We don’t often write about sporting injury claims for one primary reason – their success rate is rather low. Being injured in a contact sport is a very regular thing. I myself have been the victim of a multi-ligament rupture and nerve damage that has left me with a permanent condition called foot drop. When I stepped on to 5-a-side court that day, I never envisaged that my life would change forever in a matter of seconds. Whilst I blame the poor condition of the court, proving that is nigh-impossible, and I’m left unable to claim.
Rather than discuss the ins and outs of the quality of a football court or pitch, I’m going to discuss injuries in contact sports and when you may be able to make a claim. I’m going to keep it simple and relevant – so I won’t discuss past case law, I will simply outline what you need to know about trying to start a claim.
The biggest point here in my opinion is that there is a huge divide between proving what is negligence, and what is an unfortunate injury sustained when wilfully participating in a contact sport. The posh Latin word for this is volenti non fit injuria – which essentially means “to a willing person, injury is not done.” When you play a sport, particularly a contact sport, you are inherently accepting an element of risk of injury. Differing sports can dictate the level of risk. I’d imagine you’re quite safe when playing table tennis, but when rock climbing there is a lot more to consider!
So if you are injured in a contact sport with another player, when can you make a claim for compensation? To win a claim, we need to prove negligence, and the burden of proving negligence to win a case is always on the Claimant – i.e. the injured person. So if you are injured, you need to prove that the cause of your injury was down to negligence, and not down to the fact that you are wilfully participating in a contact sport.
It’s obvious when you think about it – you slide in for the ball at the same time as an opposition player, their boots clip your leg and you end up tearing trough ligaments or smashing through bone. When it’s a genuine 50-50 situation, and the opposition player was simply challenging the ball in the same way you were, they are not necessarily being negligent. It could so easily have gone the other way with your boot hitting their leg.
You must prove that the other player was reckless in that they ought to have known their actions could put you in danger without consideration of the consequences and thus breach a duty of care the offending player owed to the victim. As I said above, proving this can be very difficult unless you have a player willing to verify that their actions were negligent. So a lot of it could come down witness evidence to look at an outsider perspective of the contact and perhaps judge the character of the offending player on the match day and prior in other games. But even if you had some solid witness evidence in support of your claim, you still need to cross the vast ravine of proving that the challenge in question was reckless as oppose to a genuine sporting challenge.
There is also another element to add in to the equation – when a person violently intends to cause injury in a contact challenge. It can happen – if you’re a football fan then I’m sure you will have seen it in a heated match between the big rival teams.
So let’s say you can prove that an injury sustained was down to negligence – what then? Well if you’re playing a 5-a-side or local Sunday league, you may still have another huge hurdle to get over. Who is going to pay? If it’s an amateur game then I wouldn’t have thought your opposing player has any insurance through the team or personally. Venues may have insurance, but this is probably for negligence against the venue itself. If it’s a semi-pro or proper professional game, then there may well be the funds to make a claim, and there have been some big name cases in the past. But where there is no insurance or viable means to make a claim against a person directly, you face an uphill struggle.
If you’ve read this far, I expect you are thinking to yourself that it’s a no hope situation when making a claim. The above is for guidance only, and you should always contact an injury lawyer to discuss whether there may be a claim to make. But to reiterate the main point here, proof is everything!
