Are other athletes liable for athletic injuries?

If an athlete receives a sports related spinal cord injury, who's responsible? Can the injured athlete sue another athlete for this injury? The answer depends on when the injury occurred.

If the injury happened while the athletes were participating in a sport and that injury could be foreseen as a result of participating in the sport, the answer is no. The reason is because of a legal concept called “assumption of risk.”

Assumption of risk is a legal defense that does not allow an injured party to sue the person who caused injury if there is proof that the injured party voluntarily took on the risk of injury in deciding to participate in a particular activity. If spinal cord injuries are common in the sport where the athlete got injured, the athlete can not get financial recovery from the athlete who caused the injury. This prevents lawsuits against people who were simply participating in a sporting event and got injured because of their own carelessness or someone else accidentally causing injury as a result of normal conduct within the confines of the sport.

For example, if you play touch football then you can not sue someone for tackling you and causing an injury. You also can not sue a football player if you get a head injury because you decided not to wear a helmet.

However, assumption of risk is not freedom to violate traditional rules of a sport or injure someone outside the confines of game play.