Determining the Liability of Public High School Coaches in Plays That Result in Brain Injury

When your child signs up to play sports for a high school team, you may be asked to sign a waiver form or permission slip that prevents you from holding the coach or school accountable for injuries. Anytime you play a pickup game of basketball or your child plays at the rec center, there is an inherent level of risk. Contact sports tend to be more dangerous than others, but each game or practice could lead to injury – a risk we are usually willing to accept.

What happens when an outside variable changes the risk level of the sport from reasonable to unreasonable? What happens if your child is hit in the head with a baseball and suffers from severe brain injury while at high school practice?

A coach accepts a certain level of responsibility for the children who play sports at school or on a team. He or she is responsible for using sound strategy, encouraging safe playing practices, and enforcing the rules of the high school, state, and national high school sports programs.

In most cases, an injury on the field will be unexpected, unforeseeable, and truly accidental. If anybody is responsible, it may be the injured player or another player. However, there are a few variables that may lead to a coach being held liable for the injury.

If the coach acted negligently during a practice or a game, and a victim’s attorney can provide evidence proving negligent activity, the coach and school may be held liable for the resulting brain damage. A coach may be responsible if the plaintiff can prove the following:

For instance:

Proving liability in a civil lawsuit against coaches or public high schools can be difficult, mainly because most injuries cannot be directly connected to a coach’s specific decisions. However, in the case of a head injury, careful evaluation may prove a coach could have reasonably prevented or minimized the risk associated with an activity. In these cases, the coach and/or the school can and should be held liable for negligent behavior.

Brain damage is a terrible risk associated with many contact sports. Repeated strikes to the head, faulty equipment, and unanticipated consequences can take a young person’s full life and alter it in the blink of an eye. Only an experienced personal injury attorney who understands sports and brain injuries can help you determine if legal action is an appropriate measure in the aftermath of such a devastating event. To learn more about liability in brain damage cases and public high school sports regulations, reach out to our team of attorneys in Houston at any time.

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