Timeout! Referees Are Now Subject to the Same Standard of Care as Players in Recreational Sports

The reckless misconduct standard set forth in Ritchie-Gamester historically only applied to coparticipants in recreational activities. The newly published opinion of Lares now extends the Ritchie-Gamester reckless misconduct standard to the referees tasked with making real-time game decisions. In other words, a referee is now considered a coparticipant and will only be held liable when the referee’s conduct demonstrates a willingness to harm others or an indifference to whether such harm occurs.