Clearwater Sports Injury Lawyer

Sports are a big part of life in Champa Bay. As the home of the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Super Bowl-winning Buccaneers, it’s no wonder our community loves friendly competition. Students at Clearwater High School participate in basketball or football, and adults in soccer leagues, karate tournaments, or pickup games at Morningside Recreation Complex.

Of course, sports-related injuries can happen in a world where high-contact sports are so popular, and some of those injuries can prove life-changing.

Do you have the right to compensation for sports injuries? A Clearwater sports injury lawyer can help you learn more about your specific rights and your next steps following a severe sports injury. Contact an experienced personal injury attorney for your free consultation.

Perenich Law Injury Attorneys: Experienced Injury Attorneys for Clearwater Sports Accident Victims

At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, our dedicated sports accident lawyers in Clearwater have successfully helped many types of personal injury victims recover the compensation they deserve for potentially life-altering injuries sustained due to another party’s negligence.

Our capable attorneys offer an honest assessment of your claim and your injuries, as well as comprehensive support throughout the personal injury claims process. If you have suffered serious injuries in a sports accident, we can help:

Assess Your Rights

You signed a form stating that you would not hold the institution liable for injuries sustained during the normal course of sporting activities. Do you still have the right to a claim? How much compensation do you really deserve for sports accident injuries?

At Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, we help break down the compensation you may deserve for your sporting accident, including who may bear liability and what specific damages you can claim. Often, our clients do not know what rights they really have or how to pursue the compensation they deserve for their injuries. With more information in their hands, they can often more successfully negotiate the claims ahead of them.

Handle Insurance Companies on Your Behalf

Many sporting organizations, from schools and universities to gyms, carry insurance policies designed to protect the company when someone suffers an injury due to activities at that organization, including sporting events.

That means that if you do suffer a serious injury, you may find yourself dealing with the insurance company. Insurance companies, however, can prove incredibly frustrating to deal with as they try to limit the compensation they have to pay out—and, therefore, the funds you may have on hand to help you deal with the bills ahead of you.

At Perenich Law Injury Lawyers, we help deal with the insurance companies on our clients’ behalf, reducing their stress levels and helping to increase the compensation they can recover.

Fight for You

Ultimately, at Perenich Law Injury Attorneys, our seasoned Clearwater sports injury attorneys fight to help our clients get the compensation they deserve for injuries sustained due to someone else’s negligence, including sporting accident injuries. You need someone on your side who will fight for your highest possible settlement or verdict. We provide our clients with that comprehensive support throughout the entire claim process.

Common Clearwater Sports Accident Injuries

Sports put a great deal of stress and pressure on the body and can, at times, lead to both acute and chronic injuries. Injuries can range from relatively minor to severe.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Many sports can result in serious trauma to the head, which may end in traumatic brain injury. A traumatic brain injury can permanently change the victim’s ability to focus, remember information, or access long-term memories. In some cases, traumatic brain injury may result in a loss of emotional control, making it very difficult for the victim to focus.

Broken Bones

Broken bones can happen in the blink of an eye during a sporting event, particularly as everyone focuses heavily on the activity at hand instead of on keeping one another safe. Broken bones can, in some cases, lead to long-term complications like ongoing pain or limited mobility.

Heat Exhaustion/Heat Stroke

Exposure to high temperatures, like those in Clearwater, while performing strenuous physical activity can increase the risk of heat exhaustion. Heat exhaustion can cause faintness and dizziness, muscle cramps, low blood pressure, and nausea. In extreme cases, heat exhaustion can progress to heatstroke, which may have long-term consequences for the victim.

Coaches, instructors, and facilitators in Florida must take care to learn the signs of heat exhaustion and take steps to prevent it since the area’s high temperatures and high humidity can increase the risk of those conditions.

Sprains and Strains

Sprains and strains can occur quickly during a sporting event or practice, especially if players or team members get pushed beyond their limits or do not receive adequate time to rest. Sprains and strains can worsen and lead to chronic problems over time if the player does not take care of those injuries promptly.

Repetitive Stress Injuries

Repetitive stress injuries occur most often in high-impact sports or sports that require the same movement over and over. Pitchers in baseball or tennis players, for example, have a high risk of repetitive stress injuries to the shoulder and elbow of the dominant hand. Repetitive stress injuries can, in some cases, result in severe, chronic pain.

What Are Recoverable Expenses After a Sports Injury?

• Pain & suffering
• Medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Loss of earning ability
• Mental anguish
• Loss of companionship, support, or consortium

When Do You Have the Right to File a Claim for a Sports Injury in Clearwater?

Before participating in most athletic endeavors, especially those sponsored by schools or gyms, most players—and their parents, for minor players—must sign a waiver indicating that they accept the risks associated with that sport.

Those waivers help protect the institution, coaches, gyms, and other organizers against lawsuits for injuries obtained during the normal course of engaging in specific sporting activities. However, those waivers offer only protect those institutions when they follow the usual rules of conduct and behavior for those sports and work to protect the players and others involved.

You may have the right to file a claim for a sports injury that occurs because the coaches or organizers went outside the usual bounds of acceptable activity for that sport, whether during a game or practice, for several reasons.

