“Best Practices:” A legal disclaimer AS A LAWYER WHOSE PRACTICE focuses on live events, I strongly favor people creating and attending shows and not dying. I advocate for training, education, and mentoring so industry professionals learn to work safely and effectively. By creating standards of safe practice in live event spaces, organizations like PLASA are quite literally saving lives. For several reasons, however, it is a terrible misnomer to call the published materials they create “best practices.” From a legal standpoint, that term overstates and confuses the correct duty of care. From an SUMMER 2015 BY STEVEN A. ADELMAN, ESQ. Second stage at Rock In Rio in Las Vegas, May 2015. General admission events have to be planned to accommodate an audience with a diversity of abilities—including people in wheelchairs. operational perspective, “best practices” carries an implication of completed analysis that is contrary to the creative problem-solving in which readers of this article are constantly engaged. And on a philosophical level, the idea that one set of practices are “best” underestimates both the importance of context on even routine tasks, and the experience and judgment that distinguishes the craftsmen in charge of most live event sites. If this article were just a lawyer’s rant about wording, even I would advise you to move on. Life is too short for other people’s Is the term just another way of saying “do the right thing?” linguistic battles. Instead, my purpose is to unpack this overplayed term in order to discuss how live event professionals can identify the most effective ways to do your job under your particular circumstances, and in so doing, meet your legal duty of care. 44 SUMMER 2015