Sports Injuries

If you are injured while participating in a sporting event, or some other leisure activity, and you can prove that the person or organization that caused the injury breached a duty of reasonable care, you can recover monetary damages. While you may assume some risks when you play a sport, you still may be able to recover damages if the cause of your injury is outside the normal risks inherent in the game. Even if you signed a waiver, you may still be entitled to make a claim.

Although you may not think of sports as a major injury risk for adults, more than 1.9 million individuals between ages 25-40 were seen in emergency care centers for a sport-related injury in 2012. Even small injuries from sports can prove to be costly without great insurance, and especially without any at all, as the average an adult is charged for a sprain or break ranges from $2,294 to $7,666.

Injuries to children and teens

Children and teens are affected the most, mainly because they have the greatest amount of participation within organized sports. Out of 30 million children and teens who play an organized sport, 3.5 million kids 14 and younger get hurt each year. Football causes the most serious, life-threatening injuries to children and teens, but it is actually basketball that yields the greatest number of injuries to kids. If your child is injured due to negligence or lack of supervision from the coaching staff, a winnable lawsuit could be present.

Cases

Blake Hunt, a high school football player in New York, sued the Department of Education, the Parks Department and the Public Schools Athletic League for compensation after he became paralyzed from the waist down, due to shattering his C5 vertebra during a football scrimmage. The lawsuit was settled for $8 million on the grounds that he had received improper training, had a lack of supervision from coaches, and was unprepared for the scrimmage where he suffered the catastrophic injury.

Let the law firm of Harding Mazzotti, LLP, The Heavy Hitters investigate whether you have a claim as the result of being injured while participating in a sporting event. Call us toll free at 1800LAW1010 (1-800-529-1010).

  • For more information regarding Vermont skiing and snowboarding laws, visit recreation-law.com.
  • Want to learn more about sports injury accidents and the assumption of risk? Check out this St. John’s law review study regarding NYS sports injury law.