Legal Question in Personal Injury in Delaware

Trampoline liability

You recognize the risk, which means you should use reasonable care to protect yourself and the kids, so there's a multi-pronged response.

Generally, a homeowner is not automatically liable just because someone gets hurt; the plaintiff would have to show that you were negligent with respect to a dangerous condition.

To protect yourselves:

Homeowners' insurance is absolutely vital. You should check with your insurance agent; tell him you have a trampoline and you want to make sure there isn't any exclusion if someone was hurt.

A consent or waiver form won't hurt, it might help make kids a little more careful. But it's doubtful how much legal effect it would have, especially since minors generally can't make binding contracts. You need to check with a Delaware lawyer about that, and also ask about whether your state recognizes "assumption of risk."

To protect the kids and yourself:

First, make sure the trampoline is in good shape and maintain it. Otherwise, if injury was caused by, say, a missing spring, that could be negligence.

Second, use reasonable care to supervise the kids using it: have an enforce rules against horseplay, multiple people being on it, etc.

Third, I think you need some secure way of preventing it from use when you're not around.

Doing these things will help show that you used reasonable care if someone does get hurt, and more important, reduces the chances of that happening.

The above does not constitute legal opinion and is offered for the purposes of discussion only. The law differs in every jurisdiction, and you should not rely on any opinion except that of an attorney you have retained, who has a professional duty to advise you after being fully informed of all the pertinent facts and who is familiar with the applicable law.

Backyard Liability

For an accurate legal opinion, hire an attorney in DE.

As a child, some of my fondest memories were afternoons spent on a trampoline at a friend's house. But that was then and this is now.

As an attorney, (if you are really concerned) if you want to control your liability -- get rid of it.

What a sad thing to say.

If you want to limit folks like me from bringing an action against you when a neighborhood child is injured, I would consider the following to be the most harmful to my action against you:

1) Written permission from the kids parents ack. the risk and auth them to play on the tramp.

2) a fence around the tramp that is locked and no one is allowed to use the tramp. when you are not at home. (Your biggest ristk is going to be from transient kids who come onto your property, roughouse on the tramp and get injured).

3) Never allow people onto the tramp. that you do not know. Only let your children and their friends play on it. This one precaution will eliminate most of your risk.

4) Pack it up in the winter and on weekends when you are out of towm. Or, at least, disable it --remove springs -- close and seal with a chain, etc.

5) Check DE law to see if posting signs will reduce your liabiltiy. In GA, certain activities gain IMMUNITY by simply posting signs and getting signatures. Horseback riding is immune from suit if a sign is posted containing language conforming to a certain GA code section. Delaware may have a similiar statute for haz activities. However, one difference here is your tramp. is not an amusement for hire.

6) Never charge $ for it. The liability rules change.

7) The big $ risk is spinal cord injuries. It is unclear to me what actions should be taken with a tramp to eliminate or reduce the risk of spinal cord injuries, but if the manufacturer has suggestions in its literature about how to reduce or eliminate injuries -- take them.

Hope this helps.