|
There's a difference between helping someone maintain their balance and touching a player after he's been injured in hopes of assisting his treatment.
State tort laws differ. The basis of tort liability in most states involves two MAIN factors (there are more legal elements, but for simplicity): duty and breach. You can't have legal liability without both. For example: you don't have a duty to prevent someone you don't know from shooting themselves in the foot, but you do have a duty to not shoot them yourself (absent something that excuses that conduct). Breaching duties is a little more self explanatory, but rest assured there are thousands of legal cases that have turned on minute details of a breach. Did Ford breach their duty to consumers by putting the Pinto's (or whatever car did this) fuel tank behind the rear axle? That was litigated extensively, I believe.
IF I am dealing with medical situations, here is some of the highlights as far as I'm concerned:
1. I won't in any way interfere or dictate treatment. My job is to stop the clock, beckon the coaches/trainers, and let them deal with things. I will assist in getting players out of the way and I will call security or the game administrator to keep fans off the field or keep whoever doesn't belong there off, but I'm only concerned about my specific duties and the players.
2. If there are weather issues where I am doing something with the rest of the game participants that is inconsistent with what the medical treatment folks want to do with one or more injured players (i.e. get participants off the field due to lightning), I will do that and I will leave the field also, leaving the medical treatment folks responsible for the player on the field.
|