Can I Recover Compensation for my Injuries even though I Signed a Liability Waiver?
Any time you are injured due to the reckless or negligent actions of another party in incidents like a car accident, truck accident, motorcycle accident, a slip and fall, a ladder or scaffolding accident, or any other kind of accident, you may be able to recover financial compensation for your medical expenses, lost income, and pain and suffering through a personal injury lawsuit.
However, more and more, many businesses are requiring members and customers to sign what is known as a “liability waiver.” Liability waivers protect these businesses from many different incidents of negligence and injury, and are especially common in places like gyms, fitness centers, extreme sporting events, and adventure tours.
Legally, businesses can deny their services to customers who refuse to sign their liability waiver, so if you want to work-out, you probably have to sign a liability waiver, or put a gym in your basement.
However, many of our Passaic County injury clients ask us “can I still recover compensation for my injuries even though I signed a liability waiver?”, and while the answer is “probably not”, there are two scenarios where it is still possible to pursue a personal injury lawsuit even though a signed liability waiver exists.
Ambiguous Liability Waivers and Passaic County Injury Claims
The first scenario in which it may still be possible to recover compensation for your injuries even though you have signed a liability waiver is if and when that liability waiver is considered by a judge to be “unreasonable” or “ambiguous”. This means that any person reading this liability waiver would probably not reasonably be able understand exactly what it was saying.
However, as more and more case law develops regarding liability waivers, businesses are becoming smarter in how exactly they write their liability waivers. Many liability waivers will borrow legal language from other liability waivers which have already stood up to legal scrutiny, and have proven to be reasonable and understandable.
For a better understanding of whether or not your liability waiver will be considered “reasonable”, contact our Passaic County injury firm today.
Gross Negligence in Passaic County Injury Cases
The other scenario in which you may still be able to recover compensation for your injuries even though you have signed a liability waiver is if your injuries are the result of “gross negligence”.
In legal terms, there are two types of negligence which can occur, “ordinary negligence” and “gross negligence”. Ordinary negligence refers to incidents where parties “forgot”, “overlooked”, or “failed to notice”, and most liability waivers will protect the business from all incidents of ordinary negligence.
On the other hand, gross negligence refers to when companies or their employees made conscious decisions to ignore their legal responsibilities while knowing almost certainly that these decisions can lead to injury. For example, if a gym or its employees are repeatedly notified about a safety hazard, but make no effort to address this hazard or restrict access around the area of the hazard, this could be considered gross negligence.
By law, liability waivers cannot protect companies from incidents of gross negligence, so if you believe that your injuries are the result of gross negligence rather than ordinary negligence, speak with your Passaic County injury attorney regarding your options for seeking compensation in your case.
Contact Our Passaic County Injury and Liability Waiver Attorneys Today
At The Law Office of Fredson and Statmore, our attorneys have extensive experience recovering compensation for injured clients across Wayne, Clifton, Paterson, West Milford, and the greater Passaic County area in personal injury cases of all kinds.
With millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts already recovered for our clients, and a track record of tenacious and effective litigation, the quality of legal service we provide for you speaks for itself.
To speak with our firm today in a free and confidential consultation regarding your accident and injury, and your options for recovering compensation, please contact us online.
