A disclaimer is generally any statement intended to specify or delimit the scope of rights and obligations that may be exercised and enforced by parties in a legally recognized relationship. In contrast to other terms for legally operative language, the term disclaimer usually implies situations that involve some level of uncertainty, waiver, or risk.

A disclaimer may specify mutually agreed and privately arranged terms and conditions as part of a contract; or may specify warnings or expectations to the general public (or some other class of persons) in order to fulfill a duty of care owed to prevent unreasonable risk of harm or injury. Some disclaimers are intended to limit exposure to damages after a harm or injury has already been suffered. Additionally, some kinds of disclaimers may represent a voluntary waiver of a right or obligation that may be owed to the disclaimant.

Disclaimers vary in terms of their uniformity. Some may vary depending on the specific context and parties involved, while other types of disclaimers may strictly adhere to a uniform and established set of formalities that are rarely or never modified, except under official authority. Some of these formal disclaimers are required pursuant to industry regulation, qualification for protection under a safe harbor, and other situations where the exact wording of a particular clause or document may be dispositive in the event of a legal dispute. (See e.g., Product liability, Toxicity Class, Rule against perpetuities, Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act).

The presence of a disclaimer in a legally binding agreement does not necessarily guarantee that the terms of the disclaimer will be recognized and enforced in a legal dispute. There may be other legal considerations that render a disclaimer void either in whole or part.

Tort law[link]

In law, a disclaimer is a statement denying responsibility intended to prevent civil liability arising for particular acts or omissions. Disclaimers are frequently made to escape the effects of the torts of negligence and of occupiers' liability towards visitors. The courts may or may not give effect to the disclaimer depending on whether the law permits exclusion of liability in the particular situation and whether the acts or omissions complained of fall within the wording of the disclaimer.

Sign on bridge, warning: "Use at own risk"

A disclaimer may take effect as a term of the contract between the person making the disclaimer and the person who is thereby prevented from suing. This kind of disclaimer is, for example, invariably found in the 'terms and conditions' that a software user is confronted with when first installing the software. There will often be term excluding any liability for any damage that the software might cause to the rest of the user's software and hardware. By clicking "I Agree" in the dialogue box, users are agreeing to this disclaimer as matter of contract between themselves and the software company.

At common law, disclaimers can also have effect as conditions of a license (i.e. permission) to enter land. An occupier of land will have certain duties to take care for the personal safety of people he or she allows onto the premises. By placing a sign at the entrance to the premises, such as "visitors enter at their own risk", the occupier may be able to stop entrants successfully suing in tort for damage or injury caused by the unsafe nature of the premises. Warnings or disclaimers contained in signs may, by a slightly different legal analysis leading to the same result, allow the person who would otherwise be responsible to rely on the defense of consent.

Under UK law, the validity of disclaimers is significantly limited by the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977. By virtue of the Act, a business cannot use a contract term or a notice to exclude or restrict its liability for negligence causing death or personal injury. In the case of other loss or damage, a disclaimer will only be effective so long as it is reasonable in all the circumstances. The common law in other nations may also place legal limits on the validity of disclaimers; for instance, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has previously successfully sued Target Australia Pty Ltd for the usage of inaccessible disclaimers in advertisements (the televised advertisements in question contained disclaimers that were only shown on screen for 1.50 seconds).

Patent law[link]

In patent law, a disclaimer identifies, in a claim, subject-matter that is not claimed.^[1] By extension, a disclaimer may also mean the action of introduction a negative limitation in a claim, i.e. "an amendment to a claim resulting in the incorporation therein of a "negative" technical feature, typically excluding from a general feature specific embodiments or areas".^[2] The allowability of disclaimers is subject to particular conditions, which may vary widely from one jurisdiction to another.

