While the cost is higher, this is the only way to truly have peace of mind about your professional liability coverage.