Posts tagged as:

recreation

February 6 roundup

by Walter Olson on February 6, 2012

  • “A 4-Page Playdate Waiver? Is This the New Normal?” [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids; our 2000 post on "Rise of the High-School Sleepover Disclaimer"]
  • Spirit Airlines sets what it calls DOTUC fee, for “Dept. of Transportation Unintended Consequences” [Stoll]
  • How fairly are fathers treated in family court? [Nina Shapiro, Seattle Weekly via Alkon]
  • “‘Insider’ Trading by the Representative Plaintiff in Shareholder Litigation” [Bainbridge]
  • “Donation controversy focuses attention on Madison County asbestos litigation” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Chamber-backed LNL]
  • Update: Appeals court reinstates Duluth doc’s defamation claims [DNT, earlier here, here, here; "bedside manner" criticism]
  • U.K.: “‘Psychic’ Sally Morgan Sues Critics for £150,000 After Refusing $1 Million to Prove Her Powers” [D.J. Grothe, HuffPo] “She’ll be calling witnesses such as ‘an uncle, or father, or a man… with a b in his first name’.” [@thegagthief]

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That treehouse has to go

by Walter Olson on January 30, 2012

Kids at a Long Beach preschool had enjoyed it for thirty years without incident, but a state inspector said no. Headline on the resulting article: “Obsession with safety is ruining our playgrounds.” [Gale Holland, L.A. Times]

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January 3 roundup

by Walter Olson on January 3, 2012

  • Popehat’s Ken to the rescue after Maine lawyer/lawmaker assists naturopath in bullying critical blogger [Popehat]
  • Newt’s “patriotism made me stray” among highlights of the year in blame-shifting [Jacob Sullum]
  • Nifong sidekick, now in a spot of legal bother himself, hits back with lawsuit [K C Johnson, Durham in Wonderland]
  • Shareholder action: “Delaware approves $285 Million in Plaintiffs’ Lawyers’ Fees” [Bainbridge, WSJ Deal Journal, WSJ Law Blog]
  • “Even one death is too many — WE MUST BAN NETI POTS!” [NYDN via Christopher Tozzo]
  • Debatable premise of Joe Nocera analysis on Stephen Glass case: bar admission turn-down = “rest of his life … destroyed” [NYT, Howard Wasserman/Prawfs, earlier]
  • Who says Connecticut never reforms liability? Towns won protection last year from some recreation-land tort exposure [CFPA, earlier here, here]

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“The president of the Florence Park District says he’s disappointed in a system that allows a man riding a motorized bicycle on a winter night on a trail that doesn’t allow motorized vehicles to receive an insurance settlement. Half of the settlement came from a Florence bar because snow was pushed onto the trail when the bar parking lot was plowed.” [AP]

“The family of a man who was gored to death by a mountain goat in Olympic National Park is suing the Park Service.” [AP, National Parks Traveler, earlier]

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“Swan song for swings?”

by Walter Olson on October 25, 2011

“The state inspectors strongly advised us against it,” said the director of a New Jersey preschool. [Greg Olear at Free-Range Kids]

  • Oh, American Academy of Pediatrics, why are you so consistently wrong? On videogames, on food-ad bans, on guns, CPSIA
  • New book by Annette Fuentes, Lockdown High: When the Schoolhouse Becomes a Jailhouse [John Harris, Guardian]
  • There are genuine problems with some countries’ international adoption practices, but should UNICEF really be pushing toward a “leave the kids in orphanages” alternative? [Nick Gillespie on Reason documentary to be released tomorrow]
  • At expense of both federalism and religious accommodation, bill entitled “Every Child Deserves a Family Act” (ECDFA) would impose anti-bias rules on state adoption and foster care programs [Washington Blade]
  • Cash-for-kids Pennsylvania judge: “Former Luzerne judge Conahan sentenced to 17.5 years” [Times-Tribune, our earlier coverage]
  • “Met a guy who works at my old summer camp. Bunks still do raids on other bunks, but their counselors have to file raid forms first. How sad.” [@adamlisberg]
  • Sex offender registry horror story #14,283 [Skenazy]
  • “Safety rules rob pupils of hands-on science, say MPs” [Independent, U.K.]
  • Gee, who could’ve predicted that? NJ’s aggressive “anti-bullying” law leads to new problems [NYT, Greenfield, PoL, NJLRA] Rapid growth in bullying law assisted by push from Obama administration [WSJ Law Blog, Kenneth Marcus/Federalist Society, Bader]

