Am I liable for any injuries or losses?

[AltJack]

Hello,

I run a group (along with friends) that organises mums to go and do adventurous activities (rock climbing, bush walking, snorkeling, etc..). We have about 400 members and use facebook groups to organise everything. There is no membership fees and we ask members to sign a waiver (basically stating that they accept responsibility for themselves).

This weekend one of the admin organised an event to go bush walking to a tricky to get to beach. One of the party slipped on a rock with a child on there back and hurt themselves enough to require a visit to the hospital and time off work.

The event organiser didn't make anyone aware of the conditions of the walk, in the same way that a group of friends that decided to go for a walk would just pick a place and go.

So I guess the question is - as an event organiser do you have a duty of care over the party?

I know that the waiver is probably not worth the paper its written on, but we don't want to become a legal entity and have insurance etc... We would then have to charge membership fees and maybe event fee - currently everything is free.

Many thanks for your help.
@mbrcatz - Thanks for the response - Didn't mention that I'm based in Australia (if that matters!).

[mbrcatz]

Waivers mean nothing - they don't hold up in court.

So yes, of COURSE you can be sued, and you might even lose that lawsuit . . . but in the mean time, your legal expenses could bankrupt you. Don't have money for a lawyer? That almost guarantees you'll lose the lawsuit.

You don't have to be a "legal entity" to have insurance. The POINT of insurance, is to protect you when you get sued. Doing things as an individual, doesn't give you any special kind of immunity - it just makes it MUCH more likely that you'll be bankrupted.