I hope she sues their asses off. It was obviously a dangerous surface and if someone has got a permanent injury at such a young age from such a surface then the competition failed its duty of care.

Really realy sorry for her injury and loss.

This type of situation has been a long time coming, and with plenty of warning to state associations, BA, as well as the various semi-pro leagues here in OZ.

The referees are actually the first in the firing line, but it seems that, very fortunately for them, their employer had the correct insurance to cover the officials' error of judgement.
But the buck won't stop there.

I suspect that the NBL refs will be a little more diligent in their sign-off on the efforts of the junior floor wipers in the future.

As a coach I would have no issue with walking my players off the court and calling the game off myself in such circumstances...

Let's not forget, these are adults that were in this game,
Surely they can decide if it's too unsafe to play or not

This is the type of contemporary issues facing health and safety and sport moving forward.

I know over here in NZ we've had the recent Health and Safety in Employment legislation changes. Previously health and safety obligations were only owed from an employer involved in a set employment workplace.

Now the new Act extends even wider to basically anyone conducting anything that can yield money - so in NZ your local cash-strapped not-for-profit club down the road who don't have the cash to get a doctor on site during a whole afternoon of Rugby are now vulnerable.

Anyone know how this works in Australia - presume it is similar as we tend to follow your guys legislative framework.

Think something like this could certainly change the expenditure framework of the NBL and all significant basketball leagues in Aus/NZ - more money and resources towards compliance costs - getting 'professional' and better-abled floor wipers, re-working travel schedules to avoid claims (massive issue in the NRL at the moment), mandatory concussion tests (concussion has become huge in Super Rugby with very strict protocol and the NBL needs to re-think their strategy there - Creek head knock was a classic example - the 36ers did the right thing but a lot of other clubs could have easily waited and tried to get him out there again).

Sorry to hear of this woman's injury and i wish her all the best with her recovery - and may fair justice play out.

A good reminder that a lack of financial resources doesn't absolve you of liability - an NBL team is going to be held to the same standards of an NRL/AFL team etc.

Sad someone gets such an injury, but think they used to call them accidents when I was a kid. Yes floor surfaces should be safe and clean, but honestly this can happen slipping on someone's sweat dripped on the floor even your own.

Anonymous,

Granted accidents do happen, but this situation is a little different given there was ongoing concern and a formal request pre-game and during the game to stop the game.

Hence, there was a substantial oppportunity for the organisers to exercise their standard of care - a reasonable person would have called the game off IMO.

These are not "Accidents" - on the face of it they may sound like it, but the law recognises situations like these completely differently.

A lot of armchair experts diving in on this one.

I have a lot of sympathy for the young lady, but I am also highly sceptical of such claims. Unfortunately in our society we have this penchant for blaming the authorities for accidents and expecting compensation.
Sad fact is that people get injured playing sport all the time. The problem is that the next post will be somebody whinging why they have to pay $XXX for little Johnny to play ball, because his club and the venue have massive insurance premiums.

I stress that I have no knowledge of this specific incident, so I make no judgement one way or the other. I will leave that to the courts.

Dazz,

My post was from a legal perspective - courts in AUS are becoming increasingly litigious.

Agree that I would hate to see claims like this become commonplace without reasonableness and leniency towards the one owing the duty

But it is ignorant to say/think that courts should stay fully away from it because its sport and 'injuries happen' - courts don't operate like that. It's not like they say "oh she was injured..thats sport..move on". There is a legal framework guided by policy reasons and societal needs.

Further, there may be contributory negligence on the part of the plaintiff which would serve to reduce the claim payable. E.g. the contributory negligence being her staying out there/carrying on playing.

As for the magnitude of CN - i'd have no idea as its so discretionary and unique to tbe situation. Some courts have applied 100% CN meaning the plaintiff gets nothing.

Unfortunately we are following the USA, where people quite literally sue their own grandmother, and redneck juries award massive damages knowing the insurance company will pay. It's bullshit.

As I said, I will leave this one for the courts, but gees it opens up a can of worms.
Refer to another recent thread, can Ross sue somebody because he injured his Achilles and he can claim it cost him an NBA contract?

People slip on courts every game, where the heck do you draw the line? Can Martin sue Conklin because he lost his Colgate endorsement?

What happens when you transfer this precedent to sport played outdoors on a council park? It's too hard, too soft, too muddy, too grassy, ooh I fell over better sue somebody.

Yep, you've hit the nail on the head.

Range of issues come into play and for legislators it's a fine balance between policy and going too far - and very easy to upset that balance.

Our role as people who understand sport (well most of us do apart from blowout troll) is to get involved and make our voices heard and say "well actually the law is unreasonable in this regard because X, Y and Z etc."

Otherwise policy-makers, legislators, the judiciary etc. who have no idea on the practical side of sport/out of touch with the realities of how sport operates will be writing and interpreting nonsensical, impractical laws.