Personal Injury Blog

When we leave our 9-to-5 world to relax, refresh our spirits, stretch our wings, and have some fun; our last expectation is that our recreation will end in an accident. Each of us reading the word 'recreation' may visualize a very different activity. Some of us crave a peaceful and relaxing time. Others want adrenaline-spiking, action-filled activities. Recreational activities include bicycling, team sports, water activities, snow activities, amusements parks, hiking, climbing, and others. All these activities contain a risk of injury. The accidents associated with these activities are sometimes caused by the actions or the inaction of others.

Some Activities and Instances of Accidental Injury

Amusement parks: In the case of injuries at an amusement park, the cause may have been equipment improperly maintained, causing an accident. Badly designed equipment, also, creates a dangerous condition. Concession stand food has even been at fault for illness. Ramps, stairways, and walkways not well-built or maintained, can cause slips and falls. Additionally, improperly trained or supervised personnel create dangers. In these cases, while you or your loved-one were injured, the amusement park may be responsible.

Skiing and other snow activities: Ski resorts and winter sports parks are full of active winter fun, but are responsible for providing an environment with as little danger as possible. The resort or park personnel are responsible for upkeep of trails and signage. Ski lifts and other equipment, like rental skis and snowboards, must be maintained. The resort is at fault, if these expectations are not met and accidents occur.

Water sports: As in other recreation areas, those focused on water activities must post signs and have alert, trained personnel. There is a responsibility to ensure that recreational equipment is maintained. Educating and properly training guests in equipment's use is an important role of the resort or park personnel. Unsafe design or lack of training contributes to accidents, injuries, or even death.

Bicycle riding: Many people are choosing healthy life-styles, including recreational activities. For many, those choices include bicycling. Trail-riding and riding on the road with automobiles each have their own dangers. Since 2003, bicycle fatalities have risen every year in the United States. Bicyclists are very vulnerable in motor vehicle accidents. Drivers, who are not distracted enough to miss seeing another car, may miss seeing a bicycle. That driver may be liable for the bicyclist's injuries.

We are living in a time when new equipment and new opportunities for recreation seem to appear every week. Bungie-jumping, ziplines, feeding sharks, base-jumping, indoor parachuting, and even human hamster balls are possibilities for unique fun-filled adventures. New opportunities for fun are, also, new possibilities for injury.

The often-changing laws about recreational accidents are complicated. If you or a loved one have been injured, you need an experienced and knowledgeable team to review your case. It is important to us that you are informed and confident. Together we will discover the liability of others for your injuries. We will investigate whether there was negligence, whether there was liability. We will work to see that you receive the compensation you deserve for your loss of income, for your pain, and for your medical expenses.

Millions of Americans enjoy living a healthy lifestyle. Oftentimes, their quest for healthy living prompts them to take up weight lifting, weight training, bodybuilding, power lifting and CrossFit. Unfortunately, even if they use the utmost of caution during their fitness routines, personal injury may result. Why? Weightlifting equipment isn’t always what it seems. Let’s take the Olympic weight bench recall from May 2015 for instance:

Collapsing Weight Benches and Personal Injuries

The weight bench in question was manufactured in China and sold under the Valor Athletics brand name for nine months in 2014. As it turns out, the bench’s steel frame was not welded together properly. Consequently, the legs could potentially break while the weight lifting bench is being used by unsuspecting individuals.

If the bench’s legs were to break while someone was lifting weights, users could end up with hundreds of pounds worth of metal on top of their chest and spinal column. History has shown us that such personal injuries could leave weight lifters paralyzed, dead or permanently disabled in other ways.
Is There a Body of Evidence Documenting Personal Injury?

Evidence indirectly backing up our assertion about faulty weight lifting equipment may be found in old issues of the Journal of Athletic Training and the American Journal of Sports Medicine. The contain studies which took a look at incidents of personal injury among professional weight lifters, not amateurs. The study included more than five years’ worth of scientific data.

The researchers found that when safe equipment and the right weight lifting techniques are used, several personal injuries were likely to occur. The list of injuries included, but was not confined to areas like the knee joints, spine, shoulder joints and the weight lifters’ soft tissues. Subsequent studies showed potential injuries to weight lifters’ nerves, elbow joints, wrists, organs and bones.

Perhaps some of the scariest personal injuries that occur in weight lifting are those involving the human heart and nervous system. Both the Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions and Texas Heart Institute Journal published proof that weight lifting has the potential to severely damage the heart muscles. By damage, we are referring to conditions like coronary artery dissection and aortic occlusion.

Articles in the periodicals, Neurosurgical Focus and the Clinical Neurology Neurosurgery highlighted potential injuries like neuropathy and paralysis instead. Although not life threatening, they have the ability to destroy a person’s quality of life and render them helpless. Keeping all of that in mind, just think about the types of personal injuries that could result if the weight benches and other equipment were faulty!
Weight Lifting Accidents and Personal Injury Lawyers

Anyone hurt in weight lifting accidents involving faulty equipment should therefore reach out to personal injury lawyers. Personal injury lawyers can help seek justice for disabled or deceased weightlifters and their families. Depending on the weight lifting equipment involved and other fact facts of the case, manufacturers may be held responsible for damages. For example, they may have to pay for the weightlifters’ medical bills, lost wages, durable medical equipment, pain and suffering. To learn more, please contact us.

When you are in an accident, one of the most common and sometimes the most devastating injuries that you can sustain is an arm injury. Having your arm injured can seriously impact your life – just ask anyone who has broken their arm. So having an injured arm really makes you do things differently and disrupts your life. Here are the five different degrees of arm injuries that people sustain and what is involved with them to give you an idea of what may be expected.

Minor Injuries

This is a really common type of claim. This includes things like damages to muscles or a broken bone in your upper arm or forearm. This kind of fracture heals fast with no kind of ongoing problems. This is the kind of injury which after it heals you forget that you had the problem and you don’t have any more pain after the injury has healed

Fractured bone with continuing symptoms

If you have suffered a broken arm in the accident and you have ongoing pain, but this pain is ongoing, this is the next degree of this kind of claim. The amount that you will possibly receive for this problem will likely be a bit more than what you will get from a minor claim.

Ongoing disability

If the injury to your arm has healed but you still have significant symptoms and you are able to use your arm, this is the next degree of an arm injury and it’s going to have a higher payout in general than the other two.

Serious injury

This is the claim that is right before the need for an amputation. This often will include more than one broken bone and will leave the person significantly disabled with ongoing pain. There’s a wide scope of the compensation for this kind of injury since the injuries are so diverse.

Amputation

This is the most extreme case of a claim, when the arm has to be amputated. It can have a few different forms, below the elbow, above the elbow, or at your shoulder amputation. When you lose more of your arm, you are going to receive more compensation. If both arms have to be amputated, that is going to equal a great amount of compensation. When you have had an arm injured due to an accident you are entitled to compensation. As you can see from the examples above, the amount of compensation that you will receive is going to depend on how badly you were injured.