Some people get injured at their local gym club or when they are working with a personal trainer. They wonder if they can sue their gym or trainer and need to determine how to find a lawyer that could help them.
In order to learn how to find a gym and fitness injury lawyer, we spoke with Douglas Healy. A graduate of the University of Arkansas law school, Healy served as the Senior Trial Attorney in the Greene County Prosecutor’s office. Today, he is the general counsel to the Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission. He also has his own law firm, Healy Law Offices, where he serves industrial and commercial firms.
According to Healy, before one looks for a local attorney, one must first look at several factors to determine if a lawyer can even represent you in such a case and to what extent.
Types of Injuries
Types of injuries that people can suffer in gyms include slip and fall accidents, sexual assault, assault and battery and injuries that result from equipment that is defective or malfunctions.
Can a Lawyer Represent You?
It depends upon the extent of your injuries as to how much you really need the services of a lawyer for a gym or trainer personal injury case. If the amount of the injuries is less than the maximum amount you would win in small claims court, you may only need a lawyer to help you draw up the paperwork for court. Lawyers will not represent you in small claims court.
The next issue is if you will really have a claim that you have any chance of winning.
Liability Clause
According to Findlaw, many people believe that they cannot prevail against a gymnasium for an injury they suffered while working out at the gym because they signed a liability waiver as a condition of membership. This is not always the case. Gyms have a duty of care to provide facilities that are clean. They also must provide well-maintained equipment that is properly spaced. If any of this duty of care is not present, then the plaintiff could prevail against a gymnasium at trial.
An example of failure to provide duty of care would be if the staff allowed clients to use a machine they knew to be defective or dangerous.
Contributory Negligence
Even if the gym has not fully lived up to their duty of care and may be found negligent, they may be able to skip away without compensating you for your losses if it is deemed that something you did contributed to the accident.
Complicating this picture further is the fact that different states have different laws about compensatory negligence. The Medium suggests that injured consumers look up their state’s rules on joint liability.
In Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama and Washington D.C., you will not receive any damage settlement for your injuries if you had even a tiny role to play in your accident. Those states are under the rule of Pure Contributory Negligence. If you live in a state under the rule of Pure Comparative Fault, any fault on your part towards the injury only lessens your damage award by the percentage of fault the judge decides rests on your shoulders. Some states are under the 50- or 51-Percent Bar Rule. That rule only allows you to recover damages if the gym is mostly to blame. Any percentage of blame on your part is deducted from your settlement.
All of this underscores the fact that the liability contract and any portion of fault that can be ascribed to what you did to contribute towards your injuries will weigh heavily upon your chances of collecting a settlement, as do the rules of joint liability that your state uses in personal injury litigation. All of this will have an impact upon whether a lawyer can or will work with you at all.
Things to Provide Your Lawyer
Your lawyer or law firm will need to see the membership application that will contain the liability waiver. They may ask that you provide a set of pictures that document your injuries.
Sources of Personal Injury Lawyers for Gym or Personal Trainer Injuries
Some of the best sources of personal injury lawyers include:
Online: Lawyers.com, Findlaw.com and Enjuris.com.
Your local and/or state bar association
References from friends and family
Vet Your Lawyer
Before you call any of your references, take a moment to look up their disciplinary history on their state bar association website to ensure they have not been disciplined for violations of their oath.
Douglas Healy suggests that consumers injured at gymnasiums or due to personal trainer negligence perform some quick online due diligence before they call and interview personal injury lawyers