| Providers of recreation opportunity operate within a legal environment that requires them to consider the safety of participants. Economic and ethical factors also provide incentive for providers to maintain safe land conditions for the recreating public. Negligence law as it pertains to premises liability is the formal body of knowledge that forms the basis for legal decision making therein.; Risk management is a proactive means to limit the potential for injury and subsequent civil remedy. The determination of legal negligence, however, is the final arbitrator in assessing the conduct of a defendant who manages land conditions for recreation activities. Unfortunately, this decision-making process is encountered only when one is named as a defendant in a suit. Thus it is difficult to understand the decision-making process determining negligence without entering the civil law arena.; A knowledge based computer program was constructed to model this decision-making process. Sources of the domain expertise include statutory and civil law, legal publications, and experts within the field of recreation law. The research prototype system strives to assess the existence of landholder negligence as the plaintiff's burden of proof prior to a civil case. Defenses to the assertion of negligence are also assessed. The goal of the research is not the ultimate determination of negligence, but the identification of key issues associated with a case.; Hypothetical case facts were supplied by the domain experts to test the system's ability to identify key issues and estimate the type and degree of negligence present. The outcome was then compared to the expert's assessment of the case.; These tests indicated that the system performed adequately for the stage of research prototype yet remained fragile in the manipulation of legal concepts that have contextual meaning.; The results of this research indicate that knowledge based systems show promise for modeling recreation law. The research also highlighted avenues for improving future systems. |
