A personal injury case could be lost, if the injured victim had recognized a known risk, but had chosen to take part in the injury-causing activity anyway. Personal injury lawyers in Bolton refer to such a situation as assumption of risk.
What sorts of personal injuries might push a defense team to claim assumption of risk, on the part of the injured victim?
• Animal bites
• Hazardous conditions at site of activity
• Injury sustained at location where warning signs had been posted
Two types of situations that qualify for assumption of risk defense
Express risk: That phrase refers to a situation where each person that might consider a given activity receives a written warning, typically in the form of a waiver. Those that agree to sign the same waiver, before taking part in the available activity have acknowledged their awareness of the existing risks.
A personal injury lawyer could weaken a defense that has been based on expressed risk, if he/she were to show one of 3 possible circumstances
—The warning had been hidden in some manner, so that a potential participant could not find it, without extending great effort.
—Someone at the risk-filled location had committed an act of gross negligence, and that same act had caused the victim’s injury.
—Someone at the risk-filled location had inflicted intentional harm on the victim.
Implied risk: That phrase refers to a situation where someone knows about the risks that have been associated with a given activity, but chooses to take part in that same activity anyway. A personal injury lawyer could weaken a defense that was based on implied risk, if he/she were to show that the danger that caused the victim’s injury was not something that added to the risky nature of the victim’s chosen event/activity.
An implied risk at the site of a business:
Some businesses continue to operate, even when a construction worker or a repair technician is on site. If that construction worker or repair technician were working along a pathway that could be taken by customers, then the worker or technician’s presence could qualify as an implied risk.
A smart business owner would arrange to have someone oversee operation of the construction or repair work, in order to ensure the safety of customers. Yet the person providing such oversight might lack the ability to control every sort of mishap.
The customers would recognize the implied risk that the business owner had introduced to the site of the regular business activity. Yet none of them could picture how an unrelated danger might heighten the risky nature of the situation. So, no customer would assume a risk that was associated with some object that was unrelated to the introduced elements of danger.