We all know or have heard a story from a church that was sued by someone due to purported negligence by an employee or volunteer actions. Claims for negligent supervision, as well as related claims for negligent hiring and negligent retention, have become favorites for injured parties and their lawyers to use against churches.

If a church directs an employee or volunteer to act in a way that proves negligent, the church can be held liable directly for its decisions. Similarly, if a church employee or volunteer acts carelessly, but not at the specific direction of the church, his negligence may be attributed to the church.

When someone levels these allegations, an intentional wrongdoer is often standing between the church and the injured party. These are the cases where claims for negligent hiring, retention, and supervision are most potent against churches.

Courts have found that employers, including churches, have a duty not to hire or retain employees or volunteers that it should know pose an unreasonable risk of harm to others, and they have a duty to supervise personnel and activities to avoid unreasonable risk of harm to participants. These claims provide an injured plaintiff with a back door through which to find a church liable when the church otherwise might not be responsible for the wrongdoer’s misconduct.

Protecting a church from allegations of negligent hiring, retention, and supervision of its personnel and activities also begins with an understanding that such claims are not about your church, at least not directly. Instead, they often are about finding an alternate path to reach your church’s assets. Although indirect, the risk to your church is very real.

CMIRisk Insurance agency is solely devoted to helping churches reduce this
risk by better understanding negligent hiring, retention, and supervision claims.
Click over to www.cmirisk.com to view additional resources available to your church or ministry.

Tags: Christian Insurance, Church insurance, ministry liability, northwest risk insurance, oregon church insurance, Risk Management, risk management for youth, Safety

This entry was posted on March 10, 2012 at 12:58 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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