If you or a loved one has suffered injuries in a Montana ski or snowboard accident, you need skilled legal help to ensure your chances of receiving your rightful compensation. At Kovacich Snipes Johnson, P.C., our Montana ski and snowboard accident attorneys will review your case, help you understand your legal options, and handle the process of litigation, allowing you to focus on recovery. For any questions that you may have, please don’t hesitate to call our attorneys at 406-500-5000 for a free consultation.
Skiing and snowboarding are perfect activities for Montana residents, especially during the winter months. While fun, these activities can quickly become dangerous for skilled athletes and casual skiers alike. Sometimes snowboarding and skiing accidents are unavoidable, but, in other circumstances, they are the result of another person’s negligence. When the latter is the case, injured parties have the right to recover compensation.
Who Is Liable For A Skiing or Snowboarding Accident?
Some skiing and snowboarding accidents are the result of unfortunate mistakes. Maybe you lost your balance while coasting down a hill or you didn’t strap onto your board correctly. While no one else would be legally responsible for those injuries, you can receive compensation when someone else’s negligence caused your damages, such as a collision when heading down a slope.
Some situations where you could hold another party responsible are:
- Another skier or snowboarder stops in the path of others
- Another skier or snowboarder does not appropriately yield to others on the path
- Another skier or snowboarder loses control and crashes into another person
- The ski course owners did not clearly mark pathways
- The ski course owners didn’t conduct proper maintenance
- Someone acted inappropriately while riding a passenger life
If you in any way contribute to your accident, you may be partially at fault. As a comparative negligence state, Montana still allows people who are partially responsible for their damages to still recover financial compensation, so long as the individual is less responsible for their accident than another party.
If you are partially liable, your final compensation value for your case will depend on how much at fault you were. For example, if you suffered $200,000 worth of damages, but the court ruled that you were 20% at fault for the accident, you would receive your total compensation reduced by 20%: $160,000.
The liable party will depend on the exact circumstances of your accident. In some cases, more than one party may be at fault for the accident. Our skilled personal injury attorneys are ready to help you evaluate your case and investigate the accident to determine the liable parties.
Proving Negligence and Fault
Aside from determining who is at fault for an accident, you will need to prove that fault to have a successful claim. Proving fault generally consists of establishing that the responsible party had a duty of care toward you and that the party acted negligently or recklessly, violating that duty, and causing damage through your accident.
In a skiing or snowboarding accident, anyone who participates in the sport has a duty of care to follow the rules of the ski hill and pay attention to the surroundings. Property owners of ski resorts have a duty of care to provide a safe environment to anyone that enters their property. Since there will likely already be a duty of care in place, you will then need to prove that the other party acted negligently, leading to your injuries.
To prove fault, you may use evidence from the scene, such as photos or video, and witness statements to support your claim. If you can collect evidence after your accident, you should attempt to do so, but only if it doesn’t put your well-being in danger.
Contact Your Montana Ski and Snowboard Accident Lawyers
Skilled legal help can be the key to a successful skiing or snowboarding accident claim. Trust your case to the Montana ski and snowboard accident attorneys of Kovacich Snipes Johnson, P.C. We have extensive experience in personal injury cases, and we want to use that experience to help your case. We provide free case evaluations and will develop the best strategy to meet your unique legal needs. Contact us at 406-500-5000 to start the path to recovery today.
