Albany

Amid fears that increasing numbers of plaintiffs are "bowling for dollars" through slip-and-fall lawsuits, operators of New York's bowling alleys hope a legislative proposal will spare them some grief.

Trial lawyers, however, say the bill crosses the foul line when it comes to a person's right to sue.

The brewing dustup over bowling center regulations is a striking example of how New York's litigious culture, along with seemingly unrelated policy changes such as the ban on indoor smoking, have led to increasingly strange-sounding proposals in the Legislature.

At issue is a bill sponsored by state Sen. Pat Gallivan, a Western New York Republican, that would require bowling centers to post signs warning patrons that it's dangerous to go outdoors in bowling shoes.

In return for putting up the signs, proprietors would be protected from lawsuits due to a "slip, trip, stumble or fall" caused by a "substance or material on the bowler's bowling shoes that was acquired outside."

While this sounds about as common as 300-point game, those in the bowling business say slip-and-fall lawsuits roll in with regularity.

And they've become more common since New York's indoor smoking ban took effect in 2003. These days, those seeking a smoke go outside. But if it's rainy or snowy, leather-soled bowling shoes can become wet and slippery, thus the increased risk of injury. Some centers try to keep their shoes indoors. "We try to enforce that," said Brian Loudermilk of Schenectady's Boulevard Bowl. They also let people keep their street shoes with them to use if they want to go outside, he said.

Gallivan's proposal was held back in the Senate Consumer Affairs Committee earlier this week, with Chairman Lee Zeldin saying "there are questions about the bill."

The main questions are coming from the state Trial Lawyers Association, whose members believe the measure would grant overly broad protection against lawsuits.

"We cannot support any legislation that undercuts the constitutional right to a trial by a jury," the association's President Michael Jaffe said in a statement.

To be sure, many of the slip-and-fall suits filed against bowling centers are quickly settled by the insurance firms. But that drives up insurance rates and feeds the fear that a jumbo judgment could run them out of business.

Word of the proposed legislation was news but not a surprise to Tom Stebbins, executive director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, which fights what it characterizes are a plague of frivolous lawsuits. He notes that New York has twice the number of lawyers per capita, about 84 per 10,000 people, than the national average of 40 per 10,000.

Illinois lawmakers in 2009 passed a measure similar to Gallivan's bill. Bowling centers there also faced opposition by trial lawyers, but they struck a compromise which narrowed the language of the bill to cover rental shoes only; they also added specific wording about the perils of wet shoes, said Bill Duff, executive director of the Illinois Bowling Proprietors Association.

Noting that trial lawyers easily dwarf the size and power of bowling center owners, Duff said a compromise was essential. "If we didn't work with them, it was never going to happen," he explained.

rkarlin@timesunion.com • 518-454-5758 • @RickKarlinTU