October 2023 Gym Owner’s Podcast, “The Power of Control: Dr. JES Returns” Welcome back to How to Avoid Negligence Lawsuits! As we discussed in Part I, negligence settlements are in the millions of dollars now and can take years to weave through the courts. Additionally, most negligence lawsuits occur due to employee error in instruction or programming. With this in mind, one of the best ways for your gym to avoid a negligence lawsuit is to properly train and prepare your staff. Put your new trainer through a hand's on test - before assigning clients! Don’t rely on certificates – [...]
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October 2023 Gym Owner's Podcast, "The Power of Control: Dr. JES Returns." How can gym owners avoid becoming embroiled in a negligence lawsuit? Savvy business professionals recognize that all manner of legal claims have increased in frequency over the years. But how can a small business, like a fitness club, avoid becoming embroiled in a negligence lawsuit? Proactive gym owners can sidestep potential negligence lawsuits by rethinking their hiring and member management strategies. Attaining a waiver signature is not enough protection. As discussed in previous blogs and podcasts, the waiver law defense only comes into play after an injury has [...]
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Part II: Creating a Culture of Safety If a member sues your health club for gym negligence, how can you fight the case? Can you create a solid defense that will help you successfully fend off, or at least survive, a lawsuit? To explore these questions, we interviewed an expert in risk management and fitness liability JoAnn Eickhoff-Shemek. Dr. JES, as she is known, spoke with us on our podcast recently, enlightening our team on the critical steps every gym owner can take to reduce their chances of a gym lawsuit. In Part I, we covered waivers, assumption-of-risk documentation and group training. In Part II, [...]
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Guest Author: JoAnn M. Eickhoff-Shemek, PhD, FACSM President, Fitness Law Academy, LLC Introduction This blog will describe the types of legal liability risks that health club owners/managers can face due to an employee’s negligent conduct and effective risk management strategies that can minimize those risks. Large companies and healthcare organizations have risk management (RM) departments that employ experts who develop and implement RM strategies to protect the company or organization from all types of risks including legal liability risks. Because most health clubs do not have a RM department, the owner/manager has the overall responsibility to minimize legal liability risks [...]
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