Home > Martial Arts Insurance Guide Insurance > Martial Arts Liability

This page is part of the broader Martial Arts Insurance Guide hub, which covers essential insurance options for martial arts instructors and schools, including Martial Arts Programs and Martial Arts Instructor insurance. Understanding these options will help you ensure comprehensive protection for your facility.

If you own or operate a martial arts school (or work for one as an independent contractor instructor), you absolutely need specific types of insurance. One of the main types of insurance that you will need for your martial arts school is liability insurance. Liability insurance for martial arts schools or studios is also known as karate insurance.

As the owner and operator of a martial arts facility or school, you are often responsible for individuals doing potentially harmful movements. With this in mind, because of the physical aspect of what you are teaching and facilitating at your school, there is a strong potential for injury. This may be injury to students, injury to a parent who is watching their child attend a karate class, or injuries to someone else.

In some cases, an individual who is injured on your premise this may be seriously hurt and require time off from work and lost wages, surgery, and/or another medical service that puts them out for a long period of time. And in this case, they may decide to sue you because they were hurt on your facility.

Whether the individual who was hurt on your premises was actually hurt because of something that was your fault remains to be seen in many cases. Determining fault can be extremely difficult in situations like these, in fact. On the other hand, it is very possible that you will be held accountable by a judge or a jury if the case ends up going to court. If it doesn't go to court, you may end up having to settle and losing large financially.

Is there a way out of this? There certainly is. All you need to do is to make sure that you have martial arts liability insurance for your martial arts school or facility. In this guide, we will go over what martial arts liability insurance looks like, what you should look for in an insurance plan that covers this type of liability protection is and more. Read on to get a basic understanding of insurance options for martial art instructors and schools, or skip directly to getting expert advice from an insurance professional local to you by filling in a simple request for quote/information form.

What Is Liability and How Does It Work?

Generally speaking, liability is a term that refers to someone being responsible for someone else. For example, if you are driving a car and putting on your makeup at the same time and you run into a biker who was trying to cross the street and they are injured, you will likely be liable for their injuries. In other words, this means that the accident was your fault, and you are responsible for it.

As with many areas of life, when you are responsible for something, there are consequences. In a case like this one where you are the responsible driver, this would mean that you would need to pay the biker for the injuries that they incurred because of your negligence. In some cases, this can be extremely expensive.

In a martial arts capacity, if you own and operate a martial arts school, you are responsible for the individuals who come to learn at your school, and because of the physical nature of what you do, it is very possible that someone could get hurt at your facility.

This might not be your actual fault, but if someone claims that it is and wins a case like this, you can lose all of your finances, your school, and more. Many businesses and individuals have gone bankrupt like this. Don't let this happen to you by making sure that you have martial arts liability insurance for your school.

Why Do You Need Martial Arts Liability Insurance?

You need to have martial arts liability insurance because it protects you from financial loss. Above, we listed a situation in which someone could possibly sue someone else because they were driving negligently and they caused a personal injury. In the case of a martial arts school that you own, the situation could be very similar.

Here's an example that might explain this better:

Let's say that you are holding a class for your students and teaching them a basic move in martial arts. One of the middle school students attempts to do the move and follow your directions, but they get off course and accidentally use too much force and seriously hurt themselves. Perhaps they fall and break their leg.

This student may claim that you taught them to do that move and that it is your fault that they ended up breaking their leg. Naturally, this is not your fault. The student had an accident or it was their fault that they used to much force or did the move incorrectly. But if their parent or if the student themselves (if they are old enough) decide to sue you for this, they may very well win, and you will have to may them money for damages, lose wages, and more. The only way to protect yourself from this and this situation is to have martial arts liability insurance.

Who Requires Martial Arts Liability Insurance?

Anyone who runs or teaches at a martial arts school and anyone who owns and operates a gym that teaches martial arts or a martial arts studio will need to have martial arts liability insurance. It is simply foolish to not have this type of insurance. Naturally speaking, there are numerous types of martial arts, but you should simply assume that all types of martial arts will be covered by liability insurance. Disciplines That Will Be Covered by This Type of Insurance:

• Capoeira
• Kung fu
• Shito-ryu
• Aikido
• Jujitsu (incidental Brazilian and Gracie)
• Goju-Ryu
• Kendo
• Karate
• Jeet Kune Do
• Hapkido
• Jundo
• Kempo
• Cardio kickboxing
• Kenpo

What Options Are Available With Martial Arts Liability Insurance?

