Posted on 04/14/2013 1:49:00 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Schools have begun ripping out swings and slides from playgrounds because they can no longer afford huge compensation payouts when children suffer minor cuts and grazes. The claims have become so common that even school trips to the seaside are being canceled in case pupils injure themselves while paddling in the sea and their parents then sue.
Education authorities face big bills even if a child is hurt while defying school rules by climbing walls or trees.
Lawyers all over the country are fueling the problem by offering parents no-win no-fee deals. Some firms have even set up telephone hotlines to encourage parents to sue.
Schools are often advised to settle out of court without contesting claims up to £12,000 ($18,410) just to save on legal costs. Teachers and school caretakers are joining the gravy train by also making huge claims. More than £4 million ($6.14 million) was paid out to staff last year. …
(Excerpt) Read more at express.co.uk ...
Make the student’s parents or guardians sign release forms at the beginning of the year before they can use the ‘playground facilities’ at the school, agreeing not to hold the school liable for such things. ....Problem solved.
Sure the local attorneys will throw a bitch fit, because they’ll have one less revenue stream, fleecing the tax payers.
It’s those 99% is scumbag attorneys that give the 1% of good ones a bad rap
How do you prevent children from using the equipment during non-school hours?
Trial lawyers and Democrats are joined at the hip. Their major goal in life is to gouge themselves at the public trough.
This is why so many modern kids are fat pasty little slugs with deficient immune systems.
Douchebag lawyers are destroying civilized countries left and right.
The lawyers are paralyzing the country. Everyone of our children has been injured in some way at school..In PE or on the playground and we would not have dreamed of suing the school because lessons come from the minor injuries children go through as they grow up. Corrupt lawyers are a blight on our society.
Wasn’t it Shakespear that said, “Kill all the lawyers”.......
Well, I don’t see that happening anytime soon but it might be a place to start. Personally, I would avoid that avenue of revenge.
1. Decent people should make an effort to get on both civil and criminal juries so that we can reject all frivolous lawsuits and nullify all laws that exceed the proper authority of government.
2. Decent people should reject all settlement offers in frivolous lawsuits. We should make the vultures work for every stolen pound or dollar under these “strict liability” lawsuits. We should appeal and delay so that the greedy scum filing the lawsuit dies of old age before collecting, and so that the bratty baby with the scraped knee is a geezer in hospice care by the time his check comes through if he does win. It may be cheaper in any given case to settle, but a policy of fighting to the death (of the sleazy lawyer too) would be cheaper overall as the scums would move on to other victims or perhaps to productive work.
3. We need (finally!) to repeal strict liability laws. Torts should require a significant level of negligence, not just an “oh, dear, the little boy scraped his knee/toes while playing/swimming, and someone should pay”, or “she slipped on the ice in a snowstorm so the store whose property she was on should pay for a life of luxury”. I’ve known decent lawyers who prosecute real criminals or go after genuine reckless actions, and I approve of their work, but the crooked lawyers disgust me.
> Douchebag lawyers are destroying civilized countries left and right.
Makes you feel bad for the good ones out there who actually exact justice when someone has really been wronged. The bad ones have caused prices of products to soar to include future perceived litigation costs or to pay for past lawsuits.
This story is about what's happening in the UK not the US.
Let the parents take their kids to playgrounds themselves and supervise them, instead of farming the job out to the state like nearly every other aspect of parenting. And let the lawyers collect unemployment.
This is a chilling reminder that you get what you vote for. Please pray we can learn from the experiences of these fools.
history tells us that we won’t.
...and soon the schools will shut down - or become something like a scene in “The Wall” and those parents will be forced to home school their children...and bring down another striving institution that is actually performing better than the public one!
Amen - the only time I’m a one percenter...also makes it very difficult here in Texas to do any sort of marketing (I do small business setups, estate planning, etc. - no plaintiff work).
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