Negligence Simplified

November 10, 2014

5. Duty of Care

You owe a duty of care to everyone that uses your facilities and/or participates in your programs.  This means that as soon as they walk in your door,  you ‘have to be careful with them’.

Sometimes this is referred to as the ‘Foreseeability Test’.

If you end up in court as a result of someone getting injured in your facility, the judge will ask you – could you have foreseen that this was going to happen?  If the answer is ‘yes’ then that means you owed that person a duty of care.

So the answer is ‘yes’ to the first of the 4-point test for negligence (see blog #4).  Three more tests to go!

What it means:  You have to think through your programs and ask the question – what can foreseeably go wrong?

 

law(To follow this blog – go to ‘blog’ on the top right side of the SportRisk website)

Negligence Simplified

October 30, 2014

To follow blog on Negligence Simplified:
Click on ‘blog’ at top right of SportRisk website
Scroll down to first blog in series: Negligence Definitions

4. Has there been Negligence?

The courts will look at 4 Questions:

  1. Did Defendant owe Plaintiff a Duty of Care?
  2. Did Defendant breach the Standard of Care?
  3. Did Plaintiff suffer any injury or Damage?
  4. Was Defendant’s behavior the Proximate (Direct) Cause of the Plaintiff’s damage?

THERE IS NEGLIGENCE
IF ANSWER IS YES TO ALL FOUR

Next blog: Duty of Care

 Questions/Comments?

 Follow the blog: https://www.sportrisk.com/blog/

law

Negligence Simplified

October 29, 2014

To follow blog on Negligence Simplified:
Click on ‘blog’ at top right of ‘SportRisk’ website
Scroll down to first blog in the series: Negligence Definitions

3. How is Negligence Established?

The law courts will look at 3 issues:

1. Has there been Negligence?

2. Who is liability for the Negligence?

3. Can the plaintiff escape the liability?

Next blog: Issue #1: Has there been Negligence?Scales

Negligence Simplified

October 27, 2014

To follow blog on Negligence:
Click on ‘blog’ at top right of SportRisk website
Scroll down to first blog in series: Negligence Definitions

2. Reasonable Person Test

What is Negligence?

When an employee (or volunteer)

  1. Does something which a reasonable person would not do
    or
  2. Fails to do something which a reasonable person would do.

So what’s reasonable?? We’re getting to that…

Scales

Negligence Simplified

October 27, 2014

1. Definitions of Negligence

 

  1. Unintentional harm on others as a result of an insufficient standard of care.

  1. Conduct falling below the acceptable standard (sometimes referred to as the “reasonable person” standard).

  1. The failure to exercise that degree of care which is reasonable under the circumstances.

 

or quite simply:  Not being careful enough

Scales

Looking at Recreation risk through different lenses: Risk Rating

October 06, 2014

risk5

For blog #1 in this series – go to https://www.sportrisk.com/?p=2654

Risk rating in recreation – let’s get real with some examples!

Concept of residual risk

Using the ‘Risk Rating’ approach, take a look at a couple of recreation programs or facilities you are responsible for. Come up with an initial risk rating (with no controls), then apply your controls (i.e. risk management strategies) and then re-calculate the risk rating to determine your ‘residual risk’.  (To calculate ‘risk rating’ go to http://goo.gl/nbpbvy)

(Alternatively, look at something like a Rugby club program or Climbing Wall facility – and go through the same risk rating exercise.

Residual risk too high?

What did you find? Do you feel that your ‘residual risk’ is too high even after controls are in place? Are there any additional controls that you could put in place?

What do you do now?

For more information on our Online Courses,
contact us now!