A friend of mine got a stress fracture following the work-outs of his on-line triathlon coach. He has hired an attorney and is filing suit. Does anyone have any experience with lawsuits against on-line coaches for injuries suffered during training?
A stretch fracture… interesting… LOL…
I’m eagerly awaiting the responses to this post.
Burns
I have extensive experience as a plaintiff and a defendant in a number of actions, but none like this.
My knee-jerk reaction to this is that it is a matter of assumed risk vs. comparative neglegence or some such mumbo-jumbo.
At any rate, very few people are qualified to cll themselves coaches in the U.S. since there is almost no formal coaching acredation or credential program beyond three day or two week seminars. That exposes clients to this type of problem.
Additionally, clients have to be will to accept responsibility for their actions. There is an element of that in here too.
In short, it is a mess and the attornies will profit.
Please advise your friend that he may be able to obtain a higher recovery if he files a separate lawsuit against his parents for wrongful birth.
Speaking as a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney, if your “friend” truly is filing suit against his/her online coach for getting a stress fracture I’d say he/she and his or her attorney are idiots. Usually when people hear about things like this most of the “facts” aren’t true. Oftentimes people threaten to sue, but don’t because no decent attorney would ever take the case. I’m not trying to start a thread about “lawsuit abuse” here. Those never end and should be in the lavender room.
“Decent attourney”??? I’m not familiar with that concept, please explain 
“stretch” sorry, that was a typo. He suffered a stress fracture of the tibia.
Jeez, if my leg hurts, I would quit running and rest. Remember the good ole days of personal responsibility and not blaming other people.
Trust me, Tom, attorneys will not profit from filing lawsuits against online coaches. On second thought, maybe I’ll take this up as a sub-specialty. If any of you use online coaches and have ever had an ache or pain please call me immediately. I’ll file hundreds of lawsuits and will bring those greedy coaches to their knees!
If the coach was professional he/she would have a signed Release/Indemnification letter from every athlete they work with. It’s unfortunate we have to think this way but our society is very litigious. At least the Release will help somewhat with any defense, although I’m higly speculative of the case. Very interesting!
not replying to anyobdy directly…but I read a bunch of BS in a public forum on the internet. The forum is awesome but this post in particular wasted my valuable time. Is there any way I can sue the original author of that particular post. After all, those valuable minutes were one of a kind, 7.30 - 7.40am (PST) on Tuesday October 5th 2004 will never ever happen again. Any good lawyer out there that I can contact?
please, don’t sue me for that post!
I am somewhat familiar with legal matters having been an expert witness on several occasions and I wouldn’t consider this matter frivolous. There could be lost wages, medical expenses, etc.
In fact its probably a good case. Furthermore I don’t think a simple release would suffice to protect the “coach”. It would be best for both parties to settle out of court.
Additionally if the “coach” is incorporated, the “corporation” will be required to hire an attorney to defend the itself. One can defend ones self in the legal system but a corporation must hire an attorney to defend itself.
“Decent attourney”??? I’m not familiar with that concept, please explain
That hurt my feelings. I’m going to sue you!
Sorry, but please tell your friend that he is an infinite LOSER with a 48 point font capital L. Whatever happened to personal accountability ? Last time I checked, triathlon is hazardous. People die, they get injured etc etc etc. This guy needs to suck up his stress fracture, let it heal and ease back into training.
The stress fracture could be easily caused by poor nutrition vs anything the coach prescribed. Seriously, this is the whole problem with people hiring coaches. “If I do well, I am a stud…If I sucked, it is the coaches fault…If I get injured, the coach sitting 3000 miles away on the other side of a PC is to blame.”
This friend of yours needs a serious reality check. He’s probably the type trying to sue the milk company cause he drank milk when he already had an upset stomach and got worse !
Sue me all you want you P3-chaser! 
WTF!?!?!?!? Isn’t this guy forgetting something!?!? Take it one step at a time! Who got him into this mess?
Go after Tom Selleck for doing the Hawaii IM episode and making triathlon popular for people like this guy, then go after your coach! Geez! Then go after Mark Allen and Dave Scott for all their great races, then Julie Moss and then his coach! (yes, I originally put Judy Moss.)
Is it me? It’s him right?
Believe me I’ve seen many lawsuits that cost tens of thousands of dollars regarding relatively trivial matters not personal injury.
When it comes to personal injury the case is much more substantive and there are lots of attorney willing to take those kinds of cases.
Just like TnT stated it would depend on the actual workouts they prescribed.
As a coach I would like to think I would be held responsible, as would any other professional, for the service I provide. When someone pays me to coach them they are relying on my expertise. If I prescribe a “3 hr run to someone who has never run before” and that person developed an injury from that specific workout, you better believe I would, and should, be held liable.
I think it was Tom who pointed out there really was not a certification out there that provides adequate education for training a triathlete. There is USAT that provides about 2 days of instruction with an open book test. Good enough to avoid common workout mistakes.
I am a certified strength & conditioning specialist - we are required to have a degree (though not necessarily in a related field although I think that has changed or will) and we have to take an exam (practical & theory) that would rival the CPAs. We also have to maintain our certification by attending certain seminars, and education opps that are well-above the level of any other fitness certification out there. Although the material may not be specific to triathlon it is specific to the systems it uses. It gives a great base and with specific experience I feel it is very adquate to train athletes and definitely to avoid incorrect prescriptions of workouts such as the one listed above.
I wonder if good communication was the problem? In that case, no level of education could have changed the outcome.
maylene wise, cscs
Can I sue your friend when his worthless suit causes all coaches to have to purchase more insurance thereby raising rates on all coached athletes simply to pay for the defense against this inane lawsuit?