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Public Liability Insurance for a band


Woodinblack
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One of the places we play has just contacted us to say that all bands playing there need to have Public Liability insurance.

Now I personally have public liability insurance though new moon as part of my instrument insurance, but that obviously doesn't cover the rest of the band (the PA and everything is mine though).

In the previous 7 years of this band noone has ever asked before, and we have never done anything about it. Now I look it seems to vary between £30 and upwards for a band, but what constitutes a band legally - we are not any specific entity, have no accounts or anything. Whereas I suppose the simple answer would be not to play this one venue, if it is only in the £30 region then it would be a no brainer thing to have anyway, not that we have ever needed it.

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I don't think the band has to be a legal entity as such, as long as the person who organises the insurance is a member of the band and the band always performs under that name, that should do. I'm in no way an expert though.

 

For the sake of pretty low premiums we considered it a no-brainer. We got ours through insure4music.

Edited by asingardenof
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We took out an annual Allianz policy for about £80 - so, £20 each in our band. Money well spent; thank god we haven't needed it so far.

Very easy to complete the paperwork, no tricky questions.

Edited by NHM
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21 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

has anybody ever needed public liability insurance? shouldn't the venue have it?

 

It would only protect them from the actions of their employees. Their insurance won't cover you if you injure someone but their insurance will cover their legal fees if someone is injured on their property and tries to sue them. You'd then need legal cover yourselves. 

 

The cyclist who badly injured a pedestrian who stepped out in front of him tried to represent himself, failed, and then lost £40k. Although I think his insurance company helped him out in the end.

 

All it takes is for someone to get drunk, come up on stage and trip over a lead and you're involved. Regardless of blame you have to defend yourselves. 

Edited by TimR
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21 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

has anybody ever needed public liability insurance? shouldn't the venue have it?

 

 

The venue will have it.

 

And if the venue can argue that it wasn't their fault they will try to pass that onto the band instead. The Venue's insurance does not cover negligence by the band.

Denials of liability on the grounds that the actual negligent act was due to another person / entity is extremely common.

 

Examples are: Venue not responsible for actions of bouncers that are provided by a security company. Venue not responsible for food poisoning when the food was provided by a catering company. 

 

Insurers do not cover anyone other than their own policyholders. The venue insurers will act in the best interests of the venue, and usually that means against the band.

 

The other reason for it - if the band think the venue are at fault, then the band's insurance will push liability to the venue. They have the money to do that. The band alone usually does not.

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59 minutes ago, PaulWarning said:

ok I'll rephrase, has anybody claimed on their Liability Insurance? (not saying you shouldn't have it, I know the reasons)

 

 

The band I'm currently in - yes. I don't run the band, I just play so I wasn't dealing with it. But a bit of the stage collapsed and somebody broke an ankle.

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1 hour ago, fretmeister said:

 

 

The band I'm currently in - yes. I don't run the band, I just play so I wasn't dealing with it. But a bit of the stage collapsed and somebody broke an ankle.

so was that your stage? if it was the venues surely it's their reasonability?

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