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It is a tremendous
blessing for a church to have committed volunteers to
make the Lord's work happen. However, CLA has experience
a rash of calls since the onslaught of our nation's
devastating hurricane season and other natural disasters
involving injuries to church volunteers who are now
suing the ministries they set out to help. Read
how a ministry can appropriately safeguard its
volunteers and limit its liability exposure.
The end result in these
situations is sometimes that those churches who tried to help are now
being sued by their volunteers for compensation.
 In
one Florida situation, after one of the recent hurricanes had passed, a
church member volunteered to help clear debris from the churchyard. She
climbed confidently onto the church tractor and then proceeded to drive
it across a sloped area of the church property. The tractor flipped
over, pinning her underneath and causing severe injuries. After
receiving treatment, care, and support from the church and the
insurance company, she has now filed a lawsuit against the church. That
case is on-going.
In another situation, an eager
volunteer told a West Virginia pastor he knew a great deal about air
conditioning and offered to come to the church to "fix" some of their
problems in this area. During his visit, he accidentally shot himself
in the hand with the church's nail gun! He has now hired an attorney to
sue the church. The church called CLA after learning that their
liability insurance will not cover them in this type of situation.
CLA recommends that before any
ministry allows a volunteer to "fix" something or to do any volunteer
work for the church that the ministry take the following steps:
1. Obtain a liability release form and have the volunteer sign that they agree to assume all risks in their efforts.
2. Verify that the person is qualified to perform the activity that they are offering to perform.
3. Do not let teenagers handle any kind of machinery.
4.
Be sure to physically inspect and verify that the person possesses any
special licenses needed to operate any particular piece of machinery.
5. Make sure that your church’s insurance will cover a volunteer’s activities while on your property.
Being vigilant before an accident
happens will go a long way toward protecting a church and its
volunteers from a great deal of pain and difficulty in unforeseen
dangers down the road. Please pray as CLA helps those ministries who
are already in trouble and as we seek to protect other ministries from
facing similar tragedies.
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