They say you're supposed to "feel the burn" while working out, but pain from broken bones, torn muscles, or other gym injuries should not be part of your typical exercise routine. Unfortunately, while exercising at your local gym, with a personal trainer, or in an outdoor gym, accidents can happen that result in injury.
When you hire a personal trainer, or sign on to work with one at your gym, you expect them to help make you healthier. However, if you're injured in an accident at your gym, it's more than your health that takes a hit. Medical bills, lost wages, and other damages can amount to much more than the pounds you might be adding on. Whether or not you can sue for your injuries turns on negligence.
Was a Personal Trainer or Gym Negligent?
Negligence leading to injury is a legitimate reason to take action against a personal trainer or gym. For instance, if you trip and fall in the parking lot, your personal trainer would not be liable for your injuries (though the owner of the shopping plaza might be). However, if your trainer spots a crumpled mat or spilled water on the ground and does nothing to fix it, he or she may be liable for your injuries if these instances caused an accident.
In most cases, you or the injured person signs a type of waiver with the gym or trainer that acknowledges that you assume the risk of injury while exercising there. It is assumed that there is an inherent risk for injury whenever we exercise. By signing a gym waiver, you're saying that you understand that working with exercise equipment, weights, and other items of physical activity at the gym can cause injury if you do not operate them correctly.
However, fitness injuries that occur due to a staff member, facility owner, operator, or personal trainer's negligence may entitle you to a claim for compensation.
Proving Negligence in a Fitness Injury
Inherent risk aside, if you were harmed by the carelessness or recklessness of a gym facility, you may have a claim. To recover against a personal trainer, a staff member or the facility, you have to prove the defendant was negligent, and Florida Statute 768.81(6) then reduces your damages by your own share of fault and bars recovery entirely if you are found greater than 50 percent at fault. Working with a personal injury attorney is how the four elements below get documented before the evidence disappears.
For a successful personal injury case, your attorney will be tasked with proving all elements of negligence. These are as follows:
- Duty of care. The defendant has to have owed you one. Duty of care is the legal recognition of a relationship that obliges the defendant to meet a certain standard, and here it is the trainer's or the gym's obligation to provide a safe exercise environment.
- Breach of that duty. Breaching the duty in a way that causes injury creates liability. A trainer who pushes a client past what the client can safely do, or a gym that hands out faulty equipment, has breached it.
- Causation. You have to show the defendant's conduct actually caused the accident that caused your injury, not merely that it happened at the same place.
- Damages. You need evidence of an injury the law can compensate. If the gym breached its duty but you walked away unhurt, there is no case. Medical bills, lost work and ongoing treatment are what make the claim compensable.
What Instances Would Count As a Breach of Duty?
A trusted personal injury attorney can work with you to prove that the defendant was negligent in your case, causing your injury. But, what about instances that the law would rule were not actually in part of "inherent risk," and were actually a breach of duty? Let's take a look at some examples of potential fitness liability claims due to negligence:
On Behalf of the Fitness Facility:
- Faulty or poorly maintained equipment
- Incorrect setup of equipment, such as weights not put together correctly
- Unsafe premises, such as poorly maintained flooring or hazardous electrical work
- Blocked or obstructed emergency exits and walkways
On Behalf of a Personal Trainer:
- Failure to perform a proper fitness evaluation or health risk appraisal of the plaintiff prior to exercise
- Failure to consider the plaintiff's prior injury/health conditions before devising an exercise routine
- Failure to devise a safe and proper exercise routine
- Failure to provide adequate supervision of the plaintiff
- Failure to follow operating and training procedures, rules, and regulations
- Failure to follow internal rules, regulations, employee manuals, and operating procedures
- Failure to ensure the plaintiff has an adequate rest period during the exercise routine
- Failure to distinguish exercises that were safe and appropriate for the plaintiff from those that were dangerous
The Bottom Line: Can I Sue My Gym?
A signed waiver does not automatically end your case, and it does not automatically lose it either. Gyms and trainers use these releases because a clearly worded one gets enforced, so the exact wording of what you signed is the first thing a lawyer will read, alongside what the gym or trainer actually did. Bring the document with you. If your gym injury was due to negligence, be sure to report the incident to the gym's management and ask for a copy of the incident report if one was created. Take photos of your injury and, if possible, of the surrounding environment. If there were any witnesses to the event, try to get their contact information. Above all, be sure to receive immediate medical attention.
Once a doctor has assessed your injuries, speak to a personal injury attorney, and do it early. Under Florida Statute 95.11(5)(a), a negligence claim that accrued on or after March 24, 2023 has to be filed within two years, and incident reports, surveillance video and equipment maintenance logs are usually gone long before that. At Weinstein Legal Team an attorney will review the incident with you for free and in confidence, and tell you whether there is a claim worth bringing.
If you've been harmed at your gym facility or while working with a personal trainer, it's time to exercise your rights for compensation. Contact Weinstein Legal Team today.