In addition to basic martial arts liability insurance, you may also want to consider other insurance options if you operate a martial arts gym or need this type of insurance. These may be added extras or they may come with the initial martial arts liability insurance plan that you purchase. They are as follows:

Martial Arts Accidental Medical Insurance

Martial arts accidental medical insurance will cover you and your students in the event that they are injured on your premises. Accidental medical insurance covers individuals who have had an accident and required medical assistance because of their serious injuries. When it is on your property, this type of insurance will take care of these costs when appropriate.

Martial Arts Property Insurance

General liability insurance should be at the forefront of your mind if you own a martial arts school or property. But property insurance is another type of insurance that you will want to consider at your school.

Just as with property insurance at any other type of business like a bank or restaurant, property insurance covers your property itself. Keep in mind that it does not necessarily cover the belongings that you have inside your property. But it will cover the structure and the overall outline of your building layout and grounds. Property insurance in the capacity of a martial arts school would mean that in the event of a natural disaster like a fire, a flood, a large thunderstorm with high winds, a tornado, or a hurricane, if damage was caused to your property, you would be covered.

Coverage varies largely when it comes to property insurance. You may have a low or high deductible depending on the premiums that you are paying. To find a property insurance plan that will adequately fit your needs and the specific needs that you have living wherever you do in the United States, you'll need to speak directly with an insurance agent to learn about your plan options.

Martial Arts Umbrella Insurance

Umbrella insurance is insurance that basically makes up the difference of other types of insurance. Umbrella insurance covers you when other types of insurance like overall property insurance, liability insurance, business insurance and more either does not cover you or their coverage limits have been reached. Smart business owners always have umbrella insurance as well as other types of basic insurance.

Business Auto Insurance

Finally, if your martial arts school also has a vehicle that you transfer students in or anyone else in or a vehicle that you simply use for your business to pick up and drop off equipment with or to get from place to place with, you will need to have business auto insurance for this vehicle.

It is important to keep this in mind because general business insurance will not necessarily cover your a vehicle that you use for your martial arts school. Moreover, if you use the vehicle primarily for your business, auto insurance for a vehicle that you only in and a personal capacity may not cover your business vehicle in the event of an accident or if you need damage repair or replacement for any other reason.

What to Look for In Martial Arts Liability Insurance?

When it comes to shopping around for martial arts liability insurance, there are certain things that you want to make sure to look for.

Low monthly premiums

Your monthly premium will be the amounts that you need to pay for your martial arts liability insurance every month. Naturally, you want to keep this amount as low as possible to save you money.

Low out-of-pocket costs.

When something happens and you need to use your insurance, you don't want to have to pay large out-of-pocket cost amounts before the insurance kicks in. Try to get low out-of-pocket costs if you can.

Comprehensive coverage

Even though you want to have a low monthly premium, remember that this amount will naturally higher if you don't have great coverage. And you want great coverage. If you are able to get better coverage than average, your monthly premium rates will likely go up.

Immediate same-day coverage

Finally, don't go another day without martial arts liability insurance. If you can seek help from an insurance agent in your area and get this insurance plan started, you want to be able to have immediate same-day coverage if possible.

How Should You Handle It if a Martial Arts Accident Occurs?

If you have martial arts liability insurance and an accident occurs at your martial arts school, it is essential that you contact your insurance agent at once. This should be the first thing that you do after you make sure that medical help has been called for the individual who was injured in the accident. Naturally, if you are the only one there or if you are the best one suited to help the individual, you should help them as best you can until professional emergency services arrived.

Thereafter, as soon as you can, contact your insurance company. This is essential because you want to contact them before the person who is injured contacts them. You want to be able to relate exactly what happened in your own words, and you want to make sure that the accident is on the books in your words first.

What happens after that will largely be handled by your insurance company as long as you do have the proper liability martial arts insurance. For the most part, having this type of insurance safeguards you against having to pay anything out-of-pocket for injuries incurred by someone else on your property or school.

How to Go About Finding Martial Arts Liability Insurance

Do you own a martial arts school and are you interested in liability insurance for your school? If so, you will need to contact a commercial insurance agency in your area that handles martial arts liability assurance. The best thing to do is to call a local insurance agency first or a few agencies to get some quotes. For the most part, you can get insurance quotes on things like home insurance, auto insurance, and business insurance online, but specialty insurance like martial arts insurance needs to be dealt with on a person-to-person basis.

Once you sit down with your insurance agent to speak about your plan, make sure that you have a comprehensive understanding of what the plan entails so that you are always prepared in the event of an accident.

Here is more related information on martial arts insurance.