When someone is injured in or around your swimming pool, the person may file a personal injury lawsuit against you. As the property owner, you have a responsibility to keep your guests safe. Even if the injured person is a friend, he or she may still feel that legal action is necessary. For example, if the victim cannot work as a result of being hurt, he or she will need some form of financial damages. You're in a serious predicament if someone is injured around your pool, but this doesn't necessarily mean that you were negligent and thus are responsible for the injury. Hire your own personal injury attorney and build a case around contributory negligence — in other words, the victim's behavior contributed to the injury. Here are some points to present.
The Victim's Behavior Was Unsafe
Using a swimming pool in the appropriate manner leaves people with a very low risk of being injured. However, as someone begins to act unsafely around the pool, the risk of an injury quickly increases. A key argument in your contributory negligence case can be that the victim was behaving in an unsafe manner. Examples can include he or she was running on the wet pool deck or perhaps even jumped into the pool from a second-story balcony. You could also identify that no one else was behaving in this manner.
You Offered Multiple Warnings
For a contributory negligence case to be strong, you should have taken steps to curb the victim's risky behavior. For example, a common method of doing so is to warn the person about how he or she is acting and say that he or she could get hurt. For example, you might have stated, "Please don't jump off that balcony. The pool isn't nearly deep enough, and I'm worried that you'd get injured." It will help your case if multiple people heard you make these warnings.
You Took Steps To Reduce The Risk
Upon identifying the person's risky behavior, it's ideal if you can prove that you took steps to reduce the risk. For example, if the person was performing dangerous stunts off the diving board, you could have quickly unbolted it and placed it in your pool shed. You'll need people who were in attendance at the time of the accident to be able to support your claim about reducing the risk. Together, these elements can contribute to a strong defense against a personal injury case.
Share29 August 2018
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