Martial Artists Liability
A Martial Artists liability will be more closely scrutinized than a layman without any training.
Everyone needs to understand that there are always consequences for any action you take. Use force only as a last resort. Common sense will tell you that you’ll always be better off doing everything possible to avoid physical confrontation. When you use the defense of self defense you may need to prove that you exhausted all means to avoid the altercation, including calling the police. If you called the police, but before they arrived you were attacked, a jury would find it hard to convict you. Although it shouldn’t matter , the reality of our legal system suggests that the more you know about self defense, the more responsibly prudent you need to be in its application. For example, say that during a threatened attack you gouge the attacker’s eyes out with your car keys and permanently damage his knee kicking it. If you had no training a jury may think, “Well done! He deserved it!”; however when they find out that you are a black belt with teaching experience they look at it totally different. Right or wrong they expect you to restrain yourself and may even think that you were looking for trouble. No matter what the circumstances if you injure or kill someone you WILL be arrested and charged with a crime. It is not the job of the police to decide you acted in self defense; that is the job of the courts.
As an instructor, a black belt is held to a martial artists liability. The Theory of Agency states that the principle (teacher) is liable for the unlawful acts which he causes to be committed through an agent (student). A martial artist instructor may be held liable for the unlawful acts of his students in three possible ways. First is the teacher appears to approve of unlawful conduct she may be held liable if a student commits such an act. Similarly a dojo that encourages the use of excessive force inappropriately and teaches a student to abuse his knowledge may be held responsible for subsequent unlawful acts. Second a teacher may be held liable for teaching potentially lethal techniques of a weapon, then entrusting the student with the weapon. Third an instructor is held responsible for negligence if a student or other party is harmed during class as a result of improper teaching techniques. In conclusion martial artists liability denotes that as a teacher you are both legally and morally responsible for the actions of your students regarding their instruction both inside and outside of the dojo.
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