Another example of the insanely litigious American system:
A school district in West Virginia is taking out all the swing sets on school playgrounds. Administrators ordered all swings removed from Cabell County elementary schools after being forced into a $20,000 lawsuit settlement — the district’s second swing-injury related suit in a year. (The other suit is still in litigation.)
Schools Safety Manager Tim Stewart told the New York Times that one lawsuit involved a child who broke his arm after jumping out of the swing like Superman.
The decision to remove swings is one motivated purely by liability. Changing national safety standards have made it difficult for the schools to defend themselves against lawsuits. …
read more on the Strollerderby parenting blog – Are Swings Too Dangerous?
Stay home, eat junk food, and play video games kids.
… America has become the most litigious nation in the world, by virtually any measure. According to the National Center for State Courts, 15 million civil cases are filed annually in the United States. The American civil justice system is the most expensive in the world, with costs running more than twice that of other industrialized nations. Yet despite the high costs of the system, it provides a poor return on the dollar—only 20 cents of each dollar goes to compensation for economic damages. …
When is this insanity going to start subsiding?
Jason?
12 comments ↓
My understanding is, in England, (and I might have not-updated information here) that the “loser” in a case pays for the other side’s legal fees, as a way of saying “oops, shouldn’t have made you defend yourself.” We have that sometimes in America, but it’s never guaranteed, and in fact, you have to demonstrate a certain level of frivolity/irresponsibility on the part of the opposition before you usually get it awarded.
In short, if I get hurt, and have to consider “hm, I could sue, but if I lose, I have to pay for my lawyer AND the other guy’s lawyer?” then you’ll get some better discernment in cases.
The counter-argument is that you also get poorer, more easily intimidated people deciding not to sue even when they have a legitimate claim.
The real answer though is just cultural and economical, which won’t ever change. Americans have this silly notion that “their ship will come in” or that they’ll one day achieve the American dream of becoming rich and powerful. Couple that with the fact that we don’t like taking personal responsibility for anything, and suing people becomes the quick route out of a place where we’re daily forced to recognize our disappointments and failure to meet our own expectations.
When your life is too easy, you start finding reasons to think you have it hard.
Rick, on a similar note, a friend who is a circus artist, was recently playing with her daughter on the monkey bars at the school. She spotted her daughter for a pullover. The teacher came over, admonished her, and instructed her to cease and desist this dangerous activity. The children may only play under the bars, not on top of them. Yep, kids stay home and watch TV, it’s much safer and cheaper in the litigious US of A.
I was about to mention England’s law that JAO explained well. It sounds good, but wouldn’t be good for a legitimate underdog. Plus, we here in America are amazing at finding and exploiting loopholes in our laws that would benefit an undeserving person.
As far as when it ends, well…that would be when our entitlement culture ends. Kids of all socioeconomic backgrounds have high expectations of what others will do for them either because their parents gave them everything or because the government has provided for them. Not everyone’s American dream is to become rich and powerful. Most just want to be able to work a job they enjoy for what they have. So my answer: more education, less entitlements.
My girls are 23 and 25, and by the time they hit Kindergarten, the swings had been removed from their schools. Maybe California is especially “advanced”?
Banging head on keyboard. I am so sick of the entitlement mentality – it is killing our nation.
when i was a child (in israel) a friend of mine tried to do a flip coming down from a swing… she hit her head in the ground….lots of blood….not a nice thing to watch….so, there is some sense in this decision to me (sorry for the poor english, i love this blog, i learn so much from it as a couch)
on the bright side things like this tend to push more people in to gymnastics clubs because its becoming the only place they can “play on top of the bar”
[...] GymnasticsCoaching.com links to FreedomWorks and adds: … America has become the most litigious nation in the world, by virtually any measure. According to the National Center for State Courts, 15 million civil cases are filed annually in the United States. The American civil justice system is the most expensive in the world, with costs running more than twice that of other industrialized nations. Yet despite the high costs of the system, it provides a poor return on the dollar—only 20 cents of each dollar goes to compensation for economic damages. … blog advertising is good for you Print This Post This entry was posted on Saturday, September 4th, 2010 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Frivolous lawsuits, Social Studies, Tort Reform, WtF?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [...]
My daughter thoroughly enjoys leaping out of the swing, flipping out of the swing for all to watch. Yes, we tell her she is going to break her bones, break her neck or worse kill herself, but in the end she says ” i do that at gym and you let me go there” kids are kids. Yes, there is no safety mat or coach, but realistically- the slide 15ft up is just as dangerous, the teeter totter can crush legs…. bikes, rollerblades– better yet lets just put our kids in bubbles!
forgot to mention
her dad still has contests with himself by seeing how far he can jump off the swing… he is 32!
Let’s start a new movement to counter this insanity. Let’s launch an advocacy for common sense! While we’re at it, let’s continue to bestow on ‘that’ segment of society that a solid education in movement and spatial awareness (ie gymnastics & gymnastic related activities) will go a long way toward reducing many playground accidents. Does anyone know of a study which has been conducted showing a correlation between a decrease in gymnastics instruction in schools and an increase in playground accidents?
The thing I find funny is that many of these same parents have trampolines in their backyard and let the entire neighborhood jump on them at the same time.
This is crazy, kids are going to hurt themselves. The place that more kids die when they are young is driving with their parents. Are parents going to stop driving their kids around? I don’t think so.
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