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After reading the posts, I think Tim came in to stir up a hornest nest and then leave.
Nevertheless, the fear of lawsuits dealing with safety issues is real and is always emphasized in meetings that I have attended in basketball and softball. ASA for softball has insurance for its members and tells them to never call an non-ASA game. Those umps have been sued.
It is very conceivable to move the legal precedent that has occured in other instances to the jewelry issue. It appears from the past posts that courts hold officials accountable legally and financially for failure to provide safety for participants when they can do so. So, it is no jump of logic that we would be liable for not knowingly enforcing the jewelry rule.
Fear is a normal emotion and the decision to have jewelry removed is a prudent and intelligent decision. Not to do it is a foolish and stupid decision. How one reacts to fear reveals a lot about oneself.
I take this issue seriously and even walked off the court in the middle of a game due to this point (it was a rec league and I lost all my games cause the powers that be did not like my decision). It's a long story but the bottom line was I was not going to leave myself open to a lawsuit.
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