Wondering if anyone can help?

I help run a small ringcraft. 

Now for the last few years we have not insured ourselves as the cost was just too much for the Club.

We have a form when newcomers come and they sign to say that the Club will not be held responible if any incident occurs and everyone has always signed this happily.

The hall we are in of course is insured, but would we be legally responisble if anything did happen?

If so does anybody know of an insurance that isn't extortionate?  There are only a few of us that go and it's a friendly little club.  We would prefer to continue as we are, but of course in the I'm going to sue you world that we seem to unhappily live in we need to ensure that we are OK.

Thanks.

Diane

Have you contacted the KC? Think they have a scheme for clubs etc.

We didn't at one point want to join the KC, for one reason only.  There were a couple of import breeds and to do run offs, matches etc. we would not of been allowed to be involved even though they made up near enough half of the Club.  This in our eyes was unfair and I was excluded from a few things a few years ago with my SWD so we withdrew from being with the KC !

The KC scheme is administrated by Petpartners http://www.petpartners.co.uk/main.asp?page=39 I don't belong to the KC, but still get my insurance through their scheme, which is well suited to my small demands.

I'm in Canada so my experiences may not jive with what happens in the UK but I think you should check this out anyway.  We belong to an adult recreational ice skating club and we have similar concerns.  Our understanding is that the arena itself is responsible for damages or injuries caused by failure, inattention, poor maintenance etc of the actual arena, the ice, the parking lot etc.  BUT, we have rules regarding deportment and failure on our part to enforce these rules could render us liable in some situations.  We cannot afford insurance, not even that provided through Skate Canada, it would bankrupt our club.  We have been advised to have all skaters sign the liablity waiver form, give all a copy of our rules and also to post the rules on a large sign in a prominent place.  That said, and done, we could still face a lawsuit, as litigious people can sue anyone they want and we would still incur fabuluous expenses just to prove that we are not the responsible party.  We have a lawyer skating with us, who advises us for free.   I know I'm talking about skating and not ringcraft but I bet the situations are very similar.

Hi,
We run pet training classes and as you say we decided we couldn't risk not having insurance. we have ours through a firm called Marsh Private Clients with a company called Ace European Group, they seem to be one of the few that will do clubs and groups now. We have cover for Public Liability (which also covers our exemption show), Member to member liability and Property owned by the club which covers the rubber mats some agility stuff and stock such as leads collars toys etc that we keep in the hut. It cost us £183 last year so we thought that was quite good especially compared to another qoute I had which was a lot more for less cover.
Chris