How to Find Swimming Pool Accident Lawyer Near Me (2025)

What to Do After a Pool Accident

First, address any immediate medical needs for you or your loved one. Visit the emergency room for treatment and to document any drowning deaths. That initial report right after the fact will help your case later.

Next, document the case, including any witness information. These eyewitnesses will also prove crucial to your case. Take photographs and see if anyone else at the pool also has pictures.

Finally, schedule a consultation with a skilled swimming pool attorney. Many slip-and-fall or personal injury attorneys take pool cases. However, you want to find someone who handled your specific type of case previously.

Types of Swimming Pool Accidents

Accidents are as unique as the people involved, and the same applies to swimming pools. However, the type of pool and its location may affect how your case proceeds. Here are the types of pool accidents and the attorneys who handle them.

Public Pool

A public pool is just that–open to the public. It may be privately owned by a health club or corporation or run in a municipal or county building.

These pools often have high foot traffic and overwhelmed staff. Even certified lifeguards may have their hands full and not make a timely rescue. Also, slippery surfaces, exposed electrical wires, waterborne illnesses and other dangers can affect public health and safety on a large scale.

Public pools may have inadequate signage for safe diving areas or slipping warnings.

Pursuing a claim against a privately owned public pool is much more straightforward than opposing a municipal pool. In the latter, the municipality or agency may claim sovereign immunity or assumption of risk to avoid liability. There are also more procedures involved when suing government entities.

Depending on your claim, you may need an attorney with experience pursuing government claims. There are multiple steps to these cases; missing one can cancel your claim. But if your claim involves a private company, someone with a strong background in premises liability will help.

Private Pools

Private pools include those at residences and in members-only health clubs. The main difference between these and public pools is the lack of lifeguard presence, especially with residential pools.

Most child drownings at private pools occur at a residence (75%.) All it takes is a brief lapse of supervision. These drownings often happen after a child has been unsupervised for less than five minutes and is only 25 yards away from a parent or other responsible adult. You can have a claim for lack of supervision if you entrusted your child to a homeowner or other responsible adult.

Private pools also produce dangerous conditions, like flimsy decks or slippery spots. These fall under standard premises liability claims, meaning a property contains hazardous conditions. You or your attorney usually file these against the pool owner’s homeowner policy.

Unfortunately, these are often complex claims. Private pool accidents happen during drunken pool parties, chaotic children’s parties or small get-togethers where adults think another adult is watching the kids. It takes a skilled attorney to navigate these fact scenarios, determine responsibility and treat you compassionately through the claim.

Wave Pools

Wave pools are common in hotels, cruise ships and water parks. These fun features simulate surfing and attract enthusiastic patrons. Lifeguards teach people how to surf and ensure their safety.

Unfortunately, wave pools are also injury-prone. Inadequately trained employees may not provide complete instruction or properly assess people to determine their fitness for wave pools. Poor maintenance and structural issues in the pool may also cause injuries.

These cases become complex because of the potential parties involved. At-fault parties may include employees, contract workers, supervisors, lifeguards, the hotel, cruise company or theme park. Attorneys who handle these cases can cut through the muck and determine who is responsible for injuries or drowning.

Cruise Ships

Cruise ships offer water wonderlands of pools, slides and wave pools. But if you sustain injuries while enjoying these amenities, you face challenges.

Cruise lines have large legal departments and take steps to shield themselves from civil claims. They post signs all over their ships (e.g., “Swim at Your Own Risk”) and register with foreign nations to avoid American regulation. Laws are also designed to protect “common carriers” like cruise ships from facing claims arising from “normal” situations like wet decks or rough seas.

Also, many cruise lines place a one-year deadline on all claims and have a complex notice process if you sustain injuries. Attorneys with significant experience pursuing cruise lines are your best option for handling these cases and these complications.

Why Hire a Swimming Pool Accident Attorney?

Swimming pool accident cases have particular challenges that need the attention of a skilled lawyer. They often pose questions involved:

• Disputed liability: Whoever owns or operates the pool may try to blame the injury victim, stating that they violated the rules or behaved recklessly.
• Accountable parties: Finding a liable party is often challenging as well. A drowning death, for example, may result from an unsafe pool or untrained lifeguards. This issue becomes especially complex if lifeguards or maintenance crews are independent contractors.
• Controlling law: Foreign-registered cruise ships face different liability standards than an American water park, and those laws may diminish or end a claim.

Lawyers who previously handled swimming pool cases know how to navigate these challenges. While meeting notice requirements and filing a claim on time may overwhelm the layperson, an accident attorney expects these developments and follows them routinely with other cases.

Also, add that you are likely grieving a loved one or recovering from an injury. Those circumstances never make insurance claims easy. Your attorney can handle communication, evidence gathering and settlement negotiations while you focus on feeling better or coping with grief.

ConsumerShield Can Connect You With an Experienced Attorney

ConsumerShield can help you if you sustained a pool-related injury or lost a loved one to drowning. Fill out our contact form today to connect with an experienced swimming pool drowning attorney near you.