The Art of Sue-Jitsu

Sue-Do, Sue-Jitsu or Sue-Mo

The (not really) noble art of suing for everything and anything under the sun appears to me to be an almost exclusive North-American phenomenon. We have had martial art parents (from the US) try the same stuff here when someone have been an idiot and hurt themselves tripping into something. You might say they were basically just ignored or smiled at until they gave up or left.

Make no mistake about it, the right to sue someone for instances of obvious recklessness, slander, gross misconduct etc. is vital in a modern democracy. That said, I do feel the right to present a lawsuit is abused way too often ... at least it seems that way to a casual observer seeing things from the outside.

No sweating here!

Case in point: A taekwondo student taking a course at a local recreational center in Louisiana recently sued the center, the instructor and the taekwondo operator following an alleged injury after being involved in martial arts practice, the female taekwondo student slipped in some sweat on the floor and fell...

(...) contends that the floor did not have any mats or padding and she slipped and fell in sweat or another slippery substance and was injured.
The defendant is accused of not supplying corrective safety equipment, not properly supervising the participants, creating a hazardous conditions and failing to see what he should have seen.

Oh dear... I guess all martial arts schools may need to pad everything down so that there is no risk of anyone getting hurt, like braking a nail or having bruises.

What do you think? Are people really daft or are some instructors, schools and arts to blame for students getting injured like this? Feel free to comment below.

Martial arts sue-jitsu - Image from Flickr.com