As a popular tourist destination, Hawaii provides its visitors will all sorts of outdoor excursions. These outdoor activity tours can give tourists and local residents alike a greater sense of the beauty of Hawaii’s islands and what they have to offer when it comes to leisure and entertainment. But these adventures don’t always go as planned, which could leave you or a loved one with serious injuries.
When that happens, you might be left unsure about your next steps. A personal injury lawsuit might be a viable option for securing accountability and recovering compensation for damages suffered, but you probably have some lingering questions about how to pursue your case. Let’s see if we can answer some of them here.
Can you hold a tour company liable for your outdoor activity injuries?
Maybe. It really depends on the facts at hand. Before you can recover compensation from a tour company, you must show the following elements of negligence:
- The tour company owed you a duty of care: If you’ve hired some sort of outdoor activity tour company, then they have an obligation to study and plan the activity in a way that mitigates the risks involved.
- The tour company breached the duty of care: To succeed on one of these claims, you’ll have to show that the tour company failed to appropriately mitigate the risks of the activity, such as by failing to properly maintain or repair a boat or zipline.
- You suffered harm as a result of that breach: Before you can recover compensation for your injuries, you’ll have to demonstrate how the tour company’s breach of their duty of care resulted in your injuries.
Depending on the circumstances, you might be able to file a claim against both the tour guide in their individual capacity as well as the tour company. To successfully file a claim against the tour company, though, you’ll have to show that the tour guide’s negligence occurred while operating within the scope of their employment.
Can you still take legal action even if you signed a waiver?
Most companies that handle outdoor excursions have their customers sign some sort of liability waiver before taking them out. A lot of people who are injured on these tours think that they can’t take legal action because they signed a waiver.
But this isn’t necessarily the case. While a signed waiver can make your claim more complex, you still might be successful if you can show the following:
- The tour company was negligent, and your injuries resulted from that negligence rather than from your mere participation in the activity, such as when the company provides you with faulty equipment.
- The tour company’s employee knowingly or intentionally acted in a way that jeopardized your safety.
- The waiver itself is problematic, which may include that it was too difficult to understand, it downplayed the risks of the activity, or you were under the influence at the time you signed the waiver.
There might be other issues that prevent a waiver from being the death knell in your case. That’s why even if you signed a waiver, you’ll want to talk it over with your attorney to find the best way to approach your case.
Be proactive to protect your interests and your future after an outdoor adventure injury
Taking legal action against an outdoor tour company might be the only way to protect your financial stability and foster an effective recovery. That’s why now is the time to start building your case in a way that is aggressive, persuasive, and geared toward the law.