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Things like this raise the cost for all of us. How many insurance companies are out there that cover our sport? They all talk and I know for a fact the insurance costs in my neck of the woods for an event has gone up significantly this year.
There are less than 5 (maybe only 2) and insurance costs for a lot of tracks and promoters have more than doubled this year.
To me, it's pretty straightforward. When I go to a track and ride it, I understand that's a risk I'm taking. If I crash, get hurt, whatever - that's 100% on me. I sign the waiver and accept the risk. That's really the end of it.
Just because we have lawyers in this country that find ways to circumvent that intent - well that just sucks. The owner is allowing people to ride there in exchange for a relatively small fee, and an understanding that the guest accepts all risk and won't sue him if they get hurt. It's complete BS that our laws and legal system allows stuff like this to happen, and people that exploit the laws and walk away from the commitment they made when signing the waiver deserve to be frowned upon.
OMG this is so indicative of what's wrong with today's society. Everyone looking to place blame on others, as opposed to taking responsibilty for their own actions.
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Can we get a time stamp?
Matthes, since you were kind enough to join this thread, let us know how "the American judicial system decided that there was track negligence" and "a judge agreed and Rich was able to pay some of his kids medical bills" tracks with anything factual or known so far. All of that seems provably false.
Rich says clearly in the VERY FIRST POST: "My Son's case eventually led to it being settled without a trial."
So, If a judge or the American judicial system decided, and if others testified to these facts in court, we would have recorded records of all of that. We do not. And Rich confirms that.
Certainly, there has been no definitive statement EVER of track negligence by the court. In fact, stating that negligence was determined from Rich's side likely breaches Rich's agreement in the settlement. I mean, I hope you probably wouldn't want to be doing that. He might wanna check what he agreed to.
There was deposition and affidavit testimony that the track condition was unnecessarily and unreasonably unsafe, but you're right there was no finding of negligence by a trier of fact. Steve is a little confused there.
I see absolutely ZERO merit to RT's lawsuit.
Fair 'nuff. Pulled that section to alleviate confusion, although I'm sure we all understood the meaning
Unless you are paying 100% of your medical bills yourself this is not the case. If you get hurt, your insurance company will look for other people they can recoup money from.
The real villain in all of this is outrageous medical costs that drive all of this litigation and the effect it has on insurance availability and pricing.
Also props to @Matthes for continuing to participate.
Our home insurance, health insurance, and car insurance went up significantly this year.
Can't imagine the increase for all the specialized insurance that tracks use. Must be astronomical.
It seems to me the waiver is the lynch-pin to all of this. Who crafts these waivers that are seemingly so easy to pick apart. One would think that the AMA in conjunction with the insurance industry could compose a pretty effective waiver that could be specific to each state and their laws.
From my understanding, the case was filed to be dismissed on some sort of grounds that someone (I assume a judge somewhere? Can a lawyer do it?) said "this is a legit complaint" and from there it was settled.
So to me, this is how the "system" works right? Obviously we see lawsuits get thrown out as in the USA, anyone can sue anyone at anytime for any reason. I could be wrong but this is how I understood it from a long time ago.
Cliff notes: you are so horrendously wrong that you are near voiding the settlement.
STOP NOW before Rich's lawyers do on your behalf. It's not cute. A track is gone.
How so?
Are you still claiming fault has been determined in court by court officials on the track operator?
Did my explanation not make sense? Serious question.
Obviously if the track did nothing wrong they would not try to settle right? Based on other peoples statements & whatever else was used, they decided to settle before it went to court.
Dude, first question first: are you still claiming fault has been determined in court by court officials on the track operator?
Pit Row
Except in this case it wasn’t the insurance company that sued it was RT
2, 3 tops. Just dealt with this for our club.
If you were wrongly accused of murder and the prosecution offered you one year in jail or risk trial and the death penalty from 12 random jurors, you kinda have to think about the one year right? Settlement is a balancing of risk and parties that feel they have done nothing wrong settle often to have certainty and to take control of the risk. Settlement is not an admission of liability.
"so the American judicial system decided that there was track negligence. I'm not an expert in laws/tracks etc so I'll leave it to them"
Steve, are you SERIOUSLY are sitting here trying to argue that some random California attorneys and possibly a judge KNOW MORE about the safety of a motocross track than you, who has been riding for 40 years and has made an entire career of being a professional journalist for the sport of Motocross?
....its giving -> "Yeah man the lawyers know what they are doing and have no ill itentions, they got it all figured out! Nothing to see here!"
Mine, too. Our last insurance was going to go up from $4,800/ yr (base policy + $1,800 per event) to $11,200/yr + $2,600 per event). That's after 10 years with the same insurer with zero claims.
This is laughably dumb.
That's the bummer with NDA's right? We will never know unless someone breaks the NDA.
Very well could have been as Matthes said he heard in that this was going to go further and been really bad for LACR and their insurance company with a bigger payout. So all parties decided to end it with the settlement before it got worse.
OR
Could have been that all parties agreed to put an end to things with an agreed upon number(I assume it was medical bills plus some) so that it would be over and they could all move on.
Not that knowing would really make much of a difference for anyone or their opinions.
Yes, that's true about insurance companies. However in this instance I understand it was RT who initiated the lawsuit against LACR, not the insurance company.
I can’t believe @Matthes jumped into the shark tank, covered in chum. 🤣🤣🍿😳🥤
The latter statement is crucial. All parties agreed to settle the matter. That means both sides including LACR made a conscious decision to move on. If LACR truly believed they were in the right they had every opportunity to take the case to trial and clear their name fully. Legal expenses are real but they could have easily used a GofundMe just like they are using now for their current efforts if proving their innocence was that important.
Instead, they chose to settle which implies a compromise. Since that agreement, there have been actions that appear to breach the spirit, if not the letter, of that settlement. Publicly defaming someone after agreeing to move forward shows poor judgment, especially if they agreed to disagree.
A major question no one seems to be asking is why not reopen the facility under a new entity? If the issue is about getting insurance under their current names, that is not impossible. Plenty of facilities across the country have restructured like this. For example, Texas has seen tracks reopen under new LLCs or corporations with the same group of people. With an AMA required membership, insurance coverage is possible. You can form a rider/member owned track, which not only distributes risk but also builds stronger community investment.
So why is LACR hell-bent on using the Barbacovi name when that appears to be a major roadblock?
Also, what exactly has the GofundMe money been spent on? Transparency would help the community trust the intentions here, especially since they were donations. If they had truly wanted to reopen LACR, that money could have gone toward forming a new business, making basic facility improvements like better runoff zones, adding flags and markers, creating flag stations, and enabling promoters to run race events. These are standard and very doable steps.
Yet the public message has become more about hardship and sympathy rather than actionable steps and solutions. That deserves to be questioned not out of malice but out of a genuine desire to see progress and accountability.
There are a lot of factors that go into choosing to settle. Defendants are often persuaded by those on their side (including their own lawyers and insurance company) to settle for a known amount rather than risk losing a substantially larger amount if they proceed on with the trial and lose due to the whims of a jury.
That’s not necessarily true. Many times it’s cheaper to settle the suit than take it to the end, even if there is no merit to the case. Happens all the time. As for suing for anything under the sun. The court really frowns on frivolous lawsuits and it can come back and bite the plaintiff big time. Those days for the most part are long gone.
Post a reply to: Statement from Rich Taylor (LACR Lawsuit)