What if My Child Was Injured at a Baseball Game?

December 14, 2023

Since 1871 baseball has been America’s pastime. Where better to spend time with your family under a summer evening sky than a baseball diamond?

Unfortunately whether you’re in Indianapolis watching the Indians play or at home in Muncie watching Little League, a sports-venue injury is always possible, and if you find yourself facing this situation, where do you turn? Who might be at fault, and how might you proceed in receiving compensation if your child was injured due to someone else’s negligence?

Premises Liability at a Public Place

Property owners can be held responsible for injuries that occur on their property. This is called premises liability.

Premises liability operates under the assumption that the parties in charge of running a venue (in your case, a baseball diamond including the seating around it) has certain responsibilities to their patrons, including making sure their venue meets a reasonable standard of safety.

Basically, a baseball diamond owner should keep their venue clean and free of any hazards that may cause injury.

Who Was Negligent?

Say your child buys herself a hot dog from the concessions stand and, while she’s returning to her seat, she slips and falls because she ignored a “Wet Floor” sign on a section of rain-slick concrete.

In this instance, though she was injured on the property and time of the baseball diamond facilitators, she would likely be responsible for her own injury. The owners had done everything in their power to make patrons aware of the dangerous slick floor by, if not by outright removing the hazard, then at least by warning of its existence.

Say your daughter slips on the same patch of wet floor, but this time, it’s because there was no visible signage warning her of the danger.

In this instance, the diamond owners may be culpable, especially if they were aware of the issue and had ample time to address it—and didn’t.

Negligence is the crux of any premises liability case. If someone didn’t do their part to ensure their own safety or the safety of their patrons, then they have been negligent in some capacity.

Help from a Local Personal Injury Lawyer

As a parent, you want to make sure your child has the best possible experiences during their summer vacation. If you or someone you know has had a child injured at a baseball diamond because of someone else’s negligence, Hensley Legal Group may be able to help. Call us today or contact us online for a free conversation about your claim.

Read our previous post about how to handle a car accident at a county fair.