[HPforGrownups] re: Permission Slip/WW law

[Katherine F.]

No: HPFGUIDX 38277

Nova wrote:
> > I can't imagine a situation where a child without a signed
> > permission slip from a parent/guardian would be allowed to attend
> > any sort of trip outside school grounds. If something were to
> > happen to him, they and Hogwarts would be held responsible.

And Catlady_de_los_angeles replied:
>That is VERY true in the USA Muggle world in which I live, but the UK
>Wizard world seems to be a LOT less litigious....

         Well, IANAL (I am not a lawyer), but my own memory of school
trips and a little digging on Google suggests that actually, this is
pretty standard for UK schools: while the children are on school
grounds, they're insured against accidents, and the school is in loco
parentis. Once the children leave school grounds, the school a) has
no control over what happens (okay, they don't have much control over
what happens *on* school grounds either, but in theory they could do)
and b) are not covered in the event of an accident. The school is
*still* in loco parentis, but the permission slip is a useful
ass-covering measure. Hogwarts being recognised as the children's
guardian is standard UK practice (though it's common law supported
by precedent, rather than legislation).

Catlady_de_los_angeles also said:
>Here in the USA Muggle world, even if the parent has signed a paper
>giving the school in loco parentis rights, the parent would sue the
>school if the student were killed on an outing, in sports, in class
>experiments, etc. In some cases the parents would win.

         That could happen in the UK too, but it would depend on
the circumstances. It's unlikely that such a case would ever go
to court unless there was good prima facie evidence of negligence.
Even then, Brits are generally less litigious than Americans.

Catlady_de_los_angeles continued:
> I believe that
>in the wizarding world, the parents wouldn't even think of suing
>Hogwarts for their child being killed at school: they would either
>accept it as part of the tragic sense of life or they would seek
>PERSONAL vengeance on whichever adult they considered at fault.

         Interesting thought strikes me here: *are* there lawyers
in the WW? There's obviously some sort of legal structure or there
couldn't have been trials, but, having consulted the relevant
chapter of GoF, I don't see any trace of legal representation of
the prisoners in the trials Harry witnessed via the Pensieve.
This may simply mean that wizards don't have lawyers; when a person
can be given Veritaserum to make them tell the absolute truth,
lawyers may simply be superfluous. Or it may mean that the right
to a legal counsel was temporarily suspended for the trials of
DEs (not an unlikely situation, given that the MoM authorised the
use of the Unforgivables against them).

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