Swimming pools, whether a public pool or a pool at a neighbor’s house, are popular spots during the hot summer season. However, there are inherent risks being around a pool, including preventable poolside accidents that could result in serious, life-altering injuries.
If you or a family member suffered a serious injury in a poolside accident, it is incredibly important to understand your legal rights and options. Generally speaking, when an accident occurs at a pool, you should confer with an attorney who possesses experience with premises liability law. Why? Because in many poolside accident injury cases, the pool owner and/or operator could be held accountable for your harms and losses.
With any accident, including poolside accidents, it is recommended you consult with an experienced New Jersey personal injury lawyer with Bross & Frankel. Contact our personal injury law firm to schedule a no-cost, confidential case evaluation today.
Common Types of Poolside Accidents
Poolside accidents can take different forms. Below are examples of common types of pool accidents:
- Slip and Fall Poolside Accidents: Slips, trips, and falls are common types of injuries that occur at pools. Wet and slippery surfaces, uneven tiles, and poorly maintained walkways can create hazardous and dangerous conditions that can cause serious injuries such as bone fractures, torn ligaments, head trauma, spinal cord damage, and so forth.
- Defective Equipment: Defective or broken pool equipment (e.g., faulty pool ladders, diving boards, and drains) can cause serious, life-altering injuries. Under New Jersey law, property owners are generally responsible for ensuring that pool equipment is properly maintained and safe for use by guests and visitors.
- Drowning and Near-Drowning Incidents: Drowning, and near-drowning incidents, present a serious risk to children, teenagers and other visitors at pools. Inadequate supervision, lack of barriers, and/or insufficient safety equipment could contribute to drowning and near-drowning accidents.
Understanding Premises Liability
If someone suffers a serious poolside injury, then premises liability law will likely come into play. For context, premises liability is a legal concept designed to hold property owners and managers accountable for bodily injuries that occur on their property. Premises liability applies to various types of properties, including private pools and public pools.
Under New Jersey law, property owners are legally obligated to take reasonable steps to ensure their premises are safe for visitors and free from known hazards that could cause bodily harm.
To have a viable pool injury claim based on premises liability, you need to have evidence showing that the property owner was negligent. Establishing negligence generally requires demonstrating the following legal elements:
- Duty of Care: There needs to be evidence reflecting the fact that the property owner owed a duty of care to the injured party, or parties.
- Breach of Duty: Once a duty of care is established, there needs to be evidence showing the property owner breached the duty by failing to remedy hazardous conditions or provide sufficient warnings to pool visitors.
- Proximate Causation: There needs to be evidence showing that the breach of duty proximately caused the pool accident injury.
- Recoverable Damages: You need to have suffered actual damages. Your damages can be established through pieces of evidence like medical invoices, lost wages, and so forth.
Understanding Comparative Negligence
Along with premises liability law, it is important for your New Jersey pool accident injury lawyer to have a general understanding of comparative negligence. For context, comparative negligence is a legal rule impacting the amount of compensation that may be awarded to an accident victim. Under comparative negligence, a damages award may be reduced by the percentage of fault in the poolside accident. In addition, if the pool victim is found to be more than 50 percent at fault, they may be prohibited from recovering any damages.
As an example, let’s say a jury decides to award a pool accident victim $500,000 in damages, but determines that the victim with 30 percent fault. This means the $500,000 award will be reduced by 30 percent with a new total of $350,000.
Poolside Accident Injury Claims and Comparative Negligence
There are various situations where a property owner could be held responsible for a pool accident. This may include scenarios where equipment was defective or where lifeguards were not properly watching swimmers. However, there may be situations where a plaintiff may have also been negligent. Those situations include:
- The accident victim may have failed to follow posted rules, such as diving in a “No Diving” area.
- The accident victim may have consumed alcohol, and their subsequent impairment contributed to the accident.
- A child was injured, but the parent may not have been adequately supervising their child.
Nevertheless, it is important to understand that even if you were partially at fault for the pool accident, you still have legal options and a pathway for recovering financial restitution for your harms and losses. The best way to assess the viability of your pool accident claim is to speak to an experienced and knowledgeable New Jersey personal injury attorney.
Clock is Ticking to File a Poolside Accident Lawsuit
Under New Jersey law, claimants generally have up to two years to file a pool accident injury lawsuit. This window of time is legally known as the statute of limitations. Filing within the statute of limitations is critically important because if you fail to do so, your injury lawsuit will be barred.
There are limited exceptions to the statute of limitations, but by and large it makes sense to take legal action sooner rather than later.
Have Questions? Speak to an Experienced Poolside Accident Injury Attorney Today
Navigating a poolside accident injury claim can be intimidating and difficult, especially if you are the one who suffered serious injuries. This is why it makes sense to retain the services of an experienced and knowledgeable New Jersey personal injury attorney.
The law firm of Bross Frankel PA represents accident victims, including pool accident victims, throughout New Jersey. We handle all personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you won’t pay a fee unless we recover money for you. To learn more or to schedule a free consultation with a New Jersey pool accident injury lawyer, contact us today at (856) 795-8880 or fill out our online contact form.