From a guy that runs skills courses, that’s a pretty poor show.
The 1st thing you should tell customers on skills courses is to make sure their equipment is in good condition so they can rely on it not to let them down.
Confidence in the bike is a big part of skills tuition. And proper maintenance is a key element of that.
You undermine that in your post, by stating you’ve not serviced your fork for 8 years!
By adopting this attitude, you are letting your customers down.
If your fork broke while you taught jump technique and you were left unconscious, would you expect your customers to bail you out of a situation you created by not carrying out some simple maintenance?
You need to get a grip buddy. Litigation is a growth industry, and it’s waiting for nice bits of info like your previous admission to chew you up and spit you out.
I seriously hope you never get any claims made against you, but cover your butt mate, there’s a lot of sharks out there ready to take advantage.