Plenty of people hit the gyms, yoga centers, or Pilates studios to get in shape or simply to pursue a healthy lifestyle. However, it comes with a risk of injury as well. Before joining a gym, you are handed over a membership form which also includes a contract of “waiver of liability” and you need to sign it in order to join the gym. You may either skim it or not notice it until you get badly injured in the gym. The real problem now is that you waived off your rights to hold the gym liable for the injury that you sustained. For instance, if you’re a resident of Fort Lee, your best bet would be to hire an expert personal injury lawyer in Fort Lee to assess whether your claim will be eligible in the court to sue the gym.
Most of the gym accidents happen due to negligent management and poorly maintained equipment. If you think you, as a gym member, can ask for an insurance claim for your injuries, it’s not that easy. However, consulting an attorney can help you save your money and effort and you should be aware of the following assumption of risks as well to get a better understanding of the scenario.
Assumption of Risk
In simple terms, assumption of risk means you were aware of the risk already but you decided to engage with it anyway.
For example, it’s obvious when you go for heavy weight lifting, you will strain your shoulder and arm muscles. This is not the gym’s fault, therefore, you can’t hold them liable for this.
However, if you weren’t aware of the faulty gym equipment, slippery floor, broken glass, or other hazards, then you have the right to claim for your personal injury from the gym’s insurance company. It’s important to consider as well that you had signed a “waiver of liability” in your membership contract which means your gym or their insurance company will simply deny the claim as you read the agreement and signed it knowingly.
What to do now? Let’s see.
Dealing with the Insurance Company
As you just read, the insurance company won’t be willing to pay for your personal injury claims. You can try to recover the actual costs of medical bills through small claims court. Yet again, the chances are your case will be dismissed in court due to the liability waiver you signed.
Or, the insurance company may try to settle the claim with you for a lower amount than you are actually entitled to. If you had a small injury, it may recover your costs. What happens if you don’t get compensated for hefty medical bills? You definitely shouldn’t settle for less and your best bet would be to get in contact with an expert attorney.
Overcoming a Waiver of Liability
An attorney will thoroughly go through your case and with reasonable pieces of evidence, they may try to overcome the waiver of liability with these two arguments:
1. Vague Language
They can claim in the court that the waiver of liability was written using such confusing words and language that was difficult to interpret by the individual.
If the court agrees, the waiver of liability will no longer be valid and you can proceed with the case in court.
2. Gross Negligence
Your personal injury lawyer can prove in the court with the help of evidence that the gym showed a careless attitude towards its members by not taking reasonable care of the underlying matter.
Gross negligence means that the gym was negligent for its members’ safety and you, as a gym member, didn’t foresee the situation that put you in danger. It can help you win the case.
Let’s take an example of a negligence case. For instance, you walked into the locker room and injured your feet with pieces of a broken glass bottle as the gym didn’t take any measures to keep the space hazard-free i.e, it didn’t hire any janitor to clean the floors on a daily basis. This is negligence on behalf of the gym and you have a winning case now. You can even recover all the medical expenses that you had to pay for this injury.
It’s also ideal to collect evidence of the scene like pictures or videos to make your case even stronger.