Safety & Protection for All: How the Right Risk Management
Strategy Makes Recreation More Enjoyable
By Jessica Royer Ocken
Q: Is it essential to have an attorney involved in developing your risk management protocols and documents?
"Any contracts or waivers [you're creating], you want an attorney to do it," Ornelas said. Legal experts are most likely to know what will hold up in court. For instance, rather than tossing in a provision for everything you can think of and creating a giant document, Ornelas and his firm recommend a smaller contract, and also a separate waiver document that is brief and to the point. Make sure the average person can wade through the amount of information you're presenting and clearly understand what they're signing.
Beyond legal documents, policies and procedures could be drafted by your risk manager, but then send them to an attorney for review, suggested Ornelas. "You'll save money by not having an attorney draft these documents."
An attorney advisor can also be helpful when it comes to staying current with playground and equipment standards and ever-changing laws, particularly those that apply in your state, Hoffman noted. This is a big part of the services PDRMA and its two in-house attorneys offer their members in the state of Illinois. "What you spend on an attorney for a good opinion in an area of sensitivity can pay dividends," he said. "You want to be compliant and on the right side of law. If you have a bad incident, involvement of an attorney early on is crucial so you can develop a good, solid defense."
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