CALL one of our Colorado Springs drowning accident lawyers at (800) 863-5312
People might think of Colorado Springs as a mountain city, but the temperatures fluctuate drastically in what is actually a high desert city. Residents enjoy warm summers that are perfect for pool days. Unfortunately, sometimes a carefree pool day or dip in a lake can turn into a disaster if your loved one drowns. Colorado Springs drowning accident lawyers can help investigate your case to see whether the pool owner took the appropriate level of care to prevent the drowning.
If you or a loved one experienced a non-fatal or fatal drowning in Colorado Springs, talk with a Zinda Law Group accident attorney. Our proficient lawyers can help you understand your case better through a free consultation. Call (800) 863-5312 to schedule a meeting with Zinda Law Group.
How can a personal injury attorney in Colorado Springs help with my case?
If you are reading this article, you have likely experienced a drowning in your family and are trying to determine how best to proceed. You probably know that the accident was not your fault, but you are not sure whether you should hire an attorney to handle your claim. Perhaps you have not even decided whether to file a claim against the person or company that caused the injury.
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First, an attorney can help you decide whether you want to take legal action against the person or company that caused your injuries. Tell the lawyer the basic facts of your case –who was involved, where the accident occurred, and what happened. The lawyer should be able to give you a rough idea of whether your case could be successful, or the lawyer might ask you for more information about your case.
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Available 24 / 7|Free ConsultationFiling a Claim
If you decide to file your lawsuit, you need to decide the correct legal theory under which to sue, and you must also fulfill the correct elements of the legal theory.. Additionally, you must file against the correct party. While a lifeguard may have directly caused your injury by poorly administering CPR, the employer is usually responsible for the lifeguard and is more likely than the lifeguard to be a better source of recovery.
Once you have all of those substantive matters figured out, you must also meet all of the necessary procedural requirements. You cannot miss the deadline to file your drowning accident claim, which is two years after the accident. Finally, you must file in the correct court. Missing any one of these elements could invalidate your claim, but an injury attorney can meticulously check all the boxes.
Jason Aldridge
Attorney
Standing by 24 hours a day, 7 days a week ready to answer in your time of need.
Available 24 / 7|Free ConsultationConducting Discovery
Discovery is a pre-trial process that usually takes longer than any other part of the legal process. During discovery, lawyers on either side learn as much as they can about the case via depositions, interrogatories, and requests for admission. Then the lawyers exchange all nonprivileged information with each other so that there are no surprises if the parties go to trial.
Your lawyer will ask you to name anyone you think is relevant to the case so that the person can be interviewed to see what he or she knows. Therefore, it is critical that you try to gather this information as soon as possible after the accident. When the attorneys on either side are satisfied with the amount of information they have, they can attempt to find a fair settlement amount.
Cole Gumm
Attorney
We are here to ensure you won’t have to face this difficult time alone.
Available 24 / 7|Free ConsultationSettling with the Defendant
Even once discovery is completed, you are not quite out of the woods. The defendants, attorneys, and insurance companies on the other side might be stubborn about offering an appropriate settlement amount. They could try to raise defenses saying that you assumed the risk of drowning by swimming without a lifeguard or that your negligence contributed to the drowning. Your lawyer is used to addressing such defenses and even anticipates that the defendant will raise those arguments. Usually, parties can agree on a settlement without going to trial. However, if you are not satisfied with how much the defendant is willing to pay, you should talk with your lawyer about trying your case in front of a jury.
Compensating You for Your Injuries
Finally, you can receive compensation for your injuries either through settlement or trial. The amount of compensation you may receive depends on the economic damages and non-economic damages you suffered. Economic damages refer to your medical bills, missed work, funeral costs, and other monetary expenses. Non-economic damages relate to the pain and suffering you went through watching your loved one drown and possibly even burying him or her.
Steps to take after a drowning in Colorado Springs
Now that you know how an attorney can help you after the accident, you might want to make sure you are ready to talk with a lawyer in the first place. What pieces of information do you need? How can you preserve the strength of your claim after the accident? We will answer these questions for you.
1. Resuscitate the Victim
As soon as the victim has been discovered drowning, someone should spring into action to help, whether that is a trained lifeguard or someone who can swim and carry the victim back to land. Someone should start rescue breathing and chest compressions to try to get the victim to start breathing again. If the victim has been rescued from a cold body of water, wrap the victim in warm towels to avoid hypothermia.
Someone should immediately call an ambulance to take the victim to the hospital. If a lifeguard or someone else can get the victim breathing again, the victim could still require professional care to recover.If the victim remains stable, have the victim visit a doctor so that there is evidence of the type and seriousness of the injury. Keep a record of the victim’s medical appointments, including the following:
- The name of the healthcare provider
- The date of the appointment
- Any diagnoses the victim receives
- Any treatment the victim receives
- The cost of all appointments and treatment.
