Re: [Callers] Caller Insurance

<chuckle> Oh geez Martha! You wanna take this personally?? You go gurl. Perhaps you might re-read my earlier posts. At no point did I even remotely suggest that a) only Canada had nice people or b) there weren't nice people in the US?!?! All of my American friends are much more than nice. Sheesh.... The topic of caller insurance has come up for discussion on this list at least 3 times since Chris and Seth created it back in.... how long ago was that now? 2004? My recollection is that every time it's come up, people have posted stories where someone considered suing or did sue or someone sued on their behalf, as happened in this thread. They've never been Canadian stories, and yes that may purely be a function of the low percentage of Canadians participating on this list. But every time this comes up it makes me anxious about calling in the US and I poke around trying to figure out how to protect myself against the 1 in a million chance that something might actually happen. Greg's point (assuming that I've understood it correctly) about the health care system in the US potentially contributing to the litigious behavior of Americans, is an interesting one that I think is valid. All I'll say about health care is that had Ron's story happened here, the woman with the gash on her head would have been waiting an excruciatingly long time in an ER in Toronto, likely would have given up and driven the 1.5 hours to Buffalo NY to have it attended to there! By the sounds of it, she probably would have sued the ER in Toronto too...! I really appreciate both David and Dave posting stories about situations that could have progressed to a litigious state, but didn't. Particularly Dave's. I believe that the majority of people have a sense of personal responsibility and no fault accidents. To your questions Dave, I currently have insurance to cover personal injury to me while travelling in the US. But when I investigated the first time caller insurance came up, I couldn't find a carrier that would cover me for a personal injury that might happen to someone else at an event that I was calling. The carriers that I talked to at the time said that if the injury to the other person happened without my personal physical involvement/contact (meaning I didn't hit them, crash into them, push them etc.), I wasn't liable. Potentially things have changed since and I need to investigate again. Similar to Dave's group and I'm sure all others, TCD pays insurance to the church where we hold our regular dances. The Anglican Church here has a standard insurance policy for groups that use their sites/facilities covering property damage and general liability. It's not specific to dancing as it covers all activities on the premises. If a dancer got hurt in the hall, they could sue the church but the policy would cover that. I just don't see a clear path to suing the caller. But Dave, better check with CDSS before ya get yourself hired here in Toronto, just to be sure :-) My take away from this thread is the reminder that in absence of caller's insurance, I need to be particularly vigilant about looking at venues I work in for potential hazards, and mention them to the crowd early and often. Its best practice regardless of country or insurance and I like to think that I already do it, perhaps not with such a critical eye. I'm calling at a dance weekend in OH in the summer at a venue with an obvious hazard. It has a row of poles down the centre of the hall. One might think that such an obvious hazard might not need mentioning but I intend to do it. And you can bet your dance shoes that I'll be looking for the fire extinguishers! Bev