South Florida Injury Lawyer Blawg
Physical fitness is vital to one’s personal health, which is why many people in Florida and across the United States join gyms and other athletic institutions. If you have been injured due to a trainer or gym’s negligence, we can help. At the Law Offices of Robert Dixon, we can examine the facts of your case and let you know if you have a strong claim for compensation. You can trust that our Miami injury attorneys can offer reliable legal guidance at every step of the way.
Injuries at the gym may be more common than you think. The Consumer Product Safety Commission found that there were 62,700 injuries treated in emergency rooms related to exercise equipment in 2014. More than 24,000 of those injuries involved treadmills.
Gym owners and operators will typically ask you to sign a waiver releasing them from liability in the event that you are injured. In some cases, these waivers are designed to prohibit you from suing even when the gym’s owner, operator, or employee caused your injury. However, you may be able to take legal action despite the waiver you signed. To figure out if this is a possibility, your lawyer would examine the language of the waiver as well as the circumstances of your injury and advise you accordingly.
A gym may be negligent if an injury is caused by one of the following:
- Poorly maintained equipment (i.e., frayed cables or broken machine parts);
- Incorrect setup of equipment (i.e., weights or barbells not put together properly);
- Unsafe premises (i.e., slippery floors, broken handrails, shoddy electrical work); or
- Personal trainer or employee negligence (i.e., improperly secured harness at a rock-climbing wall).
Gyms, like other retail businesses in Florida, have a legal obligation to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition so that customers do not sustain preventable injuries. This obligation includes the responsibility to check the premises on a regular basis for broken or faulty equipment and any other hazards on the property. The gym owner or operator must warn customers of any known risks or foreseeable hazards. For example, signs are a good way to alert customers to the risks associated with using certain machinery.
For a gym to be liable under the theory of negligence, the plaintiff must establish the following elements by a preponderance of the evidence. The plaintiff was owed a duty of care (i.e., the obligation to maintain the premises and warn of known or foreseeable hazards), the gym breached the duty of care owed to the plaintiff, and the gym’s breach was a direct cause of the plaintiff’s harm.
If you believe your gym injury was a direct result of the facility’s negligence, we can help. Don’t assume you don’t have any legal options just because you signed a waiver. Waivers don’t always cover everything and may not be enforceable in some situations. With years of experience, we understand the nuances of personal injury law. Our seasoned Miami premises liability attorneys are dedicated to helping South Florida clients seek the compensation they deserve in their case. To learn more about your legal rights and options, feel free to call us at 1-877-499-HURT (4878) or reach out to us online today.
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