Los Angeles Wrongful Death Lawyers / Elements Leading to Wrongful Death Drowning: What You Must Know / Wrongful Death Blog
By Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorney, Michael P. Ehline Esq. Find answers to all your questions.
Victims or their families sue the parties responsible for drowning lawsuits. Inattentive supervisors and property owners may be among them. Wrongful death and negligence are two typical examples of a common legal claim.
Plaintiffs regarded in drowning accidents may get compensated for medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost wages based on the circumstances. If the victim dies, the deceased’s family may be able to collect funeral costs and lost financial support.
The property owner or landlord may get held accountable for drowning accidents in private pools (for example backyard pools).
This is particularly true if the homeowner disobeyed the state’s safety regulations. Pool owners in Los Angeles, for example, must keep protective containers, safety latches, and alarm monitors in place.
Operators or owners of public pools could get held liable for a drowning accident. Employers may get held “vicariously liable” for the workers’ negligence under California’s “Respondeat Superior” statutes, for example. The employees, including lifeguards, might also face legal action. However, most employees do not have the financial resources that property owners do.
If a person goes overboard from a boat, the operator or owner of the boat may get held liable. Possibly they didn’t give people life jackets or were driving the boat while inebriated.
When children drown, the adults responsible for his or her care may get held liable. It doesn’t matter if the drowning accident happened on a beach, in a bathtub, in a pool, or in a lake.
Numerous people die as a result of drowning incidents. Victims’ families can then file a wrongful death lawsuit against the individuals or group who caused their deaths.
A wrongful death lawsuit may get filed by any of the following family members:
Most drowning victims survive but go into a vegetative state. People holding the victim’s power of attorney can then sue on their behalf. This could be the deceased’s spouse, a close relative, or another legal representative named by the victim.
Following a drowning death, the victim’s family members may file a wrongful death lawsuit.
The family would have to demonstrate:
A “survival” cause of action may get added to a wrongful death claim in Los Angeles, California. On behalf of the victim’s property, this lawsuit gets filed. Its purpose is to reimburse the family of the deceased for his or her losses.
In order to win a negligence case, the plaintiff must show that:
In a drowning accident lawsuit, examples of negligence include:
Negligence is a sort of premises liability. It occurs when property owners or managers get held accountable for incidents that happen on their properties. It doesn’t matter if they were not there at the time of the accident.
In order to establish premises liability, the plaintiff needs to usually show:
If a property owner possessed an uncovered swimming pool, he or she could get held accountable in drowning accidents.
Victims of drowning lawsuits who sue for carelessness may be able to receive compensatory damages.
This includes the following:
Damages in wrongful death claims may include:
The court can also award punitive damages in severe instances. However, the plaintiff must generally establish that the offender engaged in severe or outrageous behavior.
A liability waiver signed by a minor (under the age of 18) may not become enforceable. Signing is normally required by one of their parents or a legal guardian.
Even if the waiver was lawful, there is still a potential that the accident isn’t covered. It all relies on the waiver’s language and the circumstances surrounding the drowning.
Additionally, drowning accident attorneys can assist the victim in determining whether or not the waiver is valid and how to challenge it.
It is contingent on the policy’s conditions and limitations. An insurance company is often notorious for refusing to honor policies. Victims’ friendly and charismatic accident lawyers, on the other hand, can always take them to court or implement legal claims against them.
Many drownings accidents usually result in unintentional death and there is no one to blame.
Among the possible defenses are:
Assumption of risk shifts culpability for injuries to the deceased person. Defendants in a drowning personal injury case may argue that the deceased “assumed the risk” of drowning.
This is due to the fact that entering or going near water or a swimming pool carries the risk of drowning.
Individuals who enter into an owner’s property owe them a duty of care. The person’s duty of care, on the other hand, is contingent on who they are.
This includes the following:
When it comes to intruders, a property owner’s only responsibility is to avoid creating a harmful situation. Trespassers may not recover damages if they get wounded on someone else’s land.
Trespassing-related injuries, on the other hand, may still get recovered. This usually occurs when the property has a harmful nuisance. An ungated swimming pool is usually a typical case.
It’s possible that more than one party is to blame for the drowning. Quite often the sufferer bears some of the blame. However, property owners can still get held legally liable.
Juries may allocate damages and blame to multiple at-fault parties under LA’s “comparative fault” legislation.
Waivers of liability may also get required to:
These waivers are normally contracts someone can enforce. However, many of these disclaimers only shield the operator or owner from lawsuits based on “ordinary negligence.”
They might not be able to protect you from litigation based on gross negligence, unlawful activity, recklessness, or intentional harm.
Each day, over 10 individuals drown in the United States. Children under the age of 14 account for one out of every five drowning deaths in swimming pools. Males, minorities, and children under the age of four accounts for the highest number of drowning victims.
Any amount of water may cause drowning. It may happen in lakes, reservoirs, ponds, or hot tubs, among other places. Only two inches of water is enough to suffocate young children.
Not everyone who drowns dies. Many people get left with lasting infirmities as a result of their survival. The following symptoms can result from a lack of oxygen in one’s brain:
Ehline Law Firm can help you! Many drowning accidents occur in Los Angeles, California each year whether they happen in a swimming pool or beach.
Our swimming pool personal injury lawyers in Los Angeles, California provide free consultations. Please contact us at (213) 596-9642 or use the online contact form on our website if you know a family member or loved one who was recently a drowning victim.
Ehline Law Firm’s lawyers value the attorney-client relationship provided; therefore, our legal team acts in your best interests when fighting for justice for your loved one’s death. We fight for your legal rights whether it involves drowning cases, car accidents, or other personal injury cases.
Michael is a managing partner at the nationwide Ehline Law Firm, Personal Injury Attorneys, APLC. He’s an inactive Marine and became a lawyer on the California State Bar Law Office Study Program, later receiving his JD from UWLA School of Law. Michael has won some of the world’s largest motorcycle accident settlements. He compassionately helps clients recover after serious injuries.
Downtown Los Angeles Office
633 West 5th Street #2890
Los Angeles, CA 90071
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Downtown Los Angeles Office
633 West 5th Street #2890
Los Angeles, CA 90071
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