Events involving sport or adventure activities

Who will be liable if someone who is participating in our activity is injured?

Your community organisation may be legally responsible if someone injures themselves during a sporting or other outdoor activity planned by your organisation. However, this will depend very much on the facts of the case. If there has been an incident, you should seek specific legal advice.

Generally, organisers of a sporting or adventure activity owe a duty of care to participants. In summary, this means that an organisation must take reasonable precautions against a foreseeable risk of harm. In determining liability, courts will assess whether your organisation should have reasonably foreseen that its activities and actions (or inaction) could have caused loss, damage or injury to a participant. 

For sports or higher risk outdoor adventure activities, the organisation's duty may extend to warning participants of identifiable risks associated with the event. The nature and extent of the required warnings will depend on the nature of the risk involved (see further below for information on waivers and warnings). 

However, if the injury or damage suffered by a participant of your organisation's sporting or adventure activity was the result of a well-known and understood inherent risk to the sport or adventure activity, the organisers may not be liable for the injury.  For example, the courts have held that a baseball club was not liable for not warning against the prospect of a collision between a fielder and base runner, as this was held to be a well-known and understood risk inherent to the sport of baseball. 

The reasonableness of the organisation's behaviour will be measured against the assumption that the participant must take reasonable care for his or her own safety. Where the participant fails to take reasonable care for their own protection, the court will take this into account in assessing the degree to which the organisation's conduct caused the injury.

If the planned sporting or adventure activity event is to take place on your organisation's premises, your organisation also has a duty of care to ensure people who use the premises are safe from any harm which could reasonably be caused through the condition of the premises or the activity conducted by the organisation on that premises.

Also, an injury or incident may be covered by occupational health and safety laws. For more information about your organisation's occupational health and safety obligations see Running your organisation > Occupational health and safety.

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Is warning people or getting them to sign waivers effective?

It is a good idea to ask participants in sporting and adventure activities to sign a waiver which informs them of all the risks involved and relieves the organisation from liability for personal injuries or damage caused during your event. Such waivers can eliminate some claims (for example, claims of breaches of certain warranties that might otherwise be implied at law).

However, waivers of this type cannot eliminate all liability. In particular, a participant who has signed a waiver may still claim that the organisation acted negligently and the organisation is sill bound by its duty of care to all participants. 

In circumstances where the law says that the organisation's the duty of care involves giving reasonable warning of the inherent risks involved in the activity, a waiver or disclaimer may be appropriate.  The waiver or disclaimer serves to give the participant sufficient knowledge of the risk, such that they can then decide for themselves that is, voluntarily assume the risk. Again, a warning of this type is unlikely by itself to discharge the organisation's duty of care. The waiver or disclaimer needs to be backed-up by all sensible precautions (for example, suitably qualified staff and proper safety harnesses for an indoor rock climbing activity).

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What steps can we take to reduce the likelihood of an incident?

It is good practice for your community organisation to monitor the planning and organisation of its events, including monitoring the behaviour of staff and volunteers involved in conducting the event.

It is good practice to develop a risk management procedure outlining your organisation's recognition and approach to the foreseeable risks to participants involved in events conducted by your organisation. If your organisation follows an established risk management procedure, this can help avoid liability because it demonstrates that the organisation has taken all reasonable precautions.

Any codes of practice and other standards in areas relevant to your events will be useful to guide the development of your risk management procedures.  Such a risk management strategy can also be useful when your organisation seeks public liability insurance and may help your organisation negotiate a better premium (that is, a lower cost for the insurance).

There are many resources available to assist in assessing risks and preparing risk management strategies, and links to some have been included in the Related Resources section below. You may also wish to refer to our Getting started > Insurance and Risk Management page for more information.

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Are there Codes of Practices or Standards we can follow?

Adventure Activity Standards

In Victoria the Adventure Activity Standards (AAS) are minimum standards for organisations conducting outdoor recreation activities for dependant groups (that is, where participants have a high level of dependence on the organisers and leaders of the event).

The AAS standards have not been incorporated into legislation and remain voluntary guidelines. However guidelines such as these are a useful way of establishing some commonly accepted minimum requirements for these activities. Among other things, if your organisation incorporates these standards into the planning and implementation of your community organisation's sporting or adventure event, it may assist your organisation receiving appropriate insurance cover.

Currently, there are specific AAS standards available for the following activities:

Detailed information about these standards are available from Victoria's Outdoor Recreation Centre (see Related Resources section below). 

Sporting Standards

If you organise and hold sports activities, there are a number of useful injury prevention and legal compliance initiatives that have been developed to assist your organisation. These include:

• Smartplay which facilitates injury prevention practices in sport, especially with younger people;
• Play By the Rules a tool which provides community organisations with practical information on model codes of practice, sample policies, relevant law and answering frequently asked questions relating to sporting event, as well as online training resources for coaches, officials, administrators and participants; and 
• Safety Guidelines for children and young people in sport and recreation is a resource that has been developed by Sports Medicine Australia.

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What insurance will we need?

Not all risks can be avoided. Public liability insurance is the main kind of insurance necessary for your community organisation to protect itself against claims made by participants of your sporting and adventure activity events in respect of injury arising out of those events.

However, for more detailed information about insurance issues, see our resources at Getting Started > Insurance and Risk Management

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What about if we are organising sporting events for children?

Working with children

In Victoria, the Working With Children Act 2005 (Vic) makes it mandatory for certain people who work with children (in either paid or volunteer positions) to obtain a Working With Children check (WWC check).

When organising sporting or outdoor adventure events which involve children, your community organisation must ensure that all employees and volunteers that are required to obtain a WWC check, do so by the required deadline (this legislation is being phased in for different child-related occupational fields).

As of 1 July 2008, a WWC check is required for all people who will be involved in working or volunteering in connection with children participating in athletics, basketball, cricket, football, soccer, gymnastics, swimming, lifesaving, netball, tennis and martial arts.  People working and volunteering with other sport and recreation groups will be required to apply for WWC checks between 1 July 2024 and 30 June 2010.  

For more information, a link to the Department of Justice’s WWC checks website has been included in the Related Resources section below. 

Parent or guardian’s informed consent

If your sporting events involve children under the age of 18, it is important for a community organisation to seek parent or guardian consent and obtain relevant medical information.

A parent or guardian consent (or waiver) form will not relieve a community organisation from its duty of care towards the child while the child is participating in the event. The consent form will also not prevent the organisation from being held liable (legally responsible) if they do not meet the standard of care required.

However, the form may serve as a useful document to inform the parents of children participating in an activity of the nature and risks of the activities that their children will be undertaking. It provides evidence of an acknowledgement by the parent of those risks and, may possibly contain an agreement about who will bear responsibility for the costs if an injury occurs.

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What other laws should we be aware of?

There are many other potentially relevant areas of law that may be relevant where your organisation
wishes to conduct an adventure or sporting activity.

Discrimination is one area. Anti-discrimination and equal opportunity law exists to ensure that we can all participate in public life in the community.  In Victoria there is specific legislation which prevents the discrimination of people in sport. 

There are also laws about harassment, abuse, human rights, child protection and others that may affect your organisation's activities. The Play by the Rules site listed in the Related Resources section below provides information on these areas of law.

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Related Resources

Related Legislation

Related links - Standards, legal and risk management resources

Related links - Victorian Government sites

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