Sport Waiver Risk Fitness Law

Doyice Cotten published this article in Fitness Management several years  ago.  The warnings here are no less true or necessary than they were then. Should you be offering a tanning bed in your club or business?
Norman Welke, an Ohio man, purchased an at-home tanning bed from Wolf Tanning Company of Marietta Georgia in 1993 and has used it regularly until he learned that the bed may have caused a malignant melanoma to form on his chest.  The cancer required a hospital stay and surgical treatment.   In May, 2004, Welke filed …

This case account was prepared by Tom Bowler, an experienced expert witness In the area of playground safety.

Fact Pattern:
The mother took her four-years-old son visit a children’s museum.  In the basement of the museum, one room had a theme of “sea caves”.  The walls, benches and play equipment were painted with a theme of underwater sea caverns.  This created a figure/ground type of problem for visually seeing and distinguishing protruding benches etc.  The flooring was carpeted.  Basically, the museum operated on the tenet of being a …

The tourism industry in the United States is replete with hazards and risks – particularly when one is not in an upscale property. Hoteliers in the U.S. spend a lot of money eliminating hazards in an effort to reduce the risk of injury and lawsuits. In India, we found that the more upscale hotels have much in common with the upscale hotels here. These hotels are very secure. Most are fenced, have security personnel on the property at all times, and many have a colorfully dressed door attendant at the …

We are all familiar with the typical playground hazards found on American playgrounds. Third world countries usually have more hazards, in part, because more funds are available in America for providing safer playgrounds and, in part, because those in charge of American playgrounds have more training in playground safety and risk management. On a recent visit to India, we visited a number of rural and urban playgrounds and saw a number of risks. One of the best, and most amusing, playgrounds we saw was one in Cochin (Kochi), India.
Indian playgrounds …

One of the most common reasons that a waiver fails when challenged in court is that it violates the public policy of the state. Often readers are puzzled by the term “public policy” and ask, “Just what is public policy?” This concept is quite broad and is not easily defined or explained.
Black’s Law Dictionary states that public policy is “… that general and well-settled public opinion relating to man’s plain, palpable duty to his fellowmen, having due regard to all circumstances of each particular relation and situation.” One court defined …