Legal Research

Ziefbrief usually resists the urge to report on every news report concerning what appears at first glance to be a case of litigation gone wild. But there comes now a report from the American Heartland that we feel inclined to mention to our readers. It seems that Northwestern University has had the magnanimous policy of allowing local children's baseball teams use of their baseball facilities. According to an article in the local Pioneer Local newspaper this policy is being curtailed because of the threat of a lawsuit from the parents of one of the young players. It seems that a certain times of the days the sun shines into the eyes of the pitcher and, in the words of the University, it is impossible "to do anything to mitigate the sun's effect on the vision of the pitcher, so we have made the unfortunate decision that we can no longer safely host these games." While we can understand the University's desire to shield itself from what appears to be a frivolous lawsuit, it does seem draconian to kick the tykes out entirely. According to a statement from one of the organizers of the local league the problem only exists for about a half hour in the evening. Perhaps this is more a problem of scheduling and a well timed extended 7th Inning Stretch might take care of the problem. While it is almost certain that the pundits will vilify the parents and try and paint them as irresponsible, law-suit happy greed-heads it is a shame that the problem couldn't have been resolved with more civility and intelligence on everyones part.

Original story from a posting in the Chronicle of Higher Education.