5 Reasons Yoga Teachers
Need Liability Insurance
Why yoga insurance? Over 15 million civil lawsuits are filed each year in the U.S. and unfortunately, more and more are frivolous. Professional liability insurance is a nominal investment every instructor should make in order to protect themselves against the threat of litigation.
Here at Yoga Journal, we know that you have great intentions teaching yoga, however, the fact is that you need to protect yourself from claims regarding accidents and other occurrences that can happen in your class, whether at a yoga studio, in a client’s home, or while you're on an international yoga retreat. This is why.
1. Someone could sue you if he or she slips, trips, or falls in your class or studio space.
If a student were to slip and get injured in your class, a lawsuit could happen. Even without the “fault” on your behalf, an individual could still hold you responsible for their injury. Without insurance, you’d be financially responsible for fighting the lawsuit. If you have the protection of liability yoga insurance, you could be covered.
2. You could be held liable if someone gets injured from your alignment or adjustment.
Injury resulting from the physical practice of yoga is a high risk. Although you might carefully choose your sequence and offer a variety of modifications with props, a student could still get injured and you, the teacher, could get sued. Moreover, a student could claim that you did something inappropriate in class, such as taught a pose with incorrect alignment or gave an unsafe/unwanted adjustment. Either way, you could be held liable.
3. The cost of one year of insurance is cheaper than a few hours with most lawyers.
The basic coverage from TeachersPlus yoga insurance is $115 for a part-time yoga teacher (who teaches less than 6 hours per week) and $175 for a full-time teacher. (Benefits are a nominal additional fee.) However, the hourly wage for lawyers can range from $50 - $1,000 per hour. Therefore, for less than $0.32 per day, depending on the case, you could have support and up to $2 million dollars of coverage for a single occurrence.
4. You cannot buy coverage after a lawsuit occurs.
Sometimes individuals want to wait and see what happens. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work for everyone. While yoga related lawsuits are relatively uncommon, if you are uninsured and happen to get sued, you cannot buy coverage after the loss occurs. Therefore, protecting yourself with yoga business insurance can keep you safe before anything happens.
5. Coverage follows you wherever you teach, even internationally and with children.
You're covered whether you teach at a yoga studio, fitness center, recreation center, someone's house, or all of the above. You are even covered on international trips up to 30 days and while you work with kids. Your TeachersPlus policy follows you wherever you teach.
In the end, your students’ choices are out of your control.
Regardless of how much you train and prepare to teach yoga, you cannot control your students’ behavior and choices during your classes. While yoga is not meant to be competitive, students often still push themselves, and sometimes too far. In some cases, students want to learn more and grow, other times it’s a lack of knowledge. Either way, don’t you want to protect yourself? We suggest you make the investment in yoga liability insurance ahead of time to secure your career and financial future. Get yourself insured today.
Find the right yoga liability insurance package for you
