What Is the ‘Assumption of Risk’ Defense and How Can It Affect Your Injury Claim?

Assumption of the risk. What does that really mean and how does it affect your claim? So, it’s what it sounds like. You’ve assumed the risk, right? So, there are different activities that have more of a risk than others. So, if you engage in skiing for instance and there was a big jump and you decided to take the jump, right? You assumed the risk is the argument from the defense that you knew there was a risk implied when you went over that jump and that could cause injury. You landed, you broke your leg. They’re going to argue, well, you knew that you were at risk. You took the jump. Maybe you’re a beginner skier and you shouldn’t have done it. Our argument was there should have been warning signs. It wasn’t properly graded. The jump wasn’t designed properly. The landing space isn’t correct. And the assumption of the risk shouldn’t be relevant. And this is obviously aside from what we would call a waiver because if you go skiing, you’re going to sign a waiver or it’s basically written on the back of your ticket. So depending on what the activity is, that’s really what assumption of the risk is.