Estate law[link]

Disclaimer of liability for "equine professionals" (Indiana)

In estate or inheritance law, a disclaimer (also called disclaimer of interest) is a written document voluntarily signed by an heir to an estate in which the said heir does not accept (disclaims) the part of the estate of a deceased person which the heir is entitled to receive. The disclaimed part of the estate is then inherited not necessarily by a person of the disclaiming heir's choice, but by the next heir in line to receive that part of the estate as if the disclaiming heir were also deceased, either according to the will, beneficiary designation, or the laws of intestacy. Government tax agencies have further rules on such disclaimers. Reasons for such disclaimers may include imminent death of the disclaimant or the fact that the disclaimant already has enough wealth. For full article, see Disclaimer of interest.

Literature[link]

The all persons fictitious disclaimer is a standard disclaimer used in works of fiction in an attempt to avoid liability for defamation.

In the case of fan fiction, the author will usually give a disclaimer saying that the author of the fan fiction does not, in any way, profit from the story and that all creative rights to the characters belong to their original creator(s).

See also[link]

• E&OE Errors and Omissions Excepted (used in the UK, and India)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Website Disclaimer

Look up disclaimer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Chael Sonnen
Chael Sonnen at UFC 115 in Vancouver, Canada, on June 11, 2010.
Born	Chael Patrick Sonnen (1977-04-03) April 3, 1977 (age 35) West Linn, Oregon, United States
Other names	The Foreman American Gangster[1] The People's Champ[2]
Nationality	American
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight	185.5 lb (84 kg; 13 st 4 lb)
Division	Middleweight (185 lb) Light Heavyweight (205 lb)
Reach	74 in (188 cm)
Stance	Southpaw
Fighting out of	Portland, Oregon, United States
Team	Team Quest
Wrestling	NCAA Division I Wrestling Olympic Alternate Greco-Roman wrestling
Years active	1997, 2002–present (MMA)[3][4]
Mixed martial arts record
Total	39
Wins	27
By knockout	7
By submission	4
By decision	16
Losses	11
By knockout	2
By submission	8
By decision	1
Draws	1
Amateur career
Total	2
Wins	2
By knockout	2
Other information
Occupation	Mixed martial artist, promoter and entrepreneur
University	University of Oregon
Mixed martial arts record from Sherdog
last updated on: October 11, 2011

Chael Patrick Sonnen^[5] (pronounced /ˈtʃeɪl ˈsʌnən/; born April 3, 1977) is an American mixed martial artist who competes as a middleweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He was an NCAA Division I All-American wrestler at the University of Oregon, a silver medalist at the 2000 Greco-Roman World University Championships,^[6] as well as a two-time Dave Schultz Memorial International Greco-Roman winner.

As of October 2011^[update], Sonnen is ranked as the No. 2 middleweight in the world by Sherdog.^[7]

Early life[link]

Sonnen was born Chael Patrick Sonnen on April 3, 1977 in West Linn, Oregon.

Mixed martial arts career[link]

Sonnen started his MMA career at the age of 19 in 1997 by defeating Ben Hailey in Vancouver, Washington. His second fight was against future ICON Sport Middleweight Champion and Strikeforce Middleweight contender Jason "Mayhem" Miller. Sonnen went 6–0 in his first six fights, until his loss to Trevor Prangley, which he later avenged in 2006 at UFC Ultimate Fight Night 4. He also fought The Ultimate Fighter winner and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Forrest Griffin.

UFC[link]

Sonnen made his UFC debut against former IFC and Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Renato Sobral at UFC 55, where Sonnen fought for his first time at Light Heavyweight. He lost via triangle choke in the second round. Afterwards, he avenged his first ever MMA defeat by defeating Trevor Prangley at UFC Ultimate Fight Night 4 by unanimous decision. Then, for a third time, he fought Jeremy Horn at UFC 60 and lost via armbar. Having gone 1–2 in the Octagon, Sonnen was released from the UFC.

Bodog Fight[link]

After leaving the UFC, Sonnen was signed by Bodog Fight. He earned his first victory in Bodog Fight by defeating Tim Credeur via TKO. After that he fought Alexey Oleinik to a unanimous decision victory, and defeated Tim McKenzie via brabo choke within the first 15 seconds of the opening round. After quickly dismantling McKenzie, Sonnen fought UFC and Pride veteran Amar Suloev and won via TKO. After Bodog, Sonnen defeated future Ultimate Fighter member Kyacey Uscola at SuperFight 20: Homecoming.

