As a strong advocate of staying active, I am often looking for new and exciting ways to improve my health and fitness as I become further removed from competitive sports. This includes trying different types of recreational activities, some of which come with a level of injury risk.
Voluntary assumption of risk
If you are injured playing sports, your ability to commence a lawsuit for damages, in some ways, can be more complicated than, for example, being injured in a motor vehicle accident or slip and fall. The law in Ontario recognizes that there are risks inherent to participating in certain sports and recreational activities. For example, if you are playing hockey, there is a certainly level of expectation of physical contact and thus, not all injuries are legally actionable. A person is seen as having implicitly consented to the risks inherent to the sport and to injuries that are reasonably foreseeable within the scope of play. This is a legal concept known as “voluntary assumption of risk.”
By way of example, under this doctrine, a hockey player who is injured by a trip or body check (assuming contact is permitted) would not likely have an actionable claim in negligence as against the offending player. On the other hand, if a player intentionally causes injury to another in a manner that is reckless and outside the scope of the game, then the player is not likely to be protected from liability by the injured person’s voluntary assumption of risk. The analysis is fact specific on a case-by-case basis.
Similarly, there may also be the right to sue a facility, gym, sports association, or similar organization arising from negligence or premises liability. For example, if the field, arena, etc., was not properly maintained or the play not properly supervised.
Conclusion
Generally speaking, sports injury lawsuits are often an uphill battle for the injured party. It’s important to speak to a lawyer as soon as possible if you or someone you know if injured in a sports related incident.
Remember, as badly as some of us want to be Happy Gilmore, let’s keep an even “playing field.”