Time for another edition of Ask The Back School. Today we’re discussing we’re fielding a question regarding whether or not consultants should present clients with waivers when introducing new wellness initiatives. Check out the question we received from a Back School Grad:

Thank you for your time today in speaking with me about waivers for corporate wellness clients. My question is how to you discuss this and approach this with corporations when working with them? I ask because a prior corporate client signed our proposal and when I provided and discussed indemnification and employee waivers their lawyers reviewed them and said it wasn’t worth the risk and they dropped our proposal. I have another corporation interested in a stretching and mobility Zoom class and I would like to approach the waiver issue with them but not sure how. We have already provided two ergonomic Zoom education classes to. 

And here’s what TBS Director, Ron Porter, had to say:

Why do you want to have a waiver for liability? Was this your request or the company’s request? Was this something that your attorney advised and constructed for you to use?

Our attorney advised us that waivers of liability are essentially not enforceable and actually may cause more harm than good. You are planting the idea in the mind of the client that they may get injured and this could create a problem for both the honest client and for the client that may be looking for an additional way to get income. If you are working for a corporation as  a consultant the first line of liability would be that company. If you did something negligent they could come after you and so could the injured employee.

We carry liability insurance both personally, professionally and a business policy. Our clients often require that we have an assignment of the business liability policy with their company listed. This is provided by our insurance agent.

My advise to you is to consult an attorney for advice on what you should do in Florida or wherever the classes are going to be conducted.

Hope this is useful information.

And finally a response from our Grad

Thank you for your feedback on this, I greatly appreciate it. I contacted my insurance carriers and you are correct we are covered. I was worried that we may need waivers since prior this was an issue with a company and their lawyers had them drop our approval proposal. What you mentioned has provided clarification and I truly appreciate your time, thank you Ron!

Do you have experience with clients expressing hesitancy around liability waivers? Let us know in the comments below!