Swimming Pool Accident Attorney in Shreveport / Bossier City – Louisiana

Shreveport Swimming Pool Accident Lawyer

With the extreme heat that regularly afflicts Louisiana, many residents seek reprieve in the water. Most people choose to cool off in a recreational pool, residential pool, or waterpark. While swimming can be an enjoyable activity, accidents can happen without proper safety.

Swimming pool accidents such as drownings can occur in a variety of settings, including private pools, public pools, hotel pools, water theme parks, and more. A drowning accident typically occurs when supervisors fail to do their duties in being vigilant for when a distressed swimmer shows signs of needing help. They are also common when swimmers or children enter areas that should have been prohibited.

Swimming accidents are tragic and in far too many cases, they result in brain injuries, paralysis, or death. The CDC reports that drowning is the fifth leading cause of unintentional injury/death in the United States. If you or a loved one has been injured or lost their lives in a swimming pool accident, you need the assistance of an experienced swimming pool accident lawyer. At Greenwald Law Firm LLC, we represent victims and their families affected by swimming pool accidents in Shreveport, Bossier City, and the surrounding areas. Call (318) 219-7867 today for a free consultation.

Swimming Pool Accidents and Injuries

Pool accidents, diving accidents, and other swimming-related accidents can result in serious injury. Diving into shallow water or slipping on diving boards can cause traumatic brain injuries, which affect cognitive, motor, and language skills. Children can also become caught in faulty drains and sustain intestinal damage. Yearly, roughly 500 children five or younger fall victim to drowning accidents, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). An additional 3,000 kids are typically seen in hospital ERs for complications related to near-drownings each year. These drowning incidents are the second leading reason for mortality among young children in the U.S. (the first being transportation accidents such as car wrecks).

At Greenwald Law Firm, we assist those hurt in pool injury or drowning incidents on all different kinds of property, including resorts and hotels, water parks, clubs for health or fitness, parks open to the public, private residences, and more.

What Causes a Swimming Pool Accident?

 Even though many accredit poor swimming abilities or lack of swimming lessons to when small children drown, these pool-related, tragic accidents are frequently caused by design defects, low-quality equipment for pools or hot tubs, lifeguard negligence, or a lack of proper rescue equipment and life jackets. These are just a handful of the most common pool-related personal injury claims caused by negligence:

  • Wounds from slipping and falling, including sprains, head trauma, or fractured bones
  • Diving into shallow water with poorly marked or inadequate warning signs, which can cause concussions, TBI, or spinal cord injuries
  • Sharp corners or abrasive surfaces can cause lacerations
  • Chemicals in the pool or hot tub can cause skin inflammation
  • Drain suction entrapment or defective drains
  • Distracted or absent lifeguard
  • Inadequate gate or fence

What Happens When Someone Drowns?

Boating accidents, swimming pool accidents, and even bathtub accidents can all lead to the devastating death of a loved one due to drowning. Drowning accidents deny the host of oxygen for a length of time. The system will try to shut down when the person begins drowning and loses consciousness, and water will begin to fill their lungs. As water fills the lungs, oxygen stops being delivered to the heart, and the victim is often killed by suffocation or cardiac arrest.

Permanent and irreversible brain trauma generally takes place following 4-6 minutes of submersion in nonfatal drowning survivors and situations. Around 20% of drowning victims suffer from serious, long-term neurological impairment. Memory loss, learning problems, lung injury, nerve damage, pneumonia, and loss of fundamental motor function are all possible issues for nonfatal drowning accidents (this could lead to a permanent vegetative state).

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What Should You Do After a Drowning Accident?

  • Preserve evidence. Make a list of all prospective witnesses’ names, addresses, and contact information if feasible. Snap pictures from several perspectives of the accident site, including the interior and exterior of the swimming area, the area’s surroundings, signs, fences and gates, and the particular place where the accident took place. You should also capture images of any aquatic equipment that played a role (for example, an unreliable diving board, a flawed drain grate, a dilapidated ladder, etc.). Ensure that no damaged items are thrown away and are stored safely. If it is in someone else’s custody or care, you should seek legal advice.
  • Keep a record of the occurrences as well as you or your loved one’s injuries. Following swimming pool drowning accidents, as soon as it is safe to do so, you should:
    • Keep a record of everything that happened in the aftermath of the disaster.
    • Collect police reports and hospital/emergency room records related to the event.
    • Stay on top of any discussions with cops, witnesses, paramedics, and hospital physicians.
    • Make note of all doctor’s visits, medical treatment, prescriptions, missed work time, pain and suffering, activity restrictions, and costs incurred as a result of this incident.
    • Stay on top of your medical records and take notes on interactions you’ve had with your physicians and medical personnel.
    • Snap photographs of any visible injuries, if possible.

