Potential Lawsuits Lead to Draconian Measures

An occupational hazard for attorneys is being able to foresee the most benign things as potential lawsuits. The world is not really one giant lawsuit waiting to happen, but it sure seems that way. Call us old-fashioned, but we yearn for the days of yesteryear when people could enjoy their lives without fear of being sued. Unfortunately, our hopes appear to be nothing more than a pipe dream.

Case in point, NBC News recently reported on the rising number of towns which have banned or restricted sledding. Guess why anyone would want to ban sledding, the quintessential winter activity? Lawsuit concerns, of course. Mayor Roy Buol of Dubuque, Iowa, explained to NBC News in discussing his town’s recent ban:

We’re worried about litigation about the city not doing their research or their work to prepare sledding areas for sledders and making the city liable for the accidents that would occur on those properties.

We understand towns wanting to make sure their citizens are safe, but should they really have to be concerned about sledding liability? If a town encourages its residents to sled in a minefield, yes, it should be concerned.  But towns shouldn’t live in fear of being sued for the run-of-the-mill sledding accident. People choose where they want to sled.  When people choose to slide down a hill with nothing between them and the snow and ice but a piece of plastic, accidents are bound to happen. The city has nothing to do with that.

With that said, we understand the draconian measures these towns have taken. They can’t possibly pad every curb and utility pole and place cushioned backstops at the base of every hill. Until they do so, the risk of future litigation is real unless they just outlaw the very mechanism that can lead to those lawsuits in the first place. At least, that is what our lawyerly intuition tells us.