2. Go Back to the Accident Scene
You might find it extremely uncomfortable to return to the place of the drowning, but there may be pieces of evidence there that could help your case. Of course, if returning to the accident scene is too traumatic for you to do personally, have a friend or family member go in your place to gather information. When you get there, take note of whether there are dangerous parts of the swimming facility that have not been clearly marked and whether there are signs indicating whether a lifeguard is on duty.
Take pictures of anything you think would be helpful, especially of any signs or lack of signs relating to swimmers’ safety. Try to find out who was there at the accident, including the lifeguard and any other people who saw the accident happen. Get the contact information of those people so that your lawyer can reach out to them and see what they know about the drowning.
3. Speak with a Drowning Accident Lawyer
Now that you have enough information about your case to give an account of the drowning, talk with a drowning accident lawyer. Let the attorney address your concerns about your case and suggest how you should proceed. A lawyer can help you investigate the accident and help you gather evidence as quickly as possible.
CASE RESULTS
Where do drownings in Colorado Springs happen?
Even shallow bodies of water, like buckets, fountains, and baby pools can hold enough water to drown small children. Here are a few places where drownings occur in Colorado Springs:
Swimming Pools
If the accident occurred at home, you may not be liable for the drowning. For example, your apartment or condominium complex might have a community pool where your child drowned. Even if your apartment encourages you to treat the pool as your own and leaves it largely unsupervised, the complex should still warn residents that there is no lifeguard on duty. As a bare minimum, the apartment should keep a locked fence or door as a barrier to the pool.
If your neighbor owns a pool and invites your child to play with the neighborhood children, the adult in charge must keep an eye on the children. Even if your child goes to your neighbor’s pool without an invitation, your neighbor could still be liable for the drowning if the pool is not fenced. Also, local commercial pool owners must meet industry standards to keep pools safe by providing clear signage and properly hiring and training lifeguards.
Water Parks
Colorado Springs has several water parks for its residents to enjoy, and those water parks provide families an opportunity to relax and enjoy the warm weather. Parents reasonably expect lifeguards hired by the park to watch out for children. Wave pools can be particularly dangerous for children who are not strong swimmers.
Public Bodies of Water
You may have been swimming in a public pool or lake when the accident occurred. The government of Colorado Springs operates beautiful lakes—Prospect Lake and Quail Lake—for the public to enjoy. But can you recover if you were injured at a state- or city-run facility?
Colorado, like many states, bars personal injury claims against governmental entities. However, Colorado has a discret list of claims for which it waives governmental immunity, and the operation and maintenance of a swimming facility falls under one of the waived categories. There are exceptions to the waived claims, though, so talk about your case with a lawyer before you decide to sue the city of Colorado Springs or the state of Colorado. For example, if there are fences and signs intended to keep you out of a municipally owned body of water, your claim might not be successful.
How to keep children safe around water
Not only can children drown in a very small amount of water, but it also takes very little time for children to drown. Even if you leave your child alone in the pool briefly while you go inside to use the bathroom or grab your phone, your child might wander into the deep end of the pool or fall into the pool while you are gone. Also, do not leave your child unattended in the bathtub, and install a toilet lid locking device so that there are no open containers of water in your home.
If you do need to leave, take your child with you if you are alone or have someone else watch your child while you are gone. Teach your child about water safety as soon as you can and tell him or her not to go into water without a responsible adult also present. Also, teach your child to swim or take your child to swimming lessons to learn how to swim. Finally, learn CPR and the Heimlich maneuver to be prepared.
Talk with one of our Colorado Springs drowning accident lawyers at Zinda Law Group
If you or a loved one drowned or nearly drowned while swimming in Colorado Springs, the accident may not be your fault. If someone else was supposed to be watching out for you but failed to intervene before it was too late, you could be compensated for your injuries. Our lawyers at Zinda Law Group want to help you recover for the pain and suffering you experienced from the drowning, and we are ready to hear from you.
If you or someone you love has drowned or almost drowned, resulting in injuries you will feel for the rest of your life, call Zinda Law Group at (800) 863-5312 to schedule a free consultation with a drowning accident lawyer in Colorado Springs.
Meetings with attorneys are available by appointment only.
Our Awards
AWARDED TO JOHN C. (JACK) ZINDA BY THE NATIONAL TRIAL LAWYERS ASSOCIATION (2016-2020)
AWARDED TO JOHN C. (JACK) ZINDA (2009, 2011-2012, 2014-2021), & NEIL SOLOMON (2020-2021)
AWARDED TO JACK ZINDA (2016-2020)
LIFETIME MEMBERS JOHN C. (JACK) ZINDA
Jason Aldridge
Attorney
We have successfully represented clients in a wide variety of cases across the country.
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