Who is Liable For Swimming Pool Accidents?

The parties that are legally culpable for a drowning accident are determined by the location of the drowning as well as where you live in the United States. Certain rules may exist in some jurisdictions that control culpability for fatalities that occur on residential, commercial, or government property. We strongly advise you to seek an experienced drowning accident lawyer and legal team due to the intricacies of liability and state guidelines for legal recourse in any water-related accident or drowning tragedy.

The nature of the event determines the amount of liability that may be applied for both a nonfatal near-drowning accident or a drowning wrongful death. There are three different legal concepts that might be at play here: 1) premises liability, 2) negligence, and 3) product liability.
Although there are times when mishaps happen for no apparent reason or when the swimmer’s personal actions caused the harm, unintentional drowning is frequently caused by negligence.

Adults are undoubtedly in danger of injury when a property owner fails to prioritize safety, but adolescents are particularly vulnerable whenever pool owners or lifeguards fail to act appropriately or take the necessary safety measures. These sorts of pool area injuries can be provoked by a variety of factors, including:

Attractive Nuisances:

Property, land, and business owners must provide effective and appropriate restrictions to physical elements that might be regarded as an enticing nuisance. As such, owners of pools, like other property owners, are liable for any incidents that occur on their land. When a hot tub or pool is left unattended in a home, a public pool, or a hotel, it poses a risk to children. Neglecting to build a fence, leave a gate closed, or utilize pool coverings might tempt children to explore and end in tragedy. Whether on private or public property, pools that aren’t adequately safeguarded may be considered an attractive nuisance.

Malfunctioning Pool Equipment:

Kids can be harmed by defective ladders or rough terrain surrounding the pool, and force from flawed pool filters can trap them while submerged beneath the water. Instead of the property owner, the negligent entity in such instances could be construction workers or the defective equipment manufacturer.

Negligent Lifeguard Conduct:

Serious injuries or perhaps even fatalities can rapidly ensue if lifeguards fail to pay proper attention to swimmers in public pools or water parks.

Parental Negligence at a Private Pool:

When guardians, babysitters, or parents act as lifeguards at a private property, they may be held accountable for accidents that occur while they were not there and left a child unsupervised, resulting in an accidental drowning.

Playing Rough:

Fellow swimmers usually assumed to be bystanders might sometimes be to blame for drowning injuries or wrongful death. For example, if they pushed someone close to the pool’s edge, off of a diving board, slide, or floaty, or even pulled a swimmer’s limbs or otherwise blocked their path to the surface for air, even if unintentional or temporary.

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How To Prove Liability in a Drowning Accident

It might be tricky to demonstrate a pool owner or other individual or entity was the responsible party for accidents, injuries, or deaths occurring in swimming pools, particularly when contending with the attractive nuisance theory. Whatever the origin of the harm, you’ll need a swimming pool accident attorney with extensive experience in Shreveport premises liability claims to thoroughly examine the occurrence and present strong proof that carelessness was the underlying cause.

It’s crucial to remember that getting the entire quantity you’re entitled to from any swimming pool or drowning accidents may necessitate filing a lawsuit and equipping yourself with experienced Shreveport personal injury lawyers, notably if the damages and compensation are originating from a homeowner’s insurance policy. Anytime insurance providers have to settle damages, they lose money. Therefore, they have a reason to give you as little as they can and probably not all what you deserve.

Louisiana Barrier Laws

Louisiana law states that recreational swimming pools require a protective barrier around the pool. Fences, walls, buildings, or natural or artificial enclosures are acceptable, as long as they are at least 4 feet tall, have no external hand and footholds for climbing, and have a self-closing and self-latching closure mechanism at least 45 inches above the ground with hardware for locking. If the premises doesn’t meet such standards, the victims of the injury or wrongful death that resulted from the swimming pool accident have a valid premises liability claim. To see if you can file a Louisiana injury claim, get in touch with an experienced Shreveport premises liability attorney at Greenwald Law Firm as soon as possible.

