Sport laws

Physical education has a lot of professional hazards, so it can be regarded as one of the most risky professions. Physical educators should be knowledgeable about many liability cases that has to do with sport organization e.g. negligence, tort, misfeasance, etc. Physical educators should be aware of what should be done to avoid legal liability.

Sports Law encompasses a multitude areas of law brought together in unique ways. Issues such as antitrust, contracts, and torts are quite common. For further information in these areas see:

• Antitrust
• Contracts
• Tort

Sports Law can be roughly divided into the areas of amateur, professional, and international sports. The distinction between a professional and amateur athlete is somewhat tenuous. So-called “amateur” student/athletes at universities often receive scholarships and other forms of compensation. Also, keep in mind that even though an athlete may be defined as an amateur by one organization, he or she may not be an amateur according to another. Of course, this leads to even more confusion. A simplistic, yet useful definition is that amateur athletes participate in sports as an avocation while professional athletes are involved in sports as a vocation.

Sports law refers to a specialized practice focused on legal issues pertaining to the sports industry. As with entertainment, arts, or hospitality law, sports law generally refers more to the target industry rather than a separate body of law, though there are a few unique legal issues only faced by professional sports leagues. Common sports law issues include labor law, contract issues, unfair competition and antitrust law, and torts.

Much of sports law is divided between amateur and professional sports. Amateur sports are often governed by collegiate athletic associations, like the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The NCAA propagates various rules governing issues like ethical conduct, amateur eligibility, financial aid, recruiting, gender equity, championship events, and academic standards. Gender equality is one area of particular interest in amateur collegiate sports. While membership in the NCAA is voluntary, the NCAA has enforcement power and can introduce a series of punishments against both students athletes and member schools. These punishments even include the so-called “death penalty:” the full shut-down of a sporting activity at an offending college.

Unlike intercollegiate sports, international amateur sports are run by a variety of organizations, like the International Olympic Committee (IOC). International amateur sports can face many of the same legal issues as collegiate sports, and have had a recent spate of anti-doping issues. Often disputes between national sports organizations can become both a proxy for political issues and a flash point for international tensions.

Professional sports leagues, on the other hand, have their own unique set of legal issues. For example, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) acknowledged in 1967 that professional athletes have the right to form unions, or “players associations.” It is now common for these professional players associations to call for work strikes in order to apply pressure to owners, usually while negotiating salary standards for the league.

Doping has also become an issue for professional sports in recent years. Player drug violations may lead to suspensions and loss of salary. The issues even became so pointed in the early part of the 2000’s that congressional hearings occurred to investigate the widespread use of performance enhancing drugs in professional sports.

Of course, some of the most famous issues related to sports law have to do with contract negotiations. Players hire agents to represent them in negotiations of multi-million dollar player contracts, trades, promotional deals, etc. Cities negotiate for franchise rights to have a resident team. Stadiums have a stream of commercial contracts with vendors for food and merchandise. Media companies contract for broadcast rights. Obviously, there are many other types of contracts involved in sports law, as well.

What is Legal Liability?

Legal means connected with in accordance with, authorized or required by the law. Liability means the state of being liable, that is responsible according to the law.

Precautions against liabilities

• The physical educator can take some precautions, in other to avoid possible legal suits. The following precautions are therefore recommended
• Every instructor or educator should be properly trained and qualified to perform specialized work.
• Be familiar with health status of each child
• Be sure that both equipment and facilities are safe to use
• Regular inspection should be made on equipment, apparatus and taking precautions to make sure they are safe
• Group students of equal ability on the same competitive level.

Tort, Negligence and Assault in Sport

Tort

A tort is defined as a legal wrong resulting direct or indirect injury to another individual or to property. A tortuous is a wrongful act and damages can be claimed through court actions. A tort is a wrong arising from the violation of a private duty.  Again, however, a crime can also constitute a tort.  For example, assault is a tort, but it is also a crime. There are three types of torts: intentional torts; negligence; and strict liability.  An intentional tort is a civil wrong that occurs when the wrongdoer engages in intentional conduct that results in damages to another.  Striking another person in a fight is an intentional act that would be the tort of battery.  Striking a person accidentally would not be an intentional tort since there was not intent to strike the person.  This may, however, be a negligent act.

Negligence

Negligence is common legal system usually used to achieve compensation for injuries (not accidents). Careless conduct that results in damage to another is negligence. Negligence is the failure to follow the degree of care that would be followed by a reasonably prudent person in order to avoid foreseeable harm. A person can be negligent if he or she acts with less care than a reasonable person would use under similar circumstances.

Actions that can result in negligence

• Not taking appropriate care
• Allowing students to use gadgets which they are not capable of using or operating
• Not giving adequate warming exercise
• Acting without sufficient skill
• Not looking for pupil who are in danger
• Not making corrections
• Lack of progressive teaching
• Students are over worked to exhaustion

Assault in sports

• It occurs when a person commits the offence of assault to an opponent or official. The following therefore constitutes assault in sport;
• Purposely causing reasonable apprehension of bodily injuries in sports
• Knowingly making physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature with an official
• Negligently causing bodily injury to an official with a weapon.

Conduct that harms other people or their property is generally called a tort.  It is a private wrong against a person for which the person may recover damages.  The injured party may sue the wrongdoer to recover damages to compensate him for the harm or loss caused.  The conduct that is a tort may also be a crime. A crime is a wrong arising from a violation of a public duty.    A person who is assaulted may bring charges against the assailant and have him prosecuted criminally and may also sue the assailant for damages under tort law.  An employee’s theft of his employer’s property that was entrusted to the employee constitutes the crime of embezzlement as well as the tort of conversion.

