Drowning Accident Lawyer – Best For After Drowning Accident

Drowning in a swimming pool or any private waterbody is not rare in the US. According to several surveys, around 4000 people face fatal drowning that results in death. The number of non-fatal drownings is double- around 8000. In most non-fatal cases, people carry the trauma for a long time.

If you’ve survived a drowning accident or lost someone in your family in such an accident, you can file a lawsuit against the authority in case it is their fault. Filing a lawsuit would need a drowning accident lawyer or attorney who can help you with everything about the case. 

It is tough to find that someone from your family has faced a drowning accident. If you’re there, you can do something to help the drowning person. 

What to Do After a Drowning Accident?

Saving the Person

If you see someone drowning, ask a lifeguard for help if there is any. If there is no one, send a notification to the nearby lifeguard. 

If you can swim, jump in the water and reach the person as soon as possible. Before jumping, make sure that the water is safe and you’re not putting yourself in danger. 

If you can’t swim, take a long pole or branch and extend it to the drowning person to hold it. It is best to throw a lifebuoy or any other floating device at the person. Make sure there is a rope attached to it so that you can pull it to the surface after the person catches it.

Once the person is on the land, unconscious and not breathing, you should try to make them breathe through CPR. If you can’t do it, call someone who can. In case you’ve just got the person in the water unconscious and not breathing, you must start CPR while bringing him to the land. 

While doing all this, call for emergency medical help as soon as possible. If the accident happens in a swimming pool or water park, you might find your own medical support. 

Once the person returns to the breath, check the head and other body parts for possible damages or wounds. If there is a mild wound, take a first aid kit and use it. If the wound is heavy and the first aid kit can’t handle it, send the person to a hospital as soon as possible. In case it can be cured with first aid, you have some time before sending him for medical help. 

While handling the person, stay careful. When unconscious, poor handling might cause head, neck, or spine injury as the body remains unstable. Also, remove wet clothes, as those might cause hypothermia. 

Preparing for Lawsuit

Once the person is sent to the hospital for medical support, you can proceed with a lawsuit if you think that the authority is faulty for the situation. For this, you should collect proof of the situation first. If possible, collect the CCTV footage, any video or photo taken by someone, or anything like this. Gather contact information of people who’ve seen the situation. Also, don’t forget to know the information of the lifeguard who was on duty at that time. These are the basic information you’ll need later. 

Then go to a drowning accident attorney or lawyer first. They can discuss the situation and suggest you the next step- filing a lawsuit or out-of-the-court negotiation. 

Filing a lawsuit doesn’t always compensate you if there is no apparent fault of the authority. The lawyer or attorney can assess the situation and help you to build some strong points, if possible, to strengthen your claim. 

In the Case of Death

If you find the person dead after drowning in the water, keep yourself stable and look for the faulty person. Then you can file a lawsuit to get justice. 

Ways a Drowning Accident Lawyer can Help You

A drowning accident lawyer has a lot to do for you if you want to file a lawsuit about a drowning person. 

• You can discuss the situation with them. Based on the discussion, they can analyze the situation and suggest to you the best possible step to take next. 
• If filing a case is the only option, they can suggest to you the most vital points that you can bring in front. 
• If you’re interested in out-of-the-court negotiation, lawyers can help you to bring the best possible outcome of the negotiation. 
• Drowning accident lawyers have already read such types of cases and the outcomes. So they can help you with the necessary information so that you can know the possible outcome. 
• If it is a commercial pool or similar type of waterbody, they must have rules about any accident and their liability about it. A lawyer can help you carefully check and evaluate those so that they don’t block your claim. 

In a word, lawyers can help you discuss the situation and file a lawsuit. However, they can’t represent you in court because they are not able to practice. In this case, an attorney can help you. 

Ways a Drowning Accident Attorney can Help You

A boat accident attorney is a better choice if you’re considering someone to help you with everything, including representing you in court for justice. An experienced drowning attorney can-

• Help you to design the case with solid points
• Communicate with the parties and collect the information required to proceed with the case
• Determine a possible result of filing a case from the previous experience
• Assist you in negotiation with the parties faulty for the accident
• Taking your case to court and representing your there 

An attorney has more things to do for you compared to a lawyer. Starting from discussion to fighting for you in court, attorneys can do everything for you. So, if you want your people to help you with the case, we suggest you go to an attorney for help.  

