Los Angeles is a place to see and be seen. The sunshine makes people want to get outside for a day at the beach, a run at the park, or just a walk down a famous boulevard. With all those public activities in mind, you may turn to a personal trainer to tone up or simply to improve your mental and physical health.
Personal trainers should provide motivation, but they must also be the source of sound health advice and teach safe workout methods. When personal trainers neglect their duty to keep you safe during a cardio or lift session at the gym, you can get seriously hurt.
While in recovery, you may wonder if personal trainers can be held financially liable for an accident and if the gym that employs them might also share in the liability.
Get a Free Case Consultation After an Injury Caused by a Personal Trainer
In fact, a personal trainer can be held accountable in a personal injury claim just like anyone else whose negligence causes harm to someone. The trainer may face liability for your recovery if you get hurt. The trainer’s employers could also owe you support.
You may be dealing with more than just one individual when considering holding a trainer responsible for your injury. That’s why it’s important to find out what legal benefits are available to you after an accident suffered during a workout.
Contact a California personal injury lawyer after a workout accident to discuss what your injury should earn you. Maison Law serves all California victims and offers a free case evaluation that comes with no obligations. It’s important to remember that if you do feel you want the help of our law firm, you’ll pay nothing upfront. We don’t charge an attorney fee unless we when your case.
Personal Trainer Accident Dangers in California
Hiring a personal trainer will make you feel like you’re on your way to feeling better, but a careless and/or underqualified trainer might do just the opposite.
A trainer may be found negligent in many types of workout and gym accidents.
- Beyond your limits. A personal trainer may push you beyond your reasonable physical limits and leave you vulnerable to injury.
- Unsafe advice. Trainers could offer you advice they are unqualified to give. If you heed that instruction and get hurt, they are liable.
- Unsafe methods. Trainers may show you unsafe workout methods or become negligent in protecting you as a spotter.
- Making an injury worse. They could disregard an injury you have sustained or handle it improperly leaving you at more risk.
What If I Signed a Liability Waiver?
You may feel you have no hope of holding a trainer or a gym owner responsible for your injury because you signed a waiver. However, this waiver of liability doesn’t protect these individuals and businesses in all cases.
These waiver forms do protect gyms and other employees from liability for the dangers that are reasonably expected when engaging in physical activity. Sore or damaged muscles or even dropping a weight on your own leg may leave you paying for your own medical care.
However, liability waivers don’t protect individuals and entities from reckless or intentional acts. The exceptions can include “gross negligence.” This is harmful behavior beyond normal carelessness. The disregard for the safety of others is so great that the act is almost intentional.
An accident may involve a weight bar overloaded far more than a victim could handle, or when a trainee is encouraged to try a very hazardous exercise. In cases like these, it may be possible to show gross negligence and earn the victim full compensation in recovery.
How to Hold a California Gym Owner Responsible for an Injury
A personal trainer may or may not carry liability insurance. If they do, it’s likely that policy will have low limits. Once those limits are hit, any remaining hospital bills will have to be paid out of your savings. This isn’t fair at all. It’s a form of punishment for the victim.
That’s why your California Personal Injury Lawyer will work to identify all parties that may bear fault in your injury. Opening up other insurance companies to liability ensures you can call upon other coverage to help get full reimbursement for your damages.
A gym that hires and provides personal trainers to members can be held responsible for their dangerous actions. A gym owner or corporate owners would have to provide support if it could be proven they were negligent in their hiring practices. A personal trainer may have a questionable past or could have hurt someone previously. A proper background check may have been skipped.
Gyms are also required to properly train and supervise their employees. When they fail in their duties they must be held liable. The personal trainer may work for a company that provides in-home or gym training. These companies would be subject to the same liability.
If you are hurt at a gym without the involvement of a personal trainer, you may also be allowed to seek compensation for your injuries. Check out our page on California gym accidents and injuries to find out more about your options.
Potential Personal Trainer Workout Injuries
Working out at a gym and working with a personal trainer can leave you vulnerable to a variety of serious injuries. Broken bones are often treated. Blows to head are also common in falls around gyms or when victims are toppled over when using too much weight.
Victims can suffer crush injuries when working around heavy equipment and weights. Extreme weight can increase pressure in the chest, neck, arms, or legs and do serious damage to muscles, nerves, blood vessels, and organs. Pinch injuries affect hands, fingers, and feet when dealing with moving parts of a workout machine.
Heart attacks are also surprisingly common when gym members are allowed to take on exertion their hearts can’t handle.
Compensation Available After a Workout Injury
The many serious and long-term injuries that might befall you make it all the more important to correctly file an insurance claim and target the right at-fault parties.
Beyond simply adding up the costs of medical care, victims should receive compensation for every hardship they face after an accident caused by the negligence of a personal trainer.
These are just a few of the elements of your recovery that should earn compensation:
- Medical Bills.
- Rehab treatment/equipment. Physical therapy.
- The costs and care associated with a permanent disability/disfigurement.
- Physical pain and emotional trauma experienced in an accident and during recovery.
- Travel costs to make medical appointments and consult with specialists in other cities.
- Loss of enjoyment of life. The mental toll of being unable to return to the gym or remain active.
- Lost wages at work, including the potential of lost wages in the future.
Contact a California Gym Accident Lawyer
If you are hurt due to the actions or inactions of a personal trainer, don’t let an insurance company or a gym owner decide what level of compensation you should receive.
Contact Maison Law of California for a free and informative case consultation. This confidential meeting is a chance to get a clear and honest evaluation of what your gym injury is worth and what you should demand in compensation. Our attorneys don’t stop fighting for you until you are able to return to the active lifestyle you love again.
