Injured at a Festival—fort Collins

CALL (800) 863-5312 to speak with fort collins personal injury attorneys

Fort Collins boasts lots of opportunities for recreation and countless parks and trails to enjoy. Another thing that makes Fort Collins attractive is the number of fairs and festivals they hold, whether it’s the Fringe Festival or the Fort Collins Wine Festival. However, if you were injured at a festival in Fort Collins, a great day outside can quickly turn sour.

Festival organizers owe a certain amount of responsibility to their guests to put on a safe festival, and if they failed to live up to this obligation, compensation may be available. If you or a loved one were injured at a festival in Fort Collins, call Zinda Law Group at (800) 863-5312 and ask for an appointment to receive a free case evaluation from one of our personal injury attorneys. They can help you follow the steps necessary for filing a successful claim for the compensation of your injuries.

what to do after being injured

Before you file a personal injury claim against the person or persons whose actions caused your injury, be sure to do these few things first.  

1. Seek Medical Attention

First and foremost, it is critical that you seek attention for your injuries as quickly as possible. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, certain injuries may get worse over time if left untreated. Some injuries also might not present any symptoms immediately; having an examination completed quickly will help to catch them. In addition to being important for your health, timely medical attention is helpful for your potential case. Getting compensation will require an ability to link your injuries to the accident that occurred, and this link becomes stronger the sooner you seek medical attention.

2. Gather Information

After your health is taken care of, start gathering as much information regarding the accident that caused your injury as possible. Think about all of the elements that led to your accident and gather the information that is relevant to these causes. For example, it may be helpful to look into who was organizing the festival and who owned the location where the festival occurred. Gather all of the medical records and police reports that are associated with your case. It is nearly impossible to determine exactly what might become important during the duration of your case, which makes being overprepared much preferable to being underprepared.

3. Contact a Fort Collins Injury Lawyer

After a festival injury, you may be feeling alone and confused. Talking with a personal injury lawyer near you in Fort Collins can provide clarity on your situation and help you determine whether you have a case that is likely to succeed. There are also many mistakes that victims might make after their accident; talking to an attorney as soon as possible will help to avoid these claim-damaging mistakes.

responsibility of festival organizers

In order to hold someone liable for your injuries, you must prove that they acted either negligently, recklessly, or intentionally. For the most part, when it comes to personal injury cases, the key term is negligence. Negligence involves four key components—duty, breach, causation, and damages. In short, in order to be able to recover damages, you must be able to show that the other party owed you a duty of care, that they breached this duty, that this breach was what actually caused your injuries, and that you sustained real damages.

Festival organizers have a general obligation to keep the people who attend their festival safe. A breach of this obligation can occur in any number of ways. For example, if a festival worker left a tool or a barricade someplace that it shouldn’t be and you trip on it, you may be able to argue that the festival’s negligence was what caused your injuries. A festival may also be liable even if they didn’t directly cause your injuries. For example, if you were assaulted by another festival goer, it might be the case that that person was overserved by a bartender or that there were not enough security personnel present to be able to keep everyone safe from foreseeable threats.

filing a claim for damages

After dealing with their pressing medical issues, victims of a festival injury may begin to wonder how to go about seeking compensation for their losses. The exact process that fits your needs will naturally depend on the unique circumstances surrounding your accident, but there is a general framework that will work for most cases.

1. Contact a Fort Collins Injury Lawyer

As mentioned above, contacting a lawyer as soon as possible should be any accident victim’s first step in seeking compensation. First, an experienced attorney will be able to give you an idea of what your case could potentially be worth and whether or not it is even worth pursuing. Once you have decided to hire an attorney and move forward, they will be able to handle important communications and implement a strategy for seeking maximum compensation.

2. Research and Investigation

Once you have hired an attorney, they can begin the process of doing the necessary research and investigation on your case. This can mean conducting interviews and getting depositions from witnesses and the other parties, looking at all of the photo and video evidence available, and determining who, exactly, might share in the liability for your injuries.

3. Negotiate a Settlement

Once they have completed the initial research that your case requires, your attorney can enter into negotiations with the other parties. Hiring an attorney who has experience with negotiating similar claims is crucial given that the vast majority of cases will end in a settlement before they get to trial. During negotiations, your attorney will fight for maximum compensation by implementing their knowledge of the law coupled with argumentation strategies tailored to fit your case.

4. Go to Trial

Though most cases end in the offer and acceptance of a settlement, some cases may require going to trial. This could be the case in very complicated cases or cases where the parties are very far apart on what they feel is a fair settlement amount. Make sure to get an idea of your potential lawyer’s experience with handling trials, as this can be a complicated endeavor.

what is my case worth?

It is certainly not unreasonable for injury victims to wonder what their case is worth given the expenses that can quickly pile up after a festival accident. Unfortunately, there is no way to give a simple estimate of how much a case could be worth without diving into the facts. Generally speaking, though, any money that you might receive will come from two sources—economic and non-economic damages.

Economic Damages

Economic damages are the tangible, objective losses that an accident victim incurs. They can include things like medical expenses, damage to your property, and lost wages from being unable to work. Economic damages can be proven with a relatively high degree of certainty and are usually backed up with things like medical records and receipts.

Non-economic Damages

Non-economic damages, on the other hand, do not have the same sort of objective verification. That does not mean that they can’t be compensated for, however. Non-economic damages refer to the pain and suffering experienced by a victim, and they will generally be higher the worse an injury is.

Punitive Damages

Victims may also be awarded punitive damages in certain cases. As opposed to the other sorts of damages, which are intended to compensate the victim and make them whole again after their accident, punitive damages are intended to punish the wrongdoer and serve as a warning to others who might act in a similar way. They are typically reserved for cases in which the wrongdoer acted intentionally or in a particularly reckless way.

legal time limits

An important consideration to keep in mind after your injury is that all personal injury claims are governed by a legal concept called the “statute of limitations.” The statute of limitations is the amount of time that a victim has after an accident to bring a claim for damages based on that accident. In Colorado, this statute of limitations is two years, which means that accident victims have two years from the date of the accident that caused their injuries within which to file a claim. If they miss the deadline, they risk having it dismissed for lack of timeliness.

Depending on the type of injury and accident involved, it is possible that a different statute of limitations could apply. It is also possible that an exception to the statute of limitations could apply, such as if the victim doesn’t discover their injuries until later on or the accident victim is a minor. However, it is best not to rely on these exceptions and contact a personal injury lawyer near Fort Collins right away.

Call zinda law group at (800) 863-5312 for a 100% free consultation

Accident victims have enough to worry about with their injuries. You shouldn’t need to worry about fighting for your legal rights against experienced claims adjusters and the defendant’s attorney by yourself. That’s where Zinda Law Group comes in.

Call and speak to one of our personal injury lawyers; ask them to schedule a personalized, confidential consultation with you; it’s free. In addition, we believe that no accident victim, injured while attending a festival in or near Fort Collins, should have to worry about their ability to afford legal representation, which is why you don’t pay us anything until we win your case for you. That’s our No Win, No Fee Guarantee.

Meetings with attorneys are available by appointment only.