From Charlottesville, Virginia

Covering the state of Virginia, Wilson & Hajek, a personal injury law firm, is centrally located in Charlottesville, Virginia. Francis Hajek is an experienced Virginia personal injury attorney and lawyer who provides aggressive representation and personal service to his clients who have suffered injuries. Since 2007, he has been listed in Best Lawyers in America. www.winjurylaw.com

Monday, August 22, 2011

Virginia Playground Injuries

Virginia Injury Law Playgrounds

If you or a family member is injured while playing at a city, town or county playground, do you have a claim for your injuries? In Virginia, the answer in most cases will be "no" and there are very few exceptions. The reason that personal injury claims for playground injuries are unlikely to succeed is Virginia Code Section 15.2-1809, which provides that cities, towns and counties have immunity for negligence claims arising from the operation of parks, recreational facilities and playgrounds. In order to recover for a playground injury, there would have to be proof of gross negligence. The Virginia courts have held that the standard of gross negligence requires proof that goes well beyond simple carelessness. It is more like a standard of deliberate indifference, where there is proof that the municipal entity knew about the playground defect and its dangers and made a conscious decision not to fix it. The mere fact that municipal workers should have been aware of the problem because they worked regularly in the area is not enough to amount to gross negligence. As a result, the experienced personal injury lawyer, when confronted with a serious injury that just happened at a playground, must dig deep into the facts and try to determine if there are facts to support the argument that gross negligence caused the injury.


Francis P. Hajek
Wilson & Hajek, LLC, a personal injury law firm Experienced Injury and Accident Lawyers Serving Virginia, including Albemarle, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Louisa, Madison, Nelson, Orange, Staunton, Waynesboro

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