World Extreme Cagefighting[link]

In December 2007, Sonnen fought Paulo Filho for the WEC middleweight championship. Sonnen lost via submission at 4:55 of the second round. There was controversy stemming from the fight stoppage, however. Sonnen did not tap out but yelled out, and the referee took that as a verbal submission and stopped the fight. In his post-fight interview Sonnen said that he told the referee not to stop the fight, and continually said "No" when the referee asked if he wanted to submit.^[8]

A rematch between the two was scheduled for March 26, 2008, but was cancelled due to Paulo Filho checking himself into a rehabilitation clinic for an unknown substance abuse problem.^[9] Sonnen instead faced undefeated WEC middleweight contender Bryan Baker and dominated him for three rounds, winning a unanimous decision.^[10] Sonnen and Filho eventually met again on November 5, 2008, where Sonnen soundly defeated Filho by unanimous decision. Prior to the fight, Filho did not make weight, weighing in at close to seven pounds over 185, thus making the bout a non-title match and taking away the chance for Sonnen to rematch for the WEC title. After Filho lost, he announced he would ship Sonnen the championship belt.^[11]

Return to UFC[link]

Following the dissolution of the WEC's middleweight division Sonnen was moved back over to the UFC, in his first fight in the promotion since UFC 60, he lost via triangle choke to Demian Maia at UFC 95.

Sonnen defeated Dan Miller at UFC 98 on May 23 via unanimous decision. Sonnen showed his willingness and toughness as a fighter and came in as a late replacement for Yushin Okami when Okami sustained a torn ligament in training.^[12] Sonnen took the fight on 22 days notice and lost 36 pounds to compete.^[13] Incidentally in his next fight, Sonnen out-wrestled Okami at UFC 104 to a unanimous decision victory.^[14] The weeks proceeding the fight, Okami trained with Chael Sonnen and his camp for a number of weeks. Chael Sonnen commented on Okami's size, strength and skill set as well as his relationship with Okami as something close to a brother.

Sonnen was expected to face Nate Marquardt on February 21, 2010 at UFC 110, but the fight was moved up and the two fought at UFC 109 on February 6, with Sonnen winning via unanimous decision after out-wrestling the heavily favored Marquardt for three rounds. Marquardt caught Sonnen in two very deep guillotine chokes in the first and third rounds; however, Sonnen managed to get free. With the victory, Sonnen solidified his position as the next fighter in line to challenge Anderson Silva for the UFC Middleweight Championship.

Middleweight Championship Fight[link]

Sonnen fought Anderson Silva for the UFC Middleweight Championship on August 7, 2010 at UFC 117.^[15] Sonnen trash talked during the build up to the fight, which caused some controversy, as he stated that he was going to retire Silva.^[16][17][18] Sonnen won each of the first four rounds on all of the judges' scorecards, with the score heading into the fifth round being 40–34, 40–35, and 40–36.^[19][20] However in the final round Sonnen found himself caught in a triangle/armbar combination by the champion. Sonnen tapped and lost the fight by triangle at 3:10 in the fifth round. Sonnen later stated in an interview it was the choke, not the armbar, that had caused him to submit.

CSAC Suspensions and Appeals[link]

Drug tests conducted at the time of his match with Anderson Silva showed that Sonnen had an elevated testosterone/epitestosterone (or T/E) ratio which fell outside the allowable range. Specifically, Sonnen’s urinalysis showed that his T/E ratio was 16.9:1. By comparison, an average man has a T/E ratio of 1:1, and testing bodies such as CSAC may allow for a variance as high as 4:1 for athletes—meaning Sonnen's T/E ratio was nearly 17 times that of a normal man and more than four times higher than the allowed maximum for an athlete.^[21] Sonnen was fined $2,500 and suspended for one year (until September 2, 2011) by CSAC.^[22] Sonnen's scheduled rematch with Silva was cancelled in light of the suspension.^[23][24]

