All pool owners can face liability lawsuits. Should a paying customer or visitor to a private club, home or public pool be injured or drowned, the owner can be held liable.
This often happens if a pool is not properly maintained, not staffed properly, or has safety issues and more.
It is important to realize the pool owner is not automatically responsible for every accident involving their swimming pool.
A pool is considered part of the property where it is located. This means pool injury lawsuits are based on premise liability law. These are a set of laws designed to determine the responsible party associated with the condition or use of land, building or other types of premise conditions that could cause an individual to experience an injury or death.
Premises liability laws apply to three different type of entrants onto a person’s property. They are trespassers, licensees, as well as invitees. Individuals who use a swimming pool made available to the public are identified as invitees.
Guests of a pool owner on private property are considered invitees. A pool owner owes a duty of care to warn invitees of any dangers considered not to be obvious to the average person.
Trespassers are individuals who use a pool without the knowledge or permission of the pool’s owner. A pool owner has no duty of care to a trespasser. The major exception to this is when it involves the trespasser being a child.
Pool owners in Milwaukee are held responsible for child trespassers by the doctrine of attractive nuisance. This means pool owners have a legal obligation to make their pool unable to be accessed by children who may trespass on their property.
It is common for people to be injured in swimming pools whether the pool is privately owned or publicly owned. There are certain causes of pool accidents that are common. Accidents can result from inadequate warning of dangers to those who use the pool.
Injuries can also occur as a result of broken or missing pool covers, ladders, insufficient safety equipment as well as a pool not being designed correctly or poorly constructed. Overcrowding in the pool area, alcohol use in the pool area, and more are often causes of accidents.
A defendant will not have the protection of premises liability if their lawsuit also involves their negligent or intentional bad behavior.
In Milwaukee, serious accidents involving a swimming pools number in the hundreds each year. Many of them result in an accident victim requiring significant medical care. They can also result in death. When a person or their loved one have experienced a swimming pool accident, it may be time to discuss it with the legal professionals at Cannon & Dunphy.
Our Milwaukee swimming pool accident attorneys know how to handle these types of cases and what people can expect. The personal injury lawyers at Cannon & Dunphy have the legal knowledge and experience necessary to obtain fair compensation for victims of pool accidents.
Call us today to determine your legal rights and options.
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