saw an interesting personal injury action being reported there last week or the week before on
the newspapers in the media it was on the rt news as well it was to do with a spectator at
an amateur golf event in county sligo and ross's point i think it was yeah ross's point five years
ago county sligo golf club the spectator was hit on the head by a golf ball and he brought a claim
a personal injury claim against the golfer in question the amateur golfer in question
and the golf course and the gui and so on and basically the claimant mr column campbell from
county donegal claimed that he was in constant pain on his life had been totally changed since he
was struck on the left side of his forehead during the west wesleyan championship for amateur coffers
held at county sligo golf club five years ago he sued as a say the amateur golfer and he sued the
gui and county sligo golf club and he lost his case and the case went on for five or six days
six days in the high court the case went on for and he's facing a substantial legal cost
bill because costs were awarded against him as well but his fundamental argument was that the
golfer and the obviously the other defendants were liable in negligence to him however the
judge didn't find that was the case and that there was to a great extent
a responsibility on spectators at golf events to self-police and self-regulate and so on and all
spectators are deemed to have been knowledgeable of the game of golf and would be reasonably
expected to take care of their own safety accordingly now his legal team and obviously he
through his agents made the case that the golfer in question had hit an errant shot and should
have shouted for when in fact the defense said he didn't hit an errand shot it was no need to shout
for he was perfectly happy with the shot and in fact it struck mr campbell who had not been paying
attention who had been speaking with some of his friends and basically wasn't paying attention
but the argument was that he should have shouted four and the defense was that he
shouldn't have shuttered four there was no need to because it wasn't a stray or errant shot and
the judge was very impressed with the evidence of the amateur golfer in question kevin leblanc and
his success or his defense rather of the claim was successful and mr campbell's
evidence essentially the judge said that mr campbell had not been paying attention at all
when the incident occurred the judge said he was not looking at play he described people
looking for a ball and that he was talking to his friends the situation on the ground of
this championship was that to a great extent they were self-regulating and self-policing spectators
there's a fundamental very important lesson though here for anybody
who is involved in a personal injury claim or thinking about bringing a personal injury claim
that is it's not sufficient that you have suffered an injury you must be able to show that somebody
caused your injury and that somebody's negligence caused you injury and in this situation mr
campbell from donegal was seeking to hold the golfer liable the gui label that's the gulf
union of ireland liable and the organizers or the golf course countess lego golf course label
and basically in order to establish negligence you must show certain things for example that there's
a duty of care that you have failed to discharge that duty of care that there's causation between
the injury and the act in question that you claim was negligent and so on and in this case
mr campbell had failed to prove his case and lost and six days in the high court is a serious legal
bill mr campbell is from county donald he's a 65 year old man he says his life has been changed
as a consequence of getting struck on the left side of his forehead but he's facing a fairly
stiff legal bill now but as i say just from the point of view of partial injury claims
you must prove that somebody was negligent and that negligence caused your injury it's not enough
to say that you've suffered an injury because you could suffer an injury and it could be
a simple accident or it could be one and which you were a great contributor to yourself
by your failure to take care to take reasonable care in certain circumstances and so on and that
apparently is what the judge in this particular high court action found anyway i hope you find
the video useful if you do it appreciate if you give it the thumbs up down below thanks a lot