Keep them moving. Keep yourself covered.

California's AED rule for health studios

Health and Safety Code section 104113 requires every health studio to acquire, maintain, and train staff on an automatic external defibrillator (AED). A health studio there means a facility that lets people use its space and equipment for physical exercise or fitness training on a membership basis; a hotel gym offered only to registered guests is excluded. Rules vary by state; this list is California's.

• Test and log. Maintain and test the AED under manufacturer, American Heart Association or American Red Cross guidelines. Check it after each use and at least every 30 days when it has not been used, and keep records of those checks.
• Train enough people. At least one employee per AED unit completes a CPR and AED course for the first five units, then one more for every five additional units. Trained employees should be available to respond during staffed hours.
• Write the plan. Keep a written emergency plan that includes an immediate 911 call, and report any AED use to the physician and the local EMS agency.
• 24-hour or keycard access. If members can get in with no employee present, every employee must finish CPR and AED training within 30 days of starting, a trained employee must be on site at least 50 hours a week, members must be told at sign-up that trained staff will not always be there, and studios over 6,000 square feet must deny entry when no employee is present.

Why I ask: the statute shields employees, board members and the facility from civil damages tied to AED use, but the facility's protection depends on full compliance with those duties, and none of it covers gross negligence, willful or wanton misconduct, or a malicious failure to use the AED. A studio that lets members in during operating hours with no AED-trained employee present gives up that protection and the primary assumption of risk defense for claims tied to that gap. Your 30-day check log is one of the first documents a general liability carrier will ask for after a cardiac event.

Membership contracts have their own rules

California regulates the membership contract itself. Civil Code section 1812.81 covers contracts for instruction or training in exercise and fitness, for use of a health studio, gymnasium or similar facility, and for membership in a club formed for those purposes. Instruction at Education Code schools, diet-only instruction, and certain professional services fall outside it. Other states have their own health club statutes, so the rules vary by state.

• Length. No contract term over three years, and no payments due past the term, except valid amounts already owed, including amounts due during a termination notice period of 30 days or less.
• Disclosure. The initial or minimum term must appear in at least 14-point type, or an equally legible electronic format, above the signature space.
• Required content. A cancellation notice in at least 10-point bold type near the signature line, giving the buyer until midnight of the fifth business day after signing (excluding Sundays and holidays) to cancel; the operator's mailing and email addresses and the signing date on the first page; and a description of services, facilities and hours or where they are posted online.
• How members cancel. In person, by email from the address on file, or by first-class mail.
• Start date and refunds. Services must begin within six months of signing, and if the studio misses its timeline the member may cancel. Refunds are due within 10 days of a cancellation notice, less charges for services already received. Members get a pro rata refund if facilities the studio described are eliminated or substantially reduced, and higher-priced contracts carry cancellation windows of 20, 30 or 45 days.

Billing and refund fights are contract disputes, not bodily injury, so they are not what a general liability policy is designed to answer. Keeping your contract template in line with the statute is the simplest way to avoid them.

Official sources

• California Health and Safety Code 104113 (AED requirements for health studios)
• City of Santa Barbara v. Superior Court (Cal. Supreme Court, July 16, 2007, S141643)
• California Civil Code 1668
• California Civil Code 1812.81 (contract for health studio services defined)
• California Civil Code 1812.84 (term limit, disclosure, cancellation methods)
• California Civil Code 1812.85 (contract content, refunds, cancellation windows)
• 22 CCR 65501 (public pool definitions)
• 22 CCR 65523 (public pool operation records)
• California Health and Safety Code 116045 (lifeguards and AED at direct-fee pools)
• CPSC Recalls search (Exercise Equipment category, SaferProducts.gov)