Initial Appeal[link]

Sonnen filed an appeal from CSAC's decision,^[25] and that hearing was held on December 2, 2010. The principal grounds of Sonnen's appeal were that: (i) he had a medical justification for taking testosterone; and (ii) he believed that he had already taken the necessary steps to disclose the condition and treatment to CSAC. Specifically, Sonnen testified that in 2008 he had been diagnosed with hypogonadism and was undergoing Testosterone replacement therapy (or TRT) in the form of synthetic testosterone which he self-injected twice weekly.^[26] Sonnen was joined at the hearing by his family physician, Dr. Mark Czarnecki, who confirmed that he had diagnosed Sonnen with hypogonadism and had prescribed the twice weekly testosterone injections in 2008.

In his further sworn testimony, Sonnen claimed to have been previously approved for TRT by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC), and to have spoken directly to NSAC's Executive Director, Keith Kizer, who allegedly informed Sonnen that he was approved for TRT and should not again disclose the treatment on the pre-bout medical disclosure statements required by NSAC.^[27] Sonnen testified that he believed Keith Kizer's alleged advice about omitting his TRT on Nevada disclosure forms applied equally to the forms of other state Athletic Commissions.^[27] Additionally, Sonnen testified that he had previously disclosed his condition to CSAC, specifically citing his UFC 104 bout against Yushin Okami, which took place in Los Angeles on October 24, 2009.^[28] Based on the above sworn testimony, CSAC voted to re-characterize Sonnen's transgression as a failure to properly disclose a medical treatment, and correspondingly reduced his suspension from 12 to six months, ending March 2, 2011.

Keith Kizer has since publicly responded to Sonnen's testimony, stating that NSAC had never approved Sonnen for TRT, that Sonnen had never applied for the approval process, and that he "[had] never talked to Chael Sonnen in [his] life."^[23][29][30] At a subsequent meeting between the UFC, Sonnen, and NSAC, Kizer confronted Sonnen about the false testimony he had given at the December 2, 2010 CSAC hearing. According to Kizer, Sonnen initially deflected Kizer's questions, but when pressed further, admitted that no such conversation had occurred, explaining that "My manager and you talked about therapeutic exemptions, and therefore, I just used the wrong word. I should have said 'my' instead of 'I.' As in 'my manager' instead of 'I'" which Kizer said was a "strange story" and a "ridiculous explanation"^[31] Incidentally, Kizer has acknowledged speaking with Sonnen's manager, Matt Lindland, about TRT, but stated that the conversation concerned only the procedure itself, not the application of any particular fighter.^[32]

CSAC Executive Director, George Dodd has also contradicted Sonnen's testimony, stating that CSAC has no documentation evidencing that Sonnen was approved for TRT, either for October 24, 2009 fight with Okami, or at all.^[33]

As of January 2012^[update], there is no documented approval by CSAC, NSAC or any other state Athletic Commission to corroborate Sonnen's testimony that he has ever been approved for TRT.

Subsequent Suspension by CSAC[link]

Sonnen's abbreviated CSAC suspension expired on March 2, 2011. However, in the third week of April 2011, after working out the details with Kizer, the CSAC announced they had reversed their decision to lower his sentence, placing him on indefinite administrative suspension, due to his conviction for money laundering (see below), and his possibly false testimony during the hearing of December 2, 2010.^[32] Sonnen appeared before the Commission on May 18, 2011 to request that the suspension be lifted. After hearing testimony from Keith Kizer via streaming video, as well as Sonnen and his supporters, CSAC voted 4–1 to uphold Sonnen's indefinite suspension. Two days later, CSAC clarified that the applicable regulations only allowed for Sonnen to be suspended until his existing license expired (i.e., June 29, 2011).^[34] CSAC has stated that should Sonnen apply for a new license after June 29, 2011, he would have to re-appear before CSAC and it remained within the Commission's discretion to deny Sonnen's application.^[35]

Return to UFC[link]

After the expiration of his suspension related to his elevated testosterone/epitestosterone ratio, Sonnen returned to the UFC, defeating Brian Stann in the second round via arm triangle choke on October 8, 2011 at UFC 136.

