Instructor liability WTF

Factual Questions
1

I used to teach Firefighting for the local Community College, Then they took all the fun out of it. The issues were, In case someone was injured of killed because of what they thought I taught them.
Now in the Handgun classes I give, The certifying authority cautions us on being ready for legal action
"When a student’s actions rely on what they were taught (or thought they were taught) in class.
I wish my old math teacher were alive. Maybe I would sue him because I bounced my check book! What can an Instructor do to protect himself against something like this. Other than Insurance?

2

Would requiring the students to sign liability waivers address the question? IANAL, I don’t know.

3

IANAL either; however, based on my experience teaching self defense and martial arts waiver can help, but isn’t legally ironclad. Even with a seemingly bulletproof contract/waiver a person can still argue negligence on your part. Also, as I understand it somebody cannot contract away their rights which can always be an issue.

4
      • You can look into incorporating yourself–basically, it puts restrictions on how much people can sue you for. The money has to be handled certain ways also, but in many states the taxes are not a big deal to do. The LLC is a popular way of doing this, but you would really want to ask a CPA or someone else who has expertise in these matters to find out the advantages and disadvantages of different incorporations.
        ~
5

IANAL either, but I know one thing - anybody can sue you for anything. Whether or not they are successful is another thing. I’d like to see some actual cases where this happened before going further.

6

Thank’s everyone for the posts, I am going to look into the LLC.