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Choosing A Better Lawyer

When you are hurt in a car accident, there are a lot of things that run through your mind, but most people aren't focused on suing the other driver or their own insurance company. Unfortunately, because of the way the world works, most people find that they are given far less of a settlement than they deserve, especially if the accident wasn't their fault. I wanted to create a blog all about choosing a better accident and personal injury attorney, so that you can prevent longterm financial ramifications from your accident. I know that a lot of these tips helped me along my journey.

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Choosing A Better Lawyer

Reduce Your Liability: Steps Pool Owners Can Take To Avoid Lawsuits

by Willard Chambers

If you own a private pool, you probably enjoy spending summer evenings cooling off with a swim or entertaining friends and family with a poolside BBQ. However, with a private pool comes increased personal liability should an adult or a child become injured or drown in your pool. Here are some things you can do to help prevent injuries and reduce your overall liability in the event someone does become injured while using your private pool. 

1. Make sure you have enough insurance coverage.

Most home insurance policies have some liability coverage to protect against lawsuits from slips and falls or other common injuries. However, because the risk of injury is so much greater when you have a pool, and because the injuries can be very serious and expensive, it's best to make sure you have increased liability coverage in your policy. The more you have, the better off you will be, especially if a person dies while using your pool, as wrongful death suits can be costly; you don't want to lose your property or financial assets as a result. 

2. Build a fence.

Unfenced pools can sometimes look nicely integrated with your backyard landscape scheme, but a lack of fencing is often why young children fall into a pool when it is not being used. Fencing helps to keep children out of the pool and out of the yard. Pools fall under "attractive nuisance" doctrine in the law, meaning that young children do not have the same capacity as an adult to assess the risk and danger of pool, so they might be drawn to play in the pool. If a neighbor child wanders into a yard with a pool and suffers injury or dies as a result of a pool not being properly fenced, the cost of the damages will be on the pool owner.

3. Stay on top of maintenance.

If you invite people to use your pool, you assume some responsibility for their safety within the bounds of reason. For example, it's a reasonable expectation for a pool owner to keep the pool in good working condition. If a person, for example, suffers a chemical burn because of improperly balanced pool chemicals, this might point to negligence on the part of the owner. To reduce the risk of appearing negligent, be sure to perform the following tasks before inviting others over to enjoy your pool:

  • Check the chemical levels and add whatever is needed several hours before anyone will use the pool. This way, you can test the water again to be sure it is safe for swimming.
  • Fix safety features like handrails and ladder rungs that might be broken. One slip from the rail or a missed or rusty step can result in bigger injuries than you might expect.
  • Make sure your filter openings have covers and instruct visitors not to put their hands, feet, or hair near to intake. 

4. Post warnings and guidelines.

A posted sign might not save you from a lawsuit, but they can help show that you have a vested interest in the safety of people who visit your home and it can put more responsibility for injuries back onto the injured person. For example, if you clearly state that there will be no roughhousing but your instruction is ignored and someone is injured while playing too roughly in the pool, you may not be as liable for injury damages in the event of a lawsuit later. Other rules to post might be no swimming alone, supervising children, or no diving in shallow water.

For more information, contact a personal injury lawyer in your area or visit a site like http://www.injuryattorneylafayettein.com/

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