Things to Focus on in a Drowning Accident Case

While working on a drowning accident case, the attorney or lawyer you’ve hired would handle everything. But you need to know the points to focus on so that the person you’ve appointed doesn’t miss anything. Below are the main things to focus on in such an accident.

• The strengths of the case are fundamental if you want to win it. For this, carefully recall everything about the situation. Collect CCTV footage or any type of video proof to strengthen your points. 
• The weaknesses are similarly crucial if you want to win the case. So, you must find the weaknesses and look for supporting points to cover those. Make sure that you can strong points supporting those. 
• The organization’s policy about drowning accidents has a lot of impact on the case result. It is tough to win the case if they have any point supporting to avoid the fault. You need to build some strong points against those. 
• Ask your lawyer to dig through the previous cases of such accidents and know both parties’ points. Doing this can help you find some solid and weak points about the case. 

Things to Focus on to Pick a Drowning Accident Lawyer

You need to be careful when you’re selecting a drowning accident lawyer for you. The person must be someone you can trust. You need to focus on some other issues too. Below are those.

Experience

Selecting someone with a long experience in handling drowning accidents is a must if you want to win the case. An experienced lawyer can easily find out the strong and weak points of the case and work on those to increase the chance of winning the case. You should take the chance, right?

Location

Select someone from your location because rules and regulations are not the same everywhere. Lawyers living in your location can be the best fit because they know the exact law of the state about such types of accidents. 

If you want to take advice from someone living in another state, cross-check their advice to ensure that it fits. 

Lawyer or Attorney

Choosing between a lawyer and an attorney is not that tough. Hiring a lawyer is a good option if you want someone to manage the case until it is taken to court. On the other hand, if you want the person to aid you in court by representing you there, you must go for an attorney. 

Team or Individual

While picking someone to fight your case, you might have to choose someone from a team of lawyers. In this case, the good thing is you have more than one person to take care of your case. 

Or you can pick someone who is working alone. Though the number of lawyers working in a group is vast, you’ll find some people working independently. Picking their service can make the process straight and simple. 

Review

Checking the reviews of previous clients is a dependable way to select a lawyer. In this case, you can pick someone suggested by people around you, especially direct clients. It enhances your trust in the person. Just make sure that you’re getting the review from a dependable person. Nowadays, getting fake reviews is easy. 

These are the basic things you should look at while selecting a lawyer or attorney for your drowning accident case. 

Compensation a Drowning Victim can Seek for

A drowning accident can cause several types of damage and even death. So, you have a lot of scope for compensation after a drowning accident. Below are some of the most common compensation fields after a drowning accident. 

Drowning Accident Injury

Monetary Compensation Fields

• Medical bills incurred
• Medical bills spend in future
• Physical therapy
• Rehabilitation 
• Loss of income
• Occupational therapy
• Loss of future income
• Cost of modification in home
• Cost of assistive devices and transportation

Non-monetary Compensation Fields

• Physical pain
• Mental stress
• Loss of consortium
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Emotional distress

Drowning Accident Death

Monetary Compensation Fields

• Medical bills incurred before death
• Funeral and burial costs
• Financial support to heirs
• Money that the dead person used to provide for the family

Non-monetary Compensation Fields

• Loss of training and guidance from the deceased person
• Loss of enjoyment 
• Loss of love, comfort, care, companion, affection, etc. of the deceased person

Types of Drowning Accidents

Wet Drowning

This is the most common type of drowning. In this type of accident, the victim inhales water inside. As a result, the water enters the lungs, and the person becomes unable to breathe. So, you need to hold your breath when you’re underwater. 

Dry Drowning

Dry droning is not that common. In this case, no water is found in the lungs or body of the victim. The exact reason behind this is still unknown. 

You’ll find two opinions about it. One says that the victim’s heart stops suddenly when the body hits the cold water, and the person dies. Another says that the throat closes up, and the person dies because of asphyxiation.

Silent Drowning

A silent drowning is the type of drowning in which the victim dies silently without any movement of hands or calling for help. There is no visible or hearable sign of the person drowning. Such a type of drowning can’t be understood if someone doesn’t closely check the person. 