Generally, liability because of a tort only arises where the defendant either intended to cause harm to the plaintiff or in situations where the defendant is negligent.  However, in some areas, liability can arise even when there is no intention to cause harm or negligence.  For example, in most states, when a contractor uses dynamite which causes debris to be thrown onto the land of another, causing damages such as broken windows, the landowner may recover damages from the contractor even though the contractor may not have been negligent and did not intend to cause any harm.  This is called strict liability or absolute liability.  Basically, society is saying that the activity is so dangerous to the public that there must be liability.  However, society is not going so far as to outlaw the activity.

Products liability is major area of sports tort law. Participants use all different types of sports-related equipment. Products liability refers to the liability of any or all parties along the chain of manufacture of any product for damage caused by that product. This includes the manufacturer of component parts, an assembling manufacturer, the wholesaler, and the retail store owner. Product liability suits may be brought by the purchaser of the product or by someone to whom the product was loaned. Products liability claims can be based on negligence, strict liability, or breach of warranty of fitness.  In a strict liability theory of liability, the degree of care exercised by the manufacturer is irrelevant. If the product is proven to be defective, the manufacturer may be held liable for the harm resulting from the defect.

Wrongful Death

When somebody dies in consequences of a wrongful act a person, either by negligence or by a deliberate act, such a death is called wrongful death. This is the civil equivalent of the criminal charge of one of the forms of homicide, including murder. Should a sports participant be held liable for the death of another athlete or a spectator? Virtually all sports involve an activity and an aspect of risk that could lead to the death of a participant. It is important for architects and administrators to provide protective screening and appropriate warnings for participants and spectators related to such concerns. What about fights? What about slugging someone in the face with a hockey stick?

Malpractice in Sports

Malpractice is a failure by an physician or other professional to use the care and skill that other members of their profession would use under similar circumstances. When an accountant, doctor, attorney, or some other professional contracts to perform services, there is a duty to exercise skill and care as is common within the community for persons performing similar services. Failure to fulfill that duty is malpractice. What about team physicians and trainers. What if a trainer or doctor employed by a team rather than the player recommends that the injured player participate? To whom does the medical practitioner owe a duty of care, the player or the team? Sometimes this decision is not clear cut. Malpractice is a broad category and could involve anything from an improper diagnosis to the prescription of an inappropriate medication.

Sports Officials

Another area of sports torts involves the officials of games or other sports contests. Officials in sports can greatly affect the outcome of the sports contest. Professional sports such as football, basketball, and hockey have incorporated the use of the television replay to ensure that the often subjective regulation of the sports contest remains as objective as possible. Sports officials, however, are often subject to harassment, intimidation, and sometimes violent, physical or verbal abuse from fans, players, and coaches. Whether at the professional or amateur level, sports officials are often the targets of hostile emotions due to the extreme competitiveness in the sports arena. Due to numerous lawsuits against sports officials for alleged intentional misconduct, states have been forced to enact laws that protect officials and provide immunity from such lawsuits. Immunity from civil suits only applies to unintentional, negligent acts by the officials. This affords the sports official some protection against litigation.

Workers Compensation

For most kinds of employment, state workers’ compensation statutes govern compensation for injuries.  The statutes provide that the injured employee is entitled to compensation for accidents occurring in the course of employment.  Every State has some form of workers’ compensation legislation.  The statutes vary widely from State to State.  When an employee is covered by a workers’ compensa­tion statute, and when the injury is job connected, the employee’s remedy is limited to what is provided in the worker’s compensation statute.

Compensation for injuries to an athlete is a prime subject for any collective bargaining agreement in professional sports that involve a players association or union When players are injured from an activity arising out of and in the course of their employment, the private agreement between the players, team, and league often avoid any necessity of filing a claim under the state’s workers’ compensation statute.

Insurance

Since any sports activity involves a degree of risk or injury, it is generally recognized that events and participants should purchase insurance to protect against a claim of negligence arising from that activity. Sports insurance policies do not relieve an individual or event from liability from negligent behavior. However, having insurance does ensure that if a judge or jury believes that damages should be awarded for an injury arising from the activity, the insurance company stands in the shoes of the defendant and must therefore pay in accordance with terms of the insurance policy. Exceptional student-athletes and professional athletes are wise to purchase a policy that covers their own participation in the activity. Such insurance for the professional athlete may be referred to as a career-ending injury insurance and usually requires large premiums to maintain because of the potential for great financial loss, especially at the professional level.

Commercial Misappropriation

Though athletes may find that a successful suit under defamation standards is extremely difficult, an area that proves worthy of a lawsuit involves the use of the athlete’s name, image, or likeness without the athlete’s consent in order to make a profit or sale. Such non-approved use of an athlete’s persona is referred to as commercial misappropriation. Since manufacturers and other sellers of products and services commonly use an athlete in marketing in the form of an endorsement contract, athletes must be cognizant to protect from the unauthorized misuse of their image. Establishing a trademark (including an Internet domain name) for one’s name or image may be necessary for professional athletes (and certainly professional and amateur leagues and organizations) to prevent improper use of a name for profit.

Products Liability

Products liability in sports represents an area of negligence involving a sporting goods. When plaintiffs sue a manufacturer of sporting goods, the claimants allege that they suffered an injury due to the use of a product that was defective. Bats, gloves, shoes, helmets, pads and other goods used in a sport are subject to a lawsuit if there is a defect in the design or manufacturing process. This may be referred to as a manufacturing defect or design defect.

Manufacturers of goods may also be sued for failing to warn the user of potential dangers involving use of the product. Since goods are involved, the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) is often called into play, and the user of the product alleges that there was a breach of the warranty of merchantability or a breach of the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose. UCC Article 2 governs the sales of goods and has been adopted in whole or in part by every state.

Assessment

• Explain the following terms; Sports law, Tort and Negligence