§ 1062.33.Liabiity

This section is the operative core of the chapter's liability protection. Subdivision (a) draws a clean line: an FFA can be held liable for injury or damage its own negligence causes, but not for injury or damage caused by the public entity, including that entity's officers, employees, or volunteers, acting in its own capacity. Each side, the FFA and the public entity, bears the cost of insuring its own acts and omissions, and each bears its own defense costs against claims arising from those respective risks.

Subdivision (b) makes this allocation non-negotiable. No court may waive or suspend subdivision (a), and any provision in a contract for child, youth, and family services in which a public entity is indemnified, held harmless, or insured for damages arising from the public entity's own negligence or intentional conduct is void as against public policy and unenforceable. In plain terms, a public entity cannot use a services contract to shift the cost of its own wrongdoing onto the FFA it hires.

The statute does not disturb other legal protections. Subdivision (b)(2) clarifies that none of this limits or affects any immunity otherwise available as a defense to either the FFA or the public entity under other law.