Swimming Pool Liability
Warm weather is finally here. Swimming pools are open and warming up. It’s time to get your pool noodles and water wings ready. As a pool owner, it is also time to consider the steps that you can take to protect yourself from liability.
Property owners have a legal duty to take reasonable steps to keep their properties (and pools) safe. As a pool owner, it is important that you ensure that the fence around your pool meets the by-law requirements. It is important that diving boards and slides not be installed in pools that are not designed for them. It is important that pool owners supervise swimmers (particularly children) and enforce rules like no diving, no running and no horseplay.
Perhaps the most important thing you can do to protect yourself from liability is to have adequate insurance. Your home insurance will only protect you if the liability limits of the policy are adequate to pay the damages. Very often it does not cost much to increase your liability limits. You can find out what it would cost to increase your insurance by making a quick call to your insurance broker.
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About the Authors
Troy Lehman joined Oatley Vigmond in 2006 and became a partner in 2010. As a personal injury lawyer, his greatest satisfaction comes from helping people through to the other side of a difficult time in their lives. “We’re here to help and relieve stress,” Troy says. “When I walk into a first meeting with a client, people are often scared and anxious. And for me, the best thing that can happen at the end of the meeting is that they say, ‘I feel so much better.’