The Hilaria Baldwin Lawsuit: Who’s Responsible for Your Yoga?

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The celebrity yogi is being sued by a student injured during her class. Is this a case of gold digging, or do the instructor and studio hold some responsibility?

Hilaria Baldwin lawsuit
Hilaria Baldwin

It's been a crazy week for Hilaria Baldwin (formerly Thomas). Last Sunday, The Post reported that the yoga teacher and wife of Alec Baldwin is being sued by a student, Paul Wolff, who smashed his leg through a window while attempting a handstand during a class at Yoga Vida.

Wolff reportedly tore his leg open in five places and "can't flex the ankle and foot points downward," but it's unclear whether the incident caused any long-term damage. He's suing Baldwin, Yoga Vida, and the building on University Place where the studio is housed, on the grounds that the class was overcrowded, forcing him to take a spot by the window. (Alec Baldwin took to Twitter to declare that the class actually only had 42 students in it, in a studio made for 70.)

With Hilaria Baldwin's new-found fame, the lawsuit carries more than a hint of gold-digging. Especially if the number of people in the class was Wolff's issue, it seems irrelevant to sue the instructor, who wouldn't normally influence that factor. Of course, a lawsuit against a studio that charges $14 a class, however, would not be nearly as lucrative.

And it brings up a questions that yogis often ponder: Who's responsible for your yoga?

It's no secret that some aspects of yoga can be dangerous. But we all sign a waiver before rolling out a mat, and whatever the teacher asks us to do, we ultimately decide how hard to push and which poses to attempt.

Adjustments often present a gray area, especially when a teacher helps you get into a pose you wouldn't otherwise try. But this situation didn't include that complication at all. It was a student who lost his balance too close to a window.

What do you think? Is the lawsuit all about gold digging, or do Hilaria Baldwin and Yoga Vida hold some responsibility? Tell us, in the Comments, below!

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