Inadequately Trained Employees

Incompetence and poor or non-existent training of employees results in many unnecessary and thoroughly avoidable injuries. If you believe you may have been the victim of such an accident, we encourage you to contact us. We have successfully brought many such cases to a rewarding conclusion.

Case Summaries

Climbing wall accident leads to mediated settlement
Our client had been using a rock-climbing wall at an amusement park when the employee handling the belaying device that supported our client failed to lock the device. Our client fell and broke his neck. He could no longer work, underwent surgery, and suffered nerve damage.

There was nothing wrong with the belaying device, but it was an extremely sophisticated mechanism, one of the most complicated on the market and one that required a good amount of training to operate correctly. On the day our client was on the wall, the amusement park was understaffed and the operation of the belaying device was delegated to a young person who usually worked on the go-kart attraction.

To assist us in the case we procured the services of one of the best climbing experts in the northeast. We were also able to show that the company selling the climbing walls to amusement parks and other outlets was doing so without any concern about the warnings necessary for safe operation of the wall and climbing equipment, which included the belaying device. Further, the company that bought the walls only contracted for a short training of its employees upon delivery. The company never employed anyone who was thoroughly trained and familiar with the safe and proper operation of the belaying device and who would then train other workers operating the walls. The case settled favorably for our client at mediation without going to court for a trial.

Who Pushed The Pushcart?
Our client was at a nursery with her husband buying trees. Neither was able to lift the trees and requested help from an employee, who loaded the trees onto a cart and headed for the check-out register. At the register the employee rammed the cart into our client, throwing her to the ground and injuring her knee. She was taken away by ambulance, without ever thinking to get the name of the employee who had pushed the cart into her. The nursery owner’s insurance company unreasonably delayed the claim until we were forced to file a lawsuit. The nursery owners then claimed it was a customer who pushed the cart and not one of their employees, so they were not responsible. They no doubt were of the mind that we would have such difficulty identifying the employee that we would drop the suit or settle for a minimal amount of compensation. However, we finally won access to a list of employees who had worked that day, narrowed down the list to the employees who might have pushed the cart and went with the husband to each employee’s address until he identified the one involved. The case resolved successfully for our client without going to trial.