Wet Chem Labs - Liability Insurance

[Gary in CA]

A chemical education carries with it a certain degree of inherent danger not found in most other departments.  Mistakes happen.  The legal costs to defend an alleged claim can be staggering.  You deserve peace of mind.  Liability insurance provides protection for claims arising from personal injury and property damage.

 

This isn't an ad.  I'm selling nothing except the idea that the insurance company's best lawyers will defend you to the limit of your coverage.  Any thoughts that the big U will pay a TA's medical bills or defend a TA in the event of a student accident is naive.  They will cover only their own collective butts.

[Gary in CA]

Freaky.  I check the post and get a google ad for an insurance company at the top of the page.  Someone is listening.

[TakeruK]

Google ads' algorithm is to display ads based on content of the page, so it's not a surprise that a post about insurance will result in insurance company ads.

 

Liability insurance for TAs is a good point though. At my last school, it was one of the key concerns that we asked the union and University to clarify exactly what would happen if a student (or their parents) decided that it was the TA's fault that the student got hurt in a lab. It's confusing because our job description include things like "maintain a safe lab environment" but it's unclear whether this just extends to informing students of safety protocols and making sure students follow them or does it mean that we are legally responsible for the students' safety. If it's the latter, there were extra concerns since (1) we don't set up many lab equipment ourselves (lab technicians do it) and we don't have time allocated to check each set up (also, why should we know better than the lab techs that have been doing this for 10+ years anyways), (2) we can only remove students from the lab for unsafe practices, but this is a "reactive" approach -- they have to do something stupid/dangerous first, and (3) we don't get any additional training in how to maintain a safe lab -- we basically get the same safety protocols training, but nothing about how to actually handle a dangerous situation. I was in a physics program so while we did have some hazardous materials in our lab courses (lasers, things falling etc.), it's probably not as dangerous as a wet chem lab.

 

I graduated and left before the University and Union figured out who was responsible for what. Ideally we would have liked to get it clarified that TAs are released from all liability (similar to how students usually have to sign waivers to release the school from liability). Maybe this was already in place but we just didn't know about it. Even if the school had an insurance policy in place for its TAs and profs, it would still be a nightmare to have to go through all the legal proceedings.

 

I wonder what policies exist at other schools? If you are TAing a lab, do you know what you could be liable for? 

 

As for getting liability insurance -- I have always had liability insurance as part of my auto insurance or renters insurance policies. Renters insurance is pretty important and my insurance company actually extends the liability coverage in my renters insurance to everything else as well (i.e. I'm covered if my landlord decides to sue me for leaving the stove on and damaging the building or even if someone decides to sue me for libel!). So while I didn't go out and get personal liability insurance due to concerns about TAing, I think renters policies (or homeowners insurance) should cover this anyways! And I definitely think renters insurance is a good idea for peace of mind, no matter what your occupation is (some landlords might even require it).

Edited December 30, 2012 by TakeruK