Considering A Swimming Pool Lawsuit? Here Are 3 Things You Need To Ask Yourself
Swimming pools are meant to be enjoyable and fun, but they can also be very dangerous. Between 2011 and 2013, there were roughly 390 drowning deaths among children between the ages of 0 and 14 each year. During that same time period, there were nearly 5,000 people who were treated in the emergency room for drowning-related injuries.
If you or a loved one are injured at a swimming pool, you may want to consider filing a lawsuit. First, you will want to ask yourself three questions, as these will be very important in the lawsuit:
1. Who Is the Owner of the Pool?
If you are going to pursue legal action against the owner of the pool where you or your loved one was injured, the first thing that needs to be determined is who owns the pool. After all, you can't file a lawsuit if you don't know who to file it against. Plus, if you file a lawsuit and name the wrong person as the defendant, you will waste a lot of time and money in legal and filing fees. So, take the time to make sure that you find out who the correct pool owner is ahead of time to ensure that you correctly name the proper defendant in your lawsuit.
2. Was Someone Legally Responsible to Provide Safety to Other Individuals?
In order to recover damages in a personal injury lawsuit, you need to prove that negligence occurred. In order to do this, you need to show that the pool owner had a duty towards to you or your loved one at the time of your injury and that the pool owner breached that duty. For example, if it was a private pool owner that invited you over, they had a duty to ensure that their property and pool was safe from harm. This includes slippery surfaces along the poolside and improper balancing of chemicals in the pool. If the private pool owner failed to keep their property safe and you were injured as a result, you may be able to bring a negligence claim against them.
3. Did the Pool Owner Take Reasonable Precautions to Keep the Pool Area Safe?
In many areas, pool owners are required to take preventatives measures to ensure that their pool area cannot be easily accessed. For example, some states and local municipalities may require that private pool owners have a gated fence around their pool. If a fence is not present and a child is injured in the pool, the pool owner may be able to be held legally responsible even if the child didn't have permission to be on the property.
If you don't know the answers to these questions, a personal injury attorney can help you gather the right information as well as the evidence needed to put your case together, determine if you even have a valid case and get you the compensation that you deserve.
For more information, talk with a lawyer directly or visit websites like http://gomezmaylaw.com/.