What to Do if a Family Member Hurts Themselves at an Atlanta Attraction

Whether you live in Atlanta or you’re just visiting, you’ll find that there are lots of fun things to do. The area boasts a wonderful zoo, an aquarium, shopping opportunities, and fine dining. You should easily be able to find activities for the whole family to enjoy.

However, sometimes accidents happen. Maybe you hurt yourself, or one of your family members does. You’ll need to seek medical attention for them immediately if that happens.

After that, you’ll need to think about liability. For instance, if you hurt yourself at Atlanta’s famed Botanical Garden, who is legally liable?

We’ll answer that question in this article.

Premises Liability

Before you seek compensation for your injuries, understand one basic concept. There is something called premises liability. This refers to:

• A property owner or operator’s responsibility
• An owner or operator maintaining a safe atmosphere on a property

This applies to private properties, but it also applies to public attractions, like amusement parks, stores, etc. If an injury or accident occurs at an Atlanta attraction, then you might be able to collect money from that. A slip-and-fall would be an example of this injury type.

Your Behavior in the Property

However, it is not accurate to say that if anything happens to you while visiting an Atlanta attraction, you can immediately sue the owner or operator. Your behavior at the time of the occurrence matters in regards to whether you or they face liability. You probably won’t have a case if:

• You’re doing something wrong
• There were warning signs against that type of behavior

Let’s say you head to the zoo, and there’s a moat around an enclosure. Ownership has posted signs saying that you’re not supposed to climb over the wall encircling the moat. You ignore those signs and then fall into the moat, injuring your arm.

You probably won’t be able to sue and expect to win, since you were engaging in an activity against which the property owner warned you. You need to conduct yourself according to any posted rules if the injury occurs when you’re visiting an attraction or commercial building.

Are You Legally Supposed to Be There?

Another thing the law will consider in these situations is whether you were there legally. For instance, perhaps you hurt yourself while sneaking into a part of an amusement park that ownership closed for construction. If so, and the park operator marked that area off to discourage guests from going there, then it’s you who did wrong.

You likely will not be able to sue the park, and if you do, you’re not going to win your case. You’ll be stuck paying your medical bills.

The Property Conditions

If you’re visiting an Atlanta store, restaurant, etc., and you hurt yourself because of dangerous property conditions, that’s when you’ll have a case that you can probably win. It’s even more likely if the court finds that the property owner or operator should have been cognizant of the hazardous condition and ignored it.

If the court finds that the operator or owner knew about the dangerous condition and did nothing, that could be criminal negligence. You could have a significant lawsuit on your hands.

Comparative Fault Cases

In Atlanta, if you visit an attraction and hurt yourself, it’s also possible that it might be what the legal system calls a comparative fault situation. This is where you elect to sue the owner or operator of the attraction where the incident occurred, and the court determines that the fault was partly theirs, and partly yours.

This might happen if the court says that there was a dangerous condition that the owner should have corrected. Still, you failed to exercise due diligence and take precautions to avoid getting hurt.

They might grant you a judgment, but not as much as you were seeking. It might pay for some of your medical bills, but not all of them.

If you’re going to visit any of the fabulous Atlanta attractions with your family, and there’s an injury to you or a member of your party, then you’ll probably need to reach out to a lawyer to try and determine whether you can sue.

Unless you’re very litigious, it’s probably not something you want to do, but the owner or operator might owe you for what happened.

It’s best if you’re careful and avoid these situations, so you don’t have to go through this process. Conduct yourself cautiously wherever you are.