Two Situations In Which You May Have A Personal Injury Claim For A Sports Injury

Posted on: 26 March 2015

Under normal circumstances, you have a very little chance of being compensated after getting injured while participating in a sporting event. This is because those who engage in sports activities are deemed to have taken the assumed risks of getting injured. However, there are exceptions to this assumption, and you may have a valid claim if your injuries are caused by:

An Unreasonable Behavior of Another Player

If your injury is caused by an action not related to the game you are playing, then you may be able to sue for damages. This is especially the case if the action was deliberate. That is because such an action is unreasonable in sport.

For example, the most common basketball injuries are ankle sprains. You can develop the sprain if your ankle rolls too far out or another player jumps and lands on your foot. Therefore, if you are a basketball player, then you can't sue another player for jumping and (accidentally) landing on your feet.

However, if you accidentally step on a player, and he or she retaliates by punching and breaking your nose, then you may be able to sue him or her. That kind of aggressive behavior is unreasonable, and you may pursue an intentional tort lawsuit against the perpetrator.

Defective Equipment

Other injuries that the doctrine of assumed risks does not cover are those caused by defective equipment. This makes sense because nobody goes to the field accepting that the playing equipment may be faulty and injure them. This is especially true of safety equipment such as football helmets and mouth guards.

Therefore, if you bang your head during a game of football and suffers a severe concussion, then you may sue the responsible party if the helmet proves defective. However, just because your helmet did not protect you does not mean that it is defective; helmets can't protect against all injuries. However, you may have a strong case if an expert witness proves that your helmet was defective. The same may be true if an investigation reveals that your protective gear was part of a batch that should have been recalled for being defective, but was not.

It all depends on the context and cause of your injuries. As you may suspect, these cases tend to be complicated due to the issue of assumed risks, especially in contact sports. Therefore, if you suspect that your injury was caused by someone's negligence, then you should have your claim examined by a personal injury attorney, such as Glaser Steven J atty.

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