Legal Acountability

[archangel]

I put this under "game management", ---similar to doing certain things (warning, ect) that will reduce the chances of something exploding later in the game.

Checking equip prior wont eliminate potential lawsuits, lawyers suggest suing everyone in site to cover all the (money) bases, but it will reduce the chance an official will be found guilty of some charge....

[Mountaineer]

Unfortunately, we live in a very litigious society. Why is McDonalds responsible for someone putting a cup of coffee between their legs and getting burned when that coffee spills? Now that might be a bit more outrageous . . . but if you, as a game official, are required to inspect equipment prior to a game and a child gets injured - if you didn't do your job you will certainly be included in a lawsuit. The reason is simple - if you had done your job (i.e. tossed an illegal bat or helmet) that kid might not have been injured. The flip side . . . if you did your job, you'll probably still be named in the suit but the chances of being liable are much smaller.

[greymule]

One of our SP softball guys was named in a suit after a runner, in a co-ed game at a rather minimal field built for an apartment complex, slipped between 3B and home and tore up his knee. Does the suit claim the umpire should have called the game because of slippery grass? No. It claims that the runner, on the way home, remembered that the crummy, soft-rubber, flexible home plate had a slightly protruding edge, and not wanting to get hurt on this extremely dangerous home plate, tried to stop but couldn't. The claim of course is that the umpire should not have allowed the game to be played with the deadly home plate. The suit was in the courts for years, and I don't know that it has been resolved yet.

I was the PU in a SP game in which a batter, using a Miken Ultra (a bat with which Barney Fife could hit a softball 300 feet), lined a shot off the pitcher's foot and did some serious damage. That was in 2003, and I don't know whether that suit has been resolved, either. For some reason, I was not named in the suit.

[fitump56]

Originally Posted by Mountaineer

Unfortunately, we live in a very litigious society. Why is McDonalds responsible for someone putting a cup of coffee between their legs and getting burned when that coffee spills?

The court ruled the coffee was served at a scalding temp, approximately 140 degrees or more. Apples and oranges.