Water Park Lawyers in Virginia

Water parks are supposed to be venues that help visitors escape the summer heat. However, they also present several ways to sustain an injury or develop an illness. Knowing the type of water park accident that caused you harm represents the first step for your personal injury attorney to prove the four elements of negligence.

Drowning

Despite the implementation of many preventive measures, drowning remains the most common threat to public health at water parks. From falling off a ride to losing traction at a pool, drowning is a serious threat that might produce enough physical evidence to file a wrongful death lawsuit. The key to proving negligence is to present overwhelming physical evidence that a water park did not do enough to prevent a visitor from drowning.

Slip and Fall

With water everywhere, water parks experience a considerable amount of slip and fall incidents. Unlike a grocery or convenience store where slick spots stand out in a venue where the floor is mostly safe to walk on, water parks have to deal with slick spots throughout the venues. Placing a wet floor sign over a slick spot is not feasible at a water park, but educating visitors about how to remain safe is a responsibility water parks must fulfill to prevent slip and fall incidents.

Contaminated Water

Warm water is the perfect home for the development of unhealthy pathogens, such as the potentially deadly pathogen E. coli. Bacteria breed in pools of warm water and it is the responsibility of a water park to prevent the growth of bacteria that can trigger the symptoms of a serious illness. Frequent daily tests at different water park attractions are the most effective way to detect and then remove the threat posed by contaminated water.

Defective Equipment

Another potential danger at a water park is rust and corrosion to the equipment used to operate rides and slides. Prolonged exposure to water can cause considerable damage that results in a ride or slide malfunction. Park maintenance personnel are responsible for preventing the development of rust and corrosion that diminishes the safety of water park attractions. Defective equipment can cause injuries such as fractures, head trauma, and spinal cord damage.

Water park lawyers in Virginia provide legal support for clients in several ways. One of the most important types of legal support involves ensuring clients file civil lawsuits before the expiration of the statute of limitations. Every state has established a deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit, with the most common deadlines falling between two and four years. A few states give plaintiffs as long as six years and as short as one year to take legal action. Virginia grants plaintiffs two years to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages. The clock starts ticking for filing a water park lawsuit on the day when the plaintiff sustained injuries or developed the symptoms of an illness caused by the negligence of water park personnel.

Two years is plenty of time to take legal action, but you have two compelling reasons to file a civil lawsuit that seeks monetary damages as quickly as possible after a personal injury incident at a waterpark. First, you should act with a sense of urgency to recover financial losses. Rapidly mounting medical bills can put you in a deep financial hole. Second, water park lawyers in Virginia want to interview witnesses as close to the date of an accident as possible. Witness accounts tend to be much more reliable the closer they are given to the date of a personal injury incident. If you fail to meet the deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit in Virginia, you can expect the court clerk processing your case to remove it from the judicial docket.

Another important role for water park lawyers in Virginia is to help their clients receive compensation, without having to go through a costly and time-consuming trial. During a free case evaluation, the Morgan and Morgan attorney assigned to your case discusses in detail the steps required to negotiate a favorable settlement.

Negotiations typically take place during the discovery phase of the litigation process when both parties exchange physical evidence and statements made by witnesses. 

Calculate a Reasonable Value

The most common reason why negotiations break down during a civil lawsuit is that attorneys offer unfair values for compensation. Your attorney calculates a fair settlement value by referring to tangible expenses such as medical bills and the receipts generated for repairing property damage. If a water park accident forced you to miss work, your lawyer also includes the value of lost wages when calculating a fair settlement value.

The reasonable value calculated for monetary damages also includes non-economic damages such as pain and suffering. After a water park accident, you might develop emotional distress issues such as acute fear and anxiety. Your personal injury attorney from Morgan and Morgan calculates a fair value for noneconomic damages by using a formula that factors in the value of economic damages.

Send a Demand Letter

How do water park lawyers in Virginia inform another party about a request to negotiate a settlement? The answer is by sending a demand letter that contains information that is important for litigating a civil lawsuit. Your attorney includes the date and time of the incident, as well as where in the water park the incident occurred. A demand letter presents the value requested for compensation, as well as how your attorney calculated a fair value for monetary damages. The main section of a demand letter describes what happened before, during, and after the water park accident that caused your injuries.

The other party has a limited amount of time to respond to a demand letter, which your lawyer should send via certified mail to ensure it is received by the defendant’s legal counsel.

Negotiations

The defendant either accepts, rejects, or sends back a counteroffer after receiving the demand letter that includes a reasonable value for compensation. A rejection of the demand letter puts the case back on track to reach the trial phase of the litigation process. Sending back a counteroffer might start a series of counteroffers that lasts until both parties agree to a settlement or decide to take the case to trial. If your lawyer negotiates an insurance claim settlement, the process of negotiations usually starts after the insurance company sends you an offer for your claim.

Sustaining one or more injuries or coming down with a serious illness caused by the negligence of a water park requires the legal support of one of the best water park lawyers in Virginia. What criteria should you consider before deciding on the best candidate to represent you?

Proven Record of Success

Although years of experience typically represent the measuring stick to gauge experience, it is more important for the attorney that you hire to have amassed a proven record of getting clients the compensation that they deserve. Morgan and Morgan presents its unrivaled record of success to educate potential clients about our experience winning favorable legal judgments.

Specializes in Handling Water Park Cases

A personal injury lawsuit that involves water park negligence is a highly specialized type of case. You should work with an attorney who specializes in litigating water park accident cases. A car accident or a premises liability lawyer might not have the expertise to address the unique legal issues that surround water park accident lawsuits. At Morgan and Morgan, we offer the legal services of personal injury attorneys who specialize in litigating water park accident cases.

Provides Legal Support From Start to Finish

The lawyer you hire must represent you throughout the legal process. Some attorneys meet with clients for a free case evaluation, only to disappear throughout the remaining portion of a case. The water park lawyers in Virginia from Morgan and Morgan represent clients from the day of a free case evaluation to the day when your case gets resolved.

Get the legal support you deserve by scheduling a free case evaluation today with one of the water park lawyers in Virginia from Morgan and Morgan.