Diving boards at pools should be safe. You should not have to worry about injuries while at a hotel pool, gym pool, school pool, or anywhere else. If you install a pool in your home, the diving board should work flawlessly. However, accidents happen, and some parties can be rightly blamed for them. If you were hurt in a broken diving board accident, you should reach out to our law firm, Normandie Law Firm, for more assistance. We will do everything in our power to win you the damages you deserve.
Defective Diving Board Accidents And Injuries
Pools often have diving boards that are affixed to various heights. Some are lose to the water and only raised a few feet, while more public pools have their diving boards elevated of up to 20 feet. The higher the diving board, the more devastating the incident can be if you fall from it due to it breaking. Diving board accidents can occur in the filing ways:
- Broken diving boards, which may be cracked or overly worn through years of years, and are not properly maintained or fixed over time
- Unaffixed boards, which can fall off the structures they rest on or detach from the ladders
- Poor location, which can involve the boards being too receded and not over the pool enough or too low to the pool, which may result in swimmers hitting them while passing
- Defective boards, which may be properly installed but wind up breaking within a few uses due to the materials that were used being shoddy or the screws and bolts coming out or apart
- Slippery diving boards, which can happen if the material used t coat the diving board is not proper and does not allow for grip and water-resistance
A diving board accident can result in serious injuries. You may be hurt in the following ways:
- Concussion
- Traumatic brain injury
- Broken bones
- Dislocation
- Neck and spinal cord injuries
- Disc injuries
- Coma
- Paralysis
- Drowning
- Death
If you were hurt in a diving board incident, it is important that you take legal action as quickly as possible. Our defective diving board accident lawyers will gladly help you.
How To File A Defective Diving Board Injury Lawsuit
To file an effective defective diving board injury lawsuit, you will need a fair share of evidence it will not benefit you if you do not collect any proof at all of the incident when it happens. We believe you should get as much proof as quickly as you can for the best shot at success.
To sue, you will have to show that another party was negligent. If you were hurt at a private location, you can file a premises liability against the property owner, provided he either caused the defect with the board, knew about it yet took no actions to address it, or was unaware but should have known about it. You can also file a defective product claim if you installed the diving board in your own pool, which would require the item to have a design flaw or manufacturing error.
The first step to take, though, is to go to the doctor and get medical treatment. You could have suffered a number of potential injuries, so it is crucial that you get treated for them. It is also important that you do not skip going to the doctor or put it off for some time. For one, it can make your injuries that much worse and prolong the damages, but it can also negatively impact your claim. The insurance agent who is handling the claim may look at the gap in time and state that you were not nearly as injured as you claimed if you were able to go for a long time without medical help. After you go to the doctor, keep records, like receipts, doctor’s notes, prescriptions, and more.
Take photos of the defective diving board, the pool, the facility, and your injuries. There may have been security cameras there as well, and if possible, you can acquire the surveillance footage to add to your claim.
You should speak to eyewitnesses, bystanders, other swimmers, lifeguards, and anyone else who may have seen the incident happen. They can give you written testimonies and statements that support your claim of the diving board being broken or malfunctioning in some way.
If the incident happened at a private location, like a YMCA or gym, you should acquire proof that you were present or paid for the access. You can then file an incident report with the company. You should be sure to file this kind of report regardless, even if you were at an apartment pool, for example.
Upon getting your evidence, you can collect it and submit it to an attorney with experience in defective diving board lawsuits. We will organize it and write the demand letter accompanying it and send it to the necessary insurance agency. We can then negotiate and litigate your case. You might not have the energy, time, knowledge, or capabilities to handle the case by yourself, which is why we believe you should pursue adequate legal representation.
Diving Board Accident Lawsuit Compensation
A diving board accident can result in a fair amount of compensation. You should not be expected to cover the debts that arose from such an incident if you were hurt because of another party’s negligence. Our lawyers will strive to win you compensation for the following:
- Medical expenses for any surgery, hospitalization, medication and prescription drugs, physical therapy and rehabilitation fees, future medical procedures, and more
- Lost income from the time you could not go to work because of medical treatments, future procedures, recovery time, your injuries, accommodations, and more
- Property damage if you wound up losing any belongings or if you owned the pool and the diving board broke due to poor design
- Pain and suffering damages to cover emotional trauma, PTSD, anxiety, fear, and more
In some cases, you can acquire wrongful death damages. These are available if a family member or loved one dies in the incident. Diving accidents often claim the lives of young children who are not adept swimmers and who are not noticed by lifeguards. These damages can be funeral and burial expenses, pre-death pain and suffering and medical expenses, loss of relations and consortium, loss of expected savings and inheritance, and more.
The value of your case will vary depending on the insurance agent’s perception of the damages and consequences. If your injuries were severe and greatly affected your life and career, for example, you would likely have a larger settlement offered to you than if you quickly healed and you were partially responsible for the diving incident. Either way, you should be sure to hire an attorney who can ensure that you are given the maximum compensation.
Statute Of Limitations On Defective Diving Board Accident Claims
A defective diving board accident lawsuit can be filed as a personal injury claim to pursue damages based on the negligence of another party. Under California law, the claim can be filed up to 2 years after the injury was sustained. The statute of limitations is important because it allows both parties enough time to gather evidence and does not favor one over the other. The sooner you file, the better preserved your evidence will be, for example.
It is possible that the statute of limitations can be extended beyond the 2-year deadline. This can happen if you meet certain criteria for the case. For example, if you were under the age of 18 years old at the time of the incident, you cannot legally sue – and thus, you could wait until you are legal age, thus lengthening the statute. You also cannot sue if you are mentally or physically incapacitated, which would allow the statute to be filed when you return to consciousness or wellness. Further, you cannot sue if the defendant has vacated the state, which means the statute is essentially frozen until he returns.
You might not know the statute of limitations for your case or even how much time remains for you to sue. If you come to our attorneys, we will be able to get your claim filed and ensure that no deadlines are missed.
Choose Our Firm
Our law firm, Normandie Law Firm, is noted as one of the best legal groups in Los Angeles. Our attorneys have a successful track record and will be able to assist you from start to finish on your claim. We won’t hesitate to go to court if we need to, as our aggressive lawyers are willing to go to all lengths to secure you the maximum settlement available for your case.
Call our offices today for a free legal consultation to discuss your claim. All consultations are private and confidential, and we invite you to ask us anything you wish.
If you hire us, we’ll give you our zero fee guarantee. This states that you won’t pay a dime out of pocket for our services. We won’t get paid unless and until we win, and the funds will come from the settlement we bring you. If we lose, we do not get paid anything, and you can walk away debt-fee to our firm.
Let our broken diving board accident lawyers at Normandie Law firm handle your claim for you.
