I know there are a few lawyers out there playing disc golf (a very benevolent one with a fetish for lizards come to mind)...and i would like to know, are there any court cases (private suits or other) involving disc golf, and what is liability defined as....can a city or college be held liable for injuries.....would a drive be considered intent or negligence?.

I know there are a few lawyers out there playing disc golf (a very benevolent one with a fetish for lizards come to mind)...and i would like to know, are there any court cases (private suits or other) involving disc golf, and what is liability defined as....can a city or college be held liable for injuries.....would a drive be considered intent or negligence?.

I'm a disc golfing lawyer. I am a friend of the Lizard Lawyer. He practices mostly criminal law whereas I am mostly involved in civil law.

The answer to these kinds of questions always depends upon the state you live in [and the judge you draw!]. I'm not licensed to practice Oklahoma law and I have never read Oklahoma law on the subject.

It is very difficult to offer an opinion on the civil law of another state because it is formed from caselaw or judge-made law. Criminal law tends to be mostly driven by statutes and is easier to figure out if you are not already an expert.

Ah, I see-Do you know where I might readily source such information or do i need to read every Lawyers Edition volume? Have you ever heard of a case there in Mi? Do you know of a way to search for such a case for every state?....Man, thats a lot of questions...i'll go bother a local lawyer :) Thank you Bruce

and i would like to know, are there any court cases (private suits or other) involving disc golf, and what is liability defined as....can a city or college be held liable for injuries.....would a drive be considered intent or negligence?.



I have heard of a lawsuit where someone was injured by a collar while sledding in the winter, but I wouldn't be able to point you where to find information on that.

If you do find out any information on such lawsuits, could you please post it here as a reference. As courses are continually installed near playgrounds and down walking trails and without consulting design experts, or in some cases, without consulting anyone who has ever played disc golf, the likelihood of such lawsuits will no doubt increase in the future.

Ah, I see-Do you know where I might readily source such information or do i need to read every Lawyers Edition volume? Have you ever heard of a case there in Mi? Do you know of a way to search for such a case for every state?....Man, thats a lot of questions...i'll go bother a local lawyer :) Thank you Bruce



http://www.lexisnexis.com/ - I think you need to pay for it, tho.

Ah, I see-[1]Do you know where I might readily source such information or do i need to read every Lawyers Edition volume? [2]Have you ever heard of a case there in Mi? [3]Do you know of a way to search for such a case for every state?....Man, thats a lot of questions...i'll go bother a local lawyer :) Thank you Bruce

[1]I have never begun a search on that issue from scratch so I don't know a good overview source. [2]The Michigan cases that deal with the general topic are the Ritchie-Gamester case and the Detroit Tigers case, but I don't have cites off the top of my head. There might be a case involving Softball City too. Maybe that case was not published. I have worked on unpublished cases involving laser tag, softball and paint ball. My laser tag case might have been the Ritchie-Gamester case before it went up on appeal, if Ritchie-Gamester involves laser tag. [3] If I were searching for every case from every state, and I did not have Lexis or Westlaw, I'd start with reading the Ritchie-Gamester case and the Detroit Tigers case in the Westlaw version, called Northwest 2nd, then I would look at the relevant key notes on the topic at the start of the case, then I would look up those keynotes in Westlaw's general law encyclopedia, which I think is Corpus Juris Secundrum(CJS). It has been so long since I've done legal research with books, that I'd be a little rusty! Westlaw maybe has another resource that might be useful using the keynote system, American Law Reports (ALR). I cannot remember if that is a Westlaw resource but I'm pretty sure it is.

If there is a public law school near you, you could probably find all those resources.

I asked an attorney of 40 years ( my B Law prof.) and he said that to avoid negligence "being reasonaby prudent" entails putting a sign warning anyone that-"this is a disc golf course, beware of flying discs which can cause injury"....a civil suit could still be filed against the person throwing or a claim filed with the city if they have liablity insurance, but a sign negates negligence.
He also said there was a search engine that lawyers use where they can type anything in and it will find all cases federal or state, criminal or civil with whatever it is your looking for.....he is busy, but he may allow me to use it he said...
I was also wondering if anyone would like to add any info on copywright or patent cases(if there have been any) involving disc golf..i noticed innova now has a skillshot, i thought ching would have ridden that one out a little longer

I believe that Ching has a licensing and distribution agreement with Innova regarding the Skill-Shot.

Just because I was curious, I did a check on Lexis (it is a powerful legal search engine with databases covering most federal and state court cases) for the use of the term "disc golf". My first search turned up a case involving the DGA vs. Champion discs. It is a trademark infringement case regarding DGA's disc golf baskets. I assume they are talking about the Mach series. The court does not do a great job of describing things for a non lawyer but I think a couple of read throughs will give most people the gist. It is actually a pretty interesting case.

I don't think I can post the entire case here. If someone wants to read it I can probably email it.

I found 29 Federal and 2 State cases containing the phrase �disc golf�. Almost all of them are mere citations to the DGA V. Champion case for a legal principal unrelated to bodily injury liability law. In one Michigan case the court found that an accident victim�s inability to play disc golf as much or as well due to bodily injury was evidence that the disc golfer had sustained a �serious impairment�. Metivier v. Schutt, 2001 WL 865100 (Mich.App. Jul 31, 2001) (NO. 216325). Now that is good law!

I know I suffered a "serious impairment" the last time kappa phi sorority was on hole 17. :) Feel free to post some of those case details, that's awesome info!

The case Jeff mentions was in Menominee Falls, Wisconsin. Course had been pulled earlier, but the sleeves remained in the ground. Person sliding down the hill in a plastic sled or saucer went over a DG sleeve that stuck up from the ground too much. Took out part of his colon. Not sure who was named as plaintiffs in that one, but it was substantial.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

I'm not a lawyer, but I worked as a paralegal for a City Attorney in SE Virginia and learned quite a bit. I remember a case where someone was hurt at a City park and they were required to prove gross negligence before they could win a judgement against the City. I think gross negligence is when someone does something that is obviously very poor judgement, like setting a live electric wire on a metal fence and then leaving it there. Simple negligence would be just making a human mistake. In Virginia, you can't nail the government for simple negligence, you have to prove gross negligence. In our case, a guy stepped in a gopher hole and hurt himself and tried to prove gross negligence, but was not successful.

of interest (http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news04/091004_news_discgolf.shtml)