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“Kite flying, schoolyard games and sports day sack races have all been hit by an ‘epidemic’ of health and safety excuses, which should be challenged by the public, the Government said.” [Independent] Plus: UK school deems leather balls too dangerous for youngsters, directs use of sponge balls instead [BBC]

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August 3 roundup

by Walter Olson on August 3, 2011

  • Central Falls, R.I. lands in bankruptcy court [NYT; my Cato take]
  • Less efficient patdowns? Man with one arm files complaint after being turned down as TSA inspector [MSNBC via Hyman]
  • Don’t join the Mommy Mob [Ken at Popehat]
  • Montana high court upholds failure-to-warn verdict against maker of aluminum baseball bat [PoL link roundup, Russell Jackson; earlier here and here]
  • Finally some good news from Connecticut: state enacts law protecting municipalities from lawsuits over recreational land use [BikeRag; earlier here, etc.]
  • Claim: climate-change tort suits will require radical changes in tort law and that’s a good thing [Douglas Kysar (Yale), SSRN]
  • Attorney keen to go on TV, will take any case, either side [Balko]

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My new post at Cato at Liberty, following on a theme pursued by NYT science writer John Tierney, looks at some of the risks of trying to make children’s play too safe. More: UK Telegraph (”Health and safety fears are taking the joy out of playtime.”); Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids.

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The best-known operator of British amusement parks has ordered its staff “to ban anyone found guilty of bumping into each other in the electric cars equipped with huge bumpers. Bemused customers who assume that the ‘no bumping sign’ is in jest are told to drive around slowly in circles rather than crash into anyone else for fear of an injury that could result in the resort being sued.” [Louise Gray, Telegraph via Free-Range Kids]

Also: California appellate court rejects assumption of risk defense and denies summary judgment to bumper car injury claim [Bill Childs, MassTort.org]

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And other tales of playground litigation and the Consumer Product Safety Commission [Free-Range Kids]

May 10 roundup

by Walter Olson on May 10, 2011

  • Hey, why don’t we invade people’s privacy so we can recruit them as figureheads for our privacy-invasion class action? [Cal Biz Lit, earlier on Starbucks pot-convictions case] Class-action coupon settlements are a no-win for consumers [Michelle Singletary, WaPo]
  • “Former Silicosis Clients Sue O’Quinn Law Firm, Estate” [Texas Lawyer via PoL, related earlier]
  • Gathering ammunition for suits: “Are your employees recording you?” [Hyman]
  • Canada: “Inflatables too dangerous for school fair” [Free-Range Kids]
  • Evaluating the effectiveness of medical liability reforms [Kachalia & Mello, NEJM]
  • “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About ‘Judge Judy’” [TV Squad]
  • “Woman awarded $45,000 after dog kills cat” [six years ago on Overlawyered]

A proposed Hawaii law would assign liability to guidebook writers for some injuries at risky tourist sites [WSJ]

Following national publicity, the state of New York has backed off regulations that defined games like wiffle ball and freeze tag as risky enough that day camps might be obliged to consider medical contingency plans. [Coyote, MSNBC]

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Would you want to play in it? [Kaboom via Free-Range Kids]

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We’ve traced the cases in which the Connecticut courts, reversing longstanding law, have thrown open lawsuits against towns over recreation injuries on public land. Bob Dorigo Jones records some of the results, as well as the public pressure that’s been building for legislative reform in Hartford:

As usually happens in a case like this, the collateral damage quickly spread across the state. A group of mountain bikers preparing new trails for a Livestrong charity project was forced to abruptly stop their work because of the lawsuit. …

[A new bill filed in the Connecticut House and slated for an April 4 hearing] would provide local governments and quasi-municipal entities like the water authority with protection from personal injury lawsuits if they open their property to the public for free recreation.

The legislation has drawn support from thousands of citizens and a broad coalition of groups including the Connecticut Forest & Park Association.

More: Rick Green, Hartford Courant.

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An Oregon man robbed and shot during a fishing vacation to the state of Sinaloa, Mexico says the tour operator should have warned of the endemic risk of violence [OnPoint News]

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