All;
Today I was emailed and asked to check out a thread on McGriffs regarding officials being sued for injuries to players. I have read the whole thread (Fan - Logic behind rule). It's actually a subtopic in the thread and there are a number things that strike me as odd. I have started the thread here so that names can be attached to the posters and I can have some basis for evaluating the answers. Here are some facts and observations that I am mulling over. Please comment:
1. It's an intelligent thread that needs discussion and it started on McGriffs. That's very odd.
2. Many years ago when I subscribed to a rag called Referee, I was charged $39 per year for the rag and $30 per year for $1-2 million of liability insurance. I am going from memory here. I may be slightly off on the numbers.
3. $30 for $1-2 million of liability insurance indicates to me that almost no officials are getting sued. At least half of that has to go to marketing and overhead costs. Some has to go to profit. What's left to pay claims?
4. Has Referee's insurance company ever paid a claim under this policy? Is it even a legitimate company?
5. Are there so many loopholes in the policy that it is really worthless? What kind of insurance costs only $30 per year?
6. It's "common knowledge" that officials are the targets of lawsuits. Yet when challenged to provide proof of this over on McGriffs, nobody could. The quoted platitudes about our litigous society, but no one could name an actual case where an official was held liable.
7. I remember about 3 years ago when an attorney over on eteamz did a search looking for cases against officials regarding player injuries. The major one that he could find regarded Rugby and it was in the UK, not even here in the good old USA. I don't remember if he found any cases in the USA.
8. With all of the posters from all over the country at this forum, somebody somewhere should know someone in their association who has bee sued. Please tell us what happened.
9. For my own association, we have been threatened with legal action several times over the last 15 years but never over bodily injury to players, fans, or coaches. I am in a big rich (comparatively) association in the most litigous place in the country. If it isn't happening here, where is it happening?
10. Is the threat of lawsuits against officials for kids getting hurt another one of those baseball myths like "the hands are part of the bat?"
On McGriff's some of these questions have been raised but there are no answers. There is a lot of opinion (and flames) but precious little fact. Can anyone here shed real light on this issue?
Peter