A Coach Encourages Violent or Dangerous Conduct During Play or Practice

Some coaches deliberately encourage their players to engage in dangerous behaviors that could result in injuries, including utilizing excessive force during a game or practice. While most sports involve some type of force or energy, which could result in injury in some cases, players should not act to deliberately injure one another. If a coach encourages that type of dangerous behavior, the coach could face liability for incidents that result in injury.

A Coach Fails to Remove an Injured Player

Young players, in particular, should never continue to play after suffering an injury. After an incident on the field, coaches should quickly remove those players and send in someone else.

Players should receive a full medical evaluation before going back to play. A coach who pushes his players to get back on the field despite injuries, or who pushes players to get back to practice before they have a chance to recover, may bear liability for the increased impact of those injuries, including potential chronic injuries or symptoms related to ignoring a doctor’s recommendations.

A Coach Pushes Players Beyond Reasonable Limits During Practice or Play

Coaches have to push their players to help them reach the limits of what they can reasonably do. At the same time, however, coaches must take players’ ages and ability levels into account when creating training schedules and pushing them in practice. Coaches must also carefully observe players for signs of things like heat exhaustion, which can occur all too quickly in Clearwater’s hot and humid climate.

Coaches who push their players beyond those reasonable limits may bear liability for repetitive stress injuries, chronic pain, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke, and acute injuries sustained due to the coach’s actions.

A Player Suffers Assault From Another Individual

A player who suffers an assault from another individual, regardless of the relationship between the player and that party, may have grounds to file a claim for injuries sustained during that attack. That might include attacks from another player, a coach, a spectator, or another parent, for example.

A Coach Does Not Seek Medical Treatment for a Player in an Emergency

When a player suffers an emergency, often as a result of an acute injury, coaches should quickly bring in medical professionals to provide needed treatment. When children suffer injuries on the field, either during practice or during a game or event, coaches should immediately remove the child from those circumstances and pursue medical treatment for that child. Failure to seek medical attention could worsen the severity of the injury.

A student who chooses to ignore their injuries to remain in the game or on the field may end up suffering chronic pain or increasing limitations or time in recovery as a result of those injuries. While coaches cannot know every player’s decision-making process, coaches can monitor players for signs of injury and seek medical treatment for them when needed. A coach who ignores a player’s injury or who pushes a player not to seek medical attention to keep that player on the field may bear liability for any further injuries sustained by that player.

Recovering Compensation Following a Clearwater Sports Injury

Following a Clearwater sports injury for either an adult or a child, consult an attorney to learn more about the compensation you can pursue and who may have to provide compensation for your injuries.

Who Bears Liability?

Several parties may bear liability for a Clearwater sports injury. Most notably, the club or organization where the injury took place may bear liability for failing to adequately protect and take care of all members. In some cases, other entities, such as the coach or a player who deliberately injured another, may also bear liability. Generally, you will need to deal with the liable party’s insurance company to pursue compensation. However, in some cases, such as one player injuring another deliberately, you may need to pursue compensation from that party directly.

What Compensation Can You Recover for a Clearwater Sports Injury?

The compensation you can recover for sports injuries may depend on the specific injury you or your child suffered, the limitations it poses, and the financial losses you faced. A diligent sports injury lawyer in Clearwater can help go over all the losses and challenges you experienced due to your accident and help you put together a personal injury claim.

Medical bills often form the backbone of a personal injury claim—the higher your medical bills, the more compensation you may need to ask for. Your medical bills may include everything from emergency medical care to ongoing physical or occupational therapy for serious injuries, especially those that offer life-altering limitations.

If an adult suffers sports injuries due to someone else’s negligence, that adult may have to miss work while recovering. Lost wages can create serious limitations, including ongoing financial challenges. You can claim compensation for those lost wages as part of the financial damages you sustained due to a sporting accident.

Sports injuries can leave you sidelined, causing immense emotional anguish. You may miss out on time on the field or time in training. Students could miss out on recruiting opportunities, which could have helped them with college. As you put together a sports injury claim, a lawyer can calculate the losses you sustained, including non-financial losses, and include them as part of your sports injury claim.

Contact an Experienced Clearwater Sports Injury Lawyer Today

Do you have questions about whether you have the right to compensation for sports injuries? Perenich Law Injury Attorneys can help. Contact us today for a free consultation that will help you learn more about your right to a sports accident claim in Clearwater.

Have You Suffered A Sports Injury? Call a Clearwater sports injury lawyer at Perenich Law Injury Attorneys for your Free Consultation. The term “no pain, no gain” does not mean certain sports injuries sustained in the course of training, practicing, or gaming should have happened. Under Florida law, personal trainers, gym owners, and sports coaches may be liable for injuries and accidents caused by their negligence, such as the failure to use proper and safe equipment, properly instruct and supervise, or take other reasonable measures to prevent harm.

Even though playing sports or engaging in any athletic activity carries a risk of injury, many injuries are caused by the careless or reckless conduct of others, particularly where the injured person placed his or her trust in a trainer or coach they believed had the skill, knowledge, and experience to provide proper and preventative supervision.

These injuries may be compounded further by the malpractice of doctors, hospitals, and staff responsible for proper and non-negligent diagnosis and treatment. Call today to discuss your potential recovery options.