Staten Island Little League Sued . . . Again!!
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New Springville Little league has been sued again, by the same lawyer that was successful in a suit against the little league last year. Last year, the family of Martin Gonzalez received $125,000 for injuries Martin sustained when he slid into second base during a game. The lawyer argued that Martin, 12-years old at the time, was injured because he was never taught to slide properly nor were the bases properly designed to "break away." Despite what many attorneys believed to be a loss, the insurance company for the little league decided to settle.
Cases involving injuries sustained during sporting events are very difficult to win because of a legal principle known as "assumption of risk." When you play sports, you understand that you may be hurt by such things as a baseball, another person or even tripping and falling on the field. Despite your injuries, the principle says that you would be unable to recover any money as you knew the risks but decided to play anyway. At the time the Gonzalez lawsuit was filed, many lawyers on Staten Island didn't believe that it was a strong case. However, the insurance company paid a substantial amount of money to settle.
Now that the insurance company has paid out money, to no ones surprise, a double-header lawsuit was recently filed by the mother of a little league player who was hurt after being hit by a batted ball and then hurt again 2 years later while sliding into third base, very similar to what happened to Martin Gonzalez. Many people have left comments on silive.com expressing outrage over the new round of lawsuits. Numerous comments call for action against the lawyer and blame the current high health care costs on attorneys. Without commenting on the merits of the suit, these comments show the public's ignorance of the role of the trial lawyer in today's society. Instead of recognizing the good that we have done, we are the punch line of jokes and blamed (partly) for the current economic crisis. How we change the public's perception of trial lawyers is a battle that we may never win. However, we need to do everything that we can to change that perception. Remember the Ford Pinto? Do you think Ford would have changed the design without the lawsuits? I know they wouldn't.
