Posted By:
warshawlawInsurance policies don't attract lawsuits; that is nonsense. Your insurance policy is not public knowledge; there has to be a lawsuit already in progress to compel you to fess up to having one, and if the fight is already on, you are screwed anyway, so better to be screwed with protection than not.
If you are going to build what the law terms an "atractive nuisance", you should take some reasonable steps to protect yourself. The cost of an umbrella policy is modest and the peace of mind is genuine. Pools newly built here, in the land of pools, must be fenced off to avoid little uninvited visitors wandering in and being attracted. Even if the law in your town doesn't require it, plain common sense says you should put in a fence to potentially avert a tragedy involving an unfortunate kid who might wander in and drown if access is unimpeded. Not much you can do to stop drunken idiot guests who dive in and break their necks (nature does weed out the nimrods, after all), but at least you can protect yourself financially from the doofus's heirs. Lifeguards don't guarantee anything, even pros. Last year at our local YMCA, a kid nearly drowned with a lifeguard on duty. My wife saw the kid go under in the deep end and the lifeguard (who was busy chatting up a nanny) missed it. I also know of someone in our former congregation who had a kid drown in their pool during a party; the parents took their eyes off the kid for a few moments and he went to the bottom of the pool.