Legal Factors

Legal Factors

On this page I will talk about 6 different legal factors and say how they effect our sporting environment. The 6 different legal factors that I will be describing and talking about in more detail are:

1. Duty of Care
2. Higher Duty of Care
3. Statutory Law
4. Civil Law
5. Case Law
6. Negligence
7. Inlocoparentis

Duty of Care/Higher Duty of Care

What is duty of care and higher duty of care?
All employee’s and employers have a duty of care towards other people wherever there is a potential risk/danger. The duty of care is a legal obligation to anyone for example coaches, teachers etc because if they have a group of people (students) to take care of they have a legal obligation to eliminate all the dangers/ risks around so that people can be in a safe environment and so that no one can get hurt.

If for example in a sports centre there is a football session and the sports hall floor is not dried properly and a kid slips and hurts himself the coach could be sued for negligence. This is because it is the coaches’ duty of care to make sure that the kids will be playing in a safe environment and not somewhere, where they could potentially get injured.

Higher duty of care is very similar however, duty of care refers to a legal obligation to one person for example a coach or a teacher to ensure safety of their class or group. However, if a coach or teacher has a duty of care then the headmaster or for example manager of the school or sports centre has a higher duty of care to ensure health and safety to the teachers and to the pupils. 

Statutory Law

What is statutory law?

Statutory law refers to everyone coaches, teachers, managers, pupils etc. A statutory law is a written law that has to be followed by everyone. If someone doesn't follow these laws they will face charges. Statutory law ensures that health and safety is kept everywhere properly. 

Statutory law relates to health and safety a lot because for example if we look at the health and safety at work act (1974) it doesn't say that if you don't follow this act you will face charges however, that is why we have statutory laws to cover the legal side and to ensure that everyone is actually following the health and safety at work act and not just doing what they want. 

How does statutory law relate to our sporting environment? Well, if for example we have a sports centre and it has a swimming pool, to ensure that health and safety at work act is followed and that the chlorine levels are controlled properly so that no one can be harmed statutory law is put in place. Under statutory law everyone that works at the sports centre needs to follow the health and safety at work act otherwise they could be put on trial for not following the legal laws and putting other people at risk.

Civil Law

What is civil law?

The civil law might be quite a hard law to understand however, actually its quite easy to understand. A civil law is a law that is not determined by judges based on previous situations that have happened in the past. Civil laws main feature is that they are written and arranged unlike common laws. Civil laws are requested by civilians  to prevent something from happening again. Civil actions (affairs)between citizens allows civil laws to be put in place. 

Civil laws relates to health and safety drastically for example in 1980 an incident happened where a pupil used an unattended trampoline in an unlocked sports hall and fell of it and became paralysed. Civil actions began to rise against the council to request for a civil law to be created here so that accidents like these never happen again. 

How does civil law relate to our sporting environment? Civil law relates to our sports centre in many ways for example trampolines are not allowed to be left unattended so that no pupil/participant can get hurt if they get on the trampoline. This is a civil law now because of the incident in 1980. 

Case Law

What is case law?

Case law is a law that is created by a judge based around previous laws and also based around interpretations of a chosen case. When the judge makes a decision a successive law is created to prevent the 'case' from being a problem.


Case law relates to health and safety in many ways for example the health and safety states that organisations must provide health and safety policies, assess risks to anyone who could be affected and many other aspects in health and safety. A case law can be brought in because maybe there is an issue that could affect the health and safety of workers or members etc.


For example in a sports centre there might be an issue that the ceiling in the trampolinist room is too low and that it could affect the health and safety of participants because one of the participants could hit the ceiling and get badly injured. Then the judge would look at previous laws and interpretations and make a decision if there should be a law put in place to make an average height for rooms that contain trampolines. 

Negligence

What is negligence?

Negligence is when you fail to take reasonable care for another person to avoid any dangers to could cause them harm. This means that if you work at a place for example a sports centre you need to show a really good level of manners towards your employee's and also to do anything to keep them safe. 


For example if you are a coach you have a duty of care towards your pupils to make sure that all the dangers around them are eliminated and so that they are in a safe environment. If you however, don't do everything possible to keep them safe and keep them in a safe environment you are being negligent. 


A good example would be if you were a coach in a sports centre and you had a basketball session and you allowed your players to play on wet floor even though you knew it was dangerous, you would be negligent towards them because you were not following your duty of care to keep them safe at all times and eliminate all dangers (in this case the wet floor which could cause a serious injury if one of the players slipped on it).

Inlocoparentis

What is Inlocoparentis?
Inlocoparentis is a Latin word that means 'in the place of a parent'. It is really easy to understand as the word itself gives it away. Inlocoparentis is the authority that parents would assign to another responsible adult that will be taking care of their child for example a teacher or a coach. 


If for example a child is going on a school trip the teacher is Inlocoparentis for that child which means that he has the same responsibilities for that child for that amount of time like the child's parent would have. This means that the teacher would then have to make sure that the child is safe in any possible way because that teacher has a legal obligation and a duty of care to make sure that the child is safe and that all the risks and hazards around that child are eliminated. This means that Inlocoparentis is based around health and safety.


If there is a football session in a sports centre and the coach is a positive Inlocoparentis then for example if a child gets hurt then he will help the child and take him to hospital and provide the correct help to that child. However, if the coach is negative Inlocoparentis then he wont help the child just tell him to get up or just sit out for a bit and not provide the child the correct help.