Being sued due to accidents or injuries is becoming a common experience for many organizations and businesses. In order to prevent you and your student organization from becoming a target of litigation, you will need to institute a Risk Management policy for your event. When you do this, remember the following.

How to Get Sued

Becoming the target of a lawsuit is usually the result of one of the following causes. Please review these along with the accompanying examples:

• Ignorance of the law: If you serve someone who is already intoxicated, even if you did not know it was illegal, you could be sued. START is a tool to help educate you on laws that pertain to your event. If appropriate, you may want to consult a lawyer about your event to make sure that all relevant laws are known and followed.
• Ignoring the law: If you and your servers know you cannot serve underage or intoxicated individuals and still do, you could be sued due to events resulting from it.
• Failing to Act: If you allowed violence to occur at your event without calling the police, you could be sued.
• Failing to Warn: If your event, due to any factor, could cause danger to your guests, you must notify them of the inherent danger or face possible litigation.
• Expense: If an accident or injury occurs and your event does not appropriate insurance, you and your organization could be held liable.

When you and your organization develop a Risk Management Policy for your event, these are some of the topics to keep in mind:

• Underage drinking
• Purchasing alcohol with organization funds
• Illegal drugs or controlled substances
• Sponsorship of your event
• Drinking games
• Hazing
• Sexual Assault and Abuse
• Fire Safety