UTAH ATV / SIDE-BY-SIDE / RECREATIONAL INJURY ATTORNEY—JAKE GUNTER(801) 373-6345
Utah is arguably the outdoor capital of the world. Steep mountains for skiing and high deserts for mountain biking in the summers. Lake Powell, Utah Lake and Strawberry Reservoir also have fantastic boating and jet-skiing opportunities. Moab, Utah is world famous for rock crawling jeeps and outdoor camping.
If you are hurt through someone else’s carelessness when skiing, boating or jeeping, call Utah accident attorney Jake Gunter(801) 373-6345.
Common Types of Utah Recreational Accidents Where an Injury Lawyer Can Help:
Public playground defects, dangers. All public and private playgrounds need to be maintained and designed for safety of the public in mind. Injuries caused by negligent maintenance, open dangers and defective designs are recoverable injuries. Often the homeowners’ insurance or city’s liability insurance will cover these types of injuries.
Skiing and snowboarding collisions. You have a right to be free from injuries caused by other skiers colliding with you. Lift line malfunctions causing injuries or other heavy equipment at ski resorts are supposed to be designed to avoid injuring the public.
Rental Companies. Zip line injuries. Trampoline injuries. Indoor rock climbing. Rental companies who put themselves out to the public for zip lines, trampoline centers or guided rock climbing must be operate safely. Jeep rental companies or all terrain vehicle companies will have liability insurance to cover their mistakes that hurt people.
Swimming pool deaths. A complete tragedy when young people drown or incur significant brain injuries from swimming pool injuries. Often drownings are completely avoidable through appropriate parental supervision and lifeguards.
Boating accidents, Ski-Doo, Jet-Ski collisions. Sailboat, motorboat collisions can cause death or physical injuries. State law often requires all motorboats and jet-skis to have separate liability insurance. This means the person who hit you on their boat, or ski-doo will have insurance money to cover your physical injuries.
Determining ATV Accident Fault. Who is at-fault for the collisions?
Negligent supervision. Adult parents should not allow unfamiliar young children to operate all terrain vehicles, or ATVs, Side-by-Sides, etc.
Faulty equipment and maintenance. Like cars and motorcycles, ATVs 4-Wheelers must be in proper, safe working order to rent to the public or when allowing others to use.
Passenger claims. As a passenger in a side-by-side or ATV accident you bear no fault in causing the collision. Your injury claim will be covered by the driver’s ATV 4-Wheeler insurance policy. If you also have an ATV insurance policy, that needs to be looked into also for possible coverage and benefits.
ATV intersection collisions and public road collisions. When you are driving street legal ATVs in Moab, or anywhere, your side-by-side is generally subject to the same laws as cars on the road. Your Utah recreational injury attorney should have a thorough understanding of the Utah Traffic Code, 41-6a-101 (2021).
ATV Insurance Issues. ATVs often are required to have insurance under Utah law. Further most responsible ATV or recreational vehicle owners will have separate insurance policies for their ATVS that covers all passengers and permissive drivers who they may hurt. These insurance policies generally cover all permission drivers of the ATV, and not just the side-by-side owner.
Homeowners’ Insurance Policies and ATV Claims. Sometimes if the ATV accident occurred at the residential home, like in the back two acres or front yard, the homeowners’ insurance policy will apply. This is very fact specific. See this leading Utah case on point regarding ATV accidents and homeowners’ insurance policies won by this author.
ATV Injury Appellate Decision american_national121213
Court of Appeal of Utah. Decided December 12, 2013. Injured Party’s Attorney. Jacob S. Gunter.
Causes of Utah ATV Accidents.
Defective design. Faulty equipment. Driver error. Drunk driving, Drugged Driving. Faulty maintenance of the vehicle. Bad Trail Signage.
Each of these common All Terrain Vehicle causes of injuries have unique circumstances and facts behind them. Hiring an experienced Utah ATV and recreational injury attorney can make the difference in recovering for your injuries.
HOW DO I PICK A UTAH PERSONAL INJURY ATTORNEY FOR MY INJURY CASE? I AM OUT-OF-STATE?
If you are traveling through Utah and not from here, picking a qualified Utah personal injury law firm can be challenging. It seems like every attorney has a website and says they take car accident or ATV cases. When in reality, most attorneys do not exclusively practice injury work or at best take 1-2 car accidents cases per year.
Here is what to ask and look for when picking a Utah personal injury attorney:
(1). Does the attorney advertise that they do it all? General practice? Attorneys who specialize in two or one areas of law generally are better at what they do because they see the same legal issues over and over. It’s like the dentist who only does wisdom teeth. They can be pretty efficient.
Utah personal injury attorney Jake Gunter exclusively practices criminal defense and personal injury. 100 percent of his work is courtroom work—trial work.
(2). Does the attorney try lawsuits? Or does the attorney just settle everything? Successful Utah personal injury attorneys have hundreds of court hearings under their belt. They have tried well over 20 plus juries.
Why does this matter?
The insurance companies know which Utah personal injury attorneys will take an injury case to trial and which ones will always settle. You will get better results when you hire an attorney with a reputation of trying lawsuits when needed.
(3). Experience. You want to hire young doctors and old attorneys. Practicing law is an experienced based system where older attorneys who have been practicing law for 10 years or so will get you better results. Raw jury trial experience does not come fast and new attorneys simply don’t have the experience to get the best results.
(4). Financial Capability to Hire Experts. You must hire a Utah injury law firm that has enough size and money to finance hiring the best expert witnesses in your case. Small solo, general practice attorneys often don’t have the ability to front $10,000 for the necessary experts to push your case all the way to a jury trial.
Without the right type of expert witness your case will be devalued and sometimes it will never see the inside of courtroom. You have to have good experts and they are not cheap.
Utah Personal Injury Attorney Jake Gunter has nearly 20 years of courtroom experience in handling criminal defense and personal injury cases in trial. His law firm, Howard Lewis & Petersen, PC has been around since 1950 and currently has 11 attorneys. TXT/Call for a free consultation at(801) 373-6345. Ask for Jake.