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What Kind of Compensation Can I Receive from a Swimming Pool Accident?

While pursuing damages is certainly not the initial priority for a household that has lost a loved one to a drowning death, the refining of losses may help your home with immediate expenses and also claim compensation for your loss. With the help of a personal injury lawyer from the Greenwald Law Firm, you may be able to establish that your kid was injured in a pool or on someone else’s property as a consequence of a breach of duty and recover damages appropriate to your losses. These damages include:

Economic Damages

Whenever you consult with a personal injury attorney for a drowning victim, the majority of your case will be centered on the claim’s economic loss. These are quantifiable financial consequences of the event. Medical expenses and other injury-related expenses are included in these economic damages, but it also demands reimbursement for lost wages or loss of earning capacity. There is a slew of additional economic damages that may be available to you, all of which focus on the quantifiable repercussions of this tragedy that has affected your life.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic losses constitute the remainder of your claim. They seek recompense for things that aren’t typically quantifiable in financial terms. Pain and suffering, loss of consortium, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life are just a few of the “intangible” consequences of such a horrific catastrophe. Assigning a genuine financial value to these losses is more difficult, as is obtaining a settlement agreement for such claims. That is why it is important that you concentrate on your own rehabilitation while a legal professional at Greenwald Law Firm handles the discussions for you.

Do You Need a Swimming Pool Accident Lawyer?

It might be tricky to pinpoint the specific cause of a swimming pool accident. A knowledgeable swimming pool or drowning accident lawyer can assist you in determining what caused the incident and who is legally responsible. Injury victims or family members seeking Shreveport wrongful death attorneys for drowning deaths would greatly benefit from skilled legal counsel that can help clarify your rights and work to prove fault.

With the assistance of an experienced attorney at the Greenwald Law Firm, you may be able to collect considerable damages in the following areas:

  • Medical bills and treatment, including hospitalization and long-term rehab.
  • Earnings lost owing to time away from work for rehabilitation.
  • Suffering and pain may have an immediate and long-term influence on the quality of your life.

Tips To Avoid Drowning Accidents And Swimming Pool Injuries

Even with safeguards in place, property owners must exercise reasonable precautions to prevent accidents from occurring in the pool or on the deck surrounding the pool. As a homeowner, follow these steps to reduce accidents leading to drowning victims, deaths, and injuries:

 

1. Never leave a child unattended around a swimming pool.
2. Swimming solo is not a good idea.
3. Kids should be taught to swim as soon as possible.
4. Restrict access to pools by erecting suitable barriers.
5. CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and other life-saving skills should be learned.
6. Search the pool first if a kid goes missing – seconds matter when it comes to averting death or injury.
7. Always have life-saving gear near the pool.
8. When the pool is not being used, withdraw any toys from the vicinity. Small kids may be drawn to the water by toys.
9. Remember to stay attentive for various instinctive drowning response signs, from active drowning to secondary drowning.

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Call the Swimming Pool Accident Lawyers at Greenwald Law Firm Today

Throughout the hot Louisiana summer months, it is not uncommon to find that public pools are crowded with kids and adults alike. Swimming risks, however, are not limited to public locations; your friend’s house or even your own backyard can lead to potential swimming accidents or drowning. Most individuals tend to concentrate on the delight of public and private swimming during the summertime, but often ignore the hazards that such a pool might provide.

At Greenwald Law Firm, our attorneys place emphasis on building a trusting attorney-client relationship with each client we take on. We are eager to aid you in recouping lost compensation following a pool injury or drowning death caused by another’s carelessness or breach of duty. To speak with Shreveport lawyer Joseph Greenwald, Jr. about your case today, call (318) 219-7867 or complete the online form to schedule your free case evaluation.

Greenwald Law Firm LLC has experience representing clients across Louisiana for almost 20 years. If you or a loved one has been involved in a swimming pool accident, know your legal rights. For more information or to schedule a consultation, please contact our office at 318-219- 7867.
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