With Silva expected to be sidelined until mid 2012 recovering from various injuries, Sonnen was expected to face Mark Muñoz on January 28, 2012 at UFC on Fox 2.^[36] However, Muñoz was forced out of the bout with an injury and replaced by Michael Bisping.^[37] He won the fight via unanimous decision.^[38]

A rematch with Anderson Silva was expected to take place on June 23, 2012 at UFC 147.^[39] However, on April 20, according to a published report from Sherdog.com, the bout is now expected to take place on July 7, 2012 at UFC 148, while the expected co-feature of the Brazilian event, a rematch between Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva would headline that event. The changes are due to a scheduling conflict with the UN Conference, Rio+20, which will be occurring during the same time frame as the UFC event.^[40]

Money laundering conviction[link]

Sonnen pled guilty to charges of money laundering in connection with mortgage fraud on January 3, 2011. The maximum sentence is 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine,^[41] but as a result of his plea and agreeing to cooperate with the investigation into a ring of mortgage fraud (cooperating as a witness against others involved^[42]), Sonnen is expected to receive two years probation, a $10,000 fine, and the revocation of his realtor license.^[43] Sonnen, a licensed realtor in the State of Oregon, admitted that a financial transaction he conducted was designed to conceal or disguise the ownership and control of the proceeds of wire fraud.^[44]

As the agent for a home sale, Sonnen told the title company to pay a plumbing company owned by Sonnen's mother^[45] for repairs, even though he knew that they would not be carried out.^[46] After the mortgage company agreed to the loan, the plumbing company was paid $69,000, and then the plumbing company, at Sonnen's direction, paid the home buyer $65,000.^[47]

Sonnen was fined $10,000 and sentenced to two years of probation.^[48]

Championships and accomplishments[link]

Amateur wrestling[link]

• National Collegiate Athletic Association
  • NCAA Division I All-American out of University of Oregon (1998)^[49][50]
  • NCAA Division I 190 lb – 8th place out of University of Oregon (1998)^[51]
  • Pac-10 Conference 190 lb – 5th place out of University of Oregon (1997)^[52]
• Oregon Wrestling Classic
  • Oregon Wrestling Classic 190 1b – 5th place (1997)^[52]
• University National Greco-Roman Championships
  • University National Greco-Roman Championships 190 1b – 3rd place out of University of Oregon (1997)^[52]
• World University Championships
  • World University Championships Greco-Roman Seniors 85 kg – second place (2000)^[53]
• Dave Schultz Memorial International
  • Dave Schultz Memorial International Greco-Roman Seniors 85 kg – winner (2000)^[54]
  • Dave Schultz Memorial International Greco-Roman Seniors 97 kg – winner (2001)^[55][56]
  • Dave Schultz Memorial International Greco-Roman Seniors 84 kg – third place (2002)^[57]

Mixed martial arts[link]

• Ultimate Fighting Championship
  • Fight of the Night (Two times)
• Gladiator Challenge
  • Gladiator Challenge Light Heavyweight Championship (One time)^[50]
• Hitman Fighting Productions
  • Hitman Light Heavyweight Championship (One time)^[50]
• Danger Zone
  • Danger Zone Light Heavyweight Championship (One time)^[50]
  • Danger Zone Light Heavyweight Tournament Winner
• Rumble at the River
  • Rumble at the River Tournament Winner^[50]
• World MMA Awards
  • Fight of the Year (2010) – Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen
• Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards
  • Best on Interviews (2010)^[58]

Mixed martial arts record[link]

See also[link]

• List of male mixed martial artists
• List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences

References[link]

External links[link]

• Professional MMA record for Chael Sonnen from Sherdog
• Chael Sonnen profile at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame
• Official UFC Profile
• Mixing Martial Arts Profile