What Happens If You’re Injured at a Nashville Music Festival or Outdoor Event?
Injuries at a music festival or outdoor event can occur due to a slip-and-fall, crush injuries in a mosh pit, or consuming rotten food. Whereas you were looking forward to a stress-free experience and the opportunity to meet new people, your hopes may be dashed by a mishap. When your injuries are caused by another’s negligence, you deserve adequate compensation. At Raybin & Weissman, our Nashville personal injury lawyers are dedicated to assisting you in recovering the financial resources you need to heal.
How is Fault Determined?
At a music festival, local fair, or other outdoor event, different parties come together to make the event happen. Each party or entity owes a certain responsibility to attendees; security guards have a duty to supervise crowd control, while venue owners must ensure that the grounds are free of hazards. If one of these parties fails to uphold their duty of care, they may be found liable for any injuries you sustained as a result.
Can I Sue the At-Fault Party for My Injuries?
A successful personal injury claim is built on proving another party’s liability and demonstrating your losses or damages. In recent years, it has become common for public event organizers to require participants to sign a liability waiver to protect them from being sued. If you did sign a release of liability waiver prior to attending the event, you may be unable to hold the festival organizers responsible for certain injuries and damages. Even so, Tennessee law requires that a liability waiver be clear and unambiguous in language.
Additionally, liability waivers only protect against ordinary negligence, not against gross negligence or intentional torts. An example of gross negligence would be the venue continuing an outdoor event despite an official severe weather warning and making no effort to shelter attendees. An example of an intentional tort would be if an attendee purposely throws an object at another person’s face, breaking their nose. Although you assume a certain level of risk by attending a public event, this defense cannot be used in these circumstances.
Preserving Evidence to Protect Your Rights
A successful personal injury claim depends on the strength and availability of evidence. For example, if you ate spoiled food served by a vendor, you will most likely file a claim with their independent liability insurance carrier. But, you will need to prove that the food was spoiled, consuming it caused your illness, and that you sustained damages. This requires evidence, which may be in the form of health code citations, testimony from other attendees, or physical evidence. Unfortunately, proving that food is spoiled or undercooked can be challenging, especially if no one else experienced symptoms.
A negligent security claim, such as a security guard failing to break up a mosh pit, will require gathering staffing records, incident reports from the event, and eyewitness testimony. Your injuries from the negligent security must have been foreseeable. This means that the event organizer or security officers should have anticipated a risk of violence, given the security measures in place. If you would like to discuss the validity of your claim, you should speak with our Nashville personal injury attorneys at your earliest convenience.
Contact Our Nashville Personal Injury Lawyers Today
A personal injury at a music festival or other outdoor event can happen instantly, taking you completely by surprise. If you or a family member has been injured following an incident at a music festival or public event, we want to hear from you. For 50 years, the Nashville personal injury attorneys at Raybin & Weissman have been advocating for the compensation injured parties deserve. To arrange your free consultation with a member of our legal team, our office can be reached online or by calling (615) 256-6666.