Active Drowning

Active drowning is the exact opposite of silent drowning. In this case, the person tries to save himself, shouts for help, and fights with the water actively. Saving such a person is tricky and risky because the person often holds the rescuer strong and drags under water. 

Passive Drowning

Passive drowning refers to the type of drowning where the person is unconscious. Typically, at the end stage of a drowning accident, the person becomes unconscious and passive drowning happens. In the case of passive drowning, the victim remains faced down instead of in an upright position. 

Secondary Drowning

This is the type of drowning that most people aren’t aware of. This happens after the person is rescued from the water. In such a case, the person is rescued and seems to be fine initially. But the damage is done if a small amount of water enters the lungs. If it damages the lungs line, it becomes tough for the person to breathe. Gradually death happens. 

A person is not safe within 24 hours of being rescued from the water. So, keep your eyes on the person for any sign of secondary drowning. 

Common Causes for Drowning Accidents

There might be thousands of reasons behind a drowning accident. But as we’re talking about lawyers and compensation, we’re leaving the reasons like not knowing how to swim or being drunk at the pool or water body. Below are the most common reasons behind drowning because of others.

Inexperienced Supervisor

If the person who is directly supervising a swimmer or a learner doesn’t have enough experience and knowledge about supervising a learner in the water, an accident may happen. A supervisor should know the signs of a drowning person. 

Also, if the supervisor is focusing on anything else, the chance of accident increases. 

Lifeguard’s Negligence

A lifeguard’s duty is to make sure that everything and everyone is okay in the pool or water body. In case the lifeguard is looking at something else or ignoring someone, drowning may happen. This is one of the most familiar causes of drowning accidents in the USA. 

So, lifeguards should be careful and keep mobile phones, magazines, etc. away when they are on duty. 

Structural Problem of the Waterbody

If the pool, park, or waterbody has a structural problem, it might result in someone drowning. The person might get stuck or leave the area and face an accident. If the place is someone’s property, you can sue them for the structural problem. But if it is a natural place not owned by anyone, you have none to sue for structural issues. 

Boat Accidents

Another common reason behind drowning accidents is boat accidents. Such drowning compensation can be claimed under boat accident claims too. It happens in open waterbodies. In this case, the boat operator responsible for the accident must be asked for compensation- whether he is operating your boat or not. 

Water Games

You might love water games, but a water game often causes drowning accidents, especially when the operator is inexperienced or the participant doesn’t know how to swim. Accidents may happen in several ways depending on the type of game. In the case of such an accident, you need to identify the faulty person to file a lawsuit. 

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Ways to Avoid Drowning Accidents

Suing someone and getting compensation for what happens is okay, but it is far better if drowning doesn’t happen. So, here are some of the basic steps that can help you avoid drowning accidents.

• Swimming can help you to save yourself from drowning. So, learn if you don’t know swimming. If you know, practice regularly. 
• Basic water safety skills make you able to save yourself and others from drowning accidents. Before going to a pool or waterbody, know how to keep yourself and others secure in the water. 
• Stay with someone experienced in the water. While going to water, especially open water bodies without any lifeguard, take someone who knows swimming well. 
• Check the lifeguards if you’re going to water. See what they’re doing and where their concentration is. If you find someone not noticing the people properly, make them aware. 
• Wear a life jacket while going to water. A life jacket saves you from drowning and makes you visible to others. 
• Learn CPR. It allows you to save someone who is about to die. When going to water, make sure more than two people in your group know CPR.
• Learn about the water bodies. Different waterbodies have different natures. So, while going to a river, you must know about it. The same goes for all other water bodies. 
• Don’t drink alcohol when you’re going to or on water. Exceeding the limit might cause a drowning accident. 
• If you or someone in your group has a medical condition, keep medicines and additional precautions with you. 
• When you’re on a medication, the effect of it should be considered. Don’t go to water if any medication causes you to lose balance, coordination, or judgment. 
• Don’t swim for a long time without taking a break. Doing this would make you tired. If you’re away from the shore, you might end up drowning because of fatigue.
• While going to an open water body, check the weather forecast. water can become a danger within a few moments. Reschedule the plan if there is a possibility of a natural disaster. 

Keeping these few things would protect you from drowning or any other accidents related to water bodies. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)