New Jersey Trampoline Accident Lawyer

New Jersey Law and How It Applies to Trampoline Injuries

A trampoline injury claim in New Jersey usually begins with premises liability. Premises liability means the legal responsibility a person or business may have for injuries that happen on property they own, lease or control. Closely tied to it is the duty of care, which is the level of caution the law expects someone to use toward people on their property or using their equipment.

A negligence claim asks four questions. Was there a duty? Was that duty breached, meaning the person or business fell short of the care the law expects? Did that breach cause the injury? And did the injury cause real losses, called damages? An injury on its own does not answer any of these. Whether each element is met depends on the facts of what happened.

The setting changes how those questions play out. A trampoline park is a business that invites the public in to jump. A backyard trampoline sits on private property, often used by family members, friends and neighbors. How New Jersey defines the duty owed to each kind of visitor depends on the state's current law, and the facts of each visit matter.

New Jersey also has a recreational-use statute that speaks directly to landowners. Section 2A:42A-3 of the New Jersey Statutes provides, subject to the next section, that an owner, lessee or occupant of premises, "whether or not improved or maintained in a natural condition, or used as part of a commercial enterprise, owes no duty to keep the premises safe for entry or use by others for sport and recreational activities," or to warn of hazardous conditions. It adds that giving someone permission to enter for recreation does not extend an assurance of safety or make that person an invitee owed a duty of care.

That protection has limits. Under section 2A:42A-4 of the New Jersey Statutes, the act does not limit liability that would otherwise exist for a "willful or malicious failure to guard, or to warn against, a dangerous condition"; for injury where permission to engage in the activity "was granted for a consideration" other than any consideration paid to the landowner by the State; or for injury caused by permitted users to other people the owner owes a duty to keep safe. "Consideration" is the legal word for something given in exchange, such as an admission price. Whether either section applies to a particular trampoline, park or backyard depends on the facts.

Trampoline Park Injuries, Backyard Accidents, and Product Failures

The kind of trampoline accident shapes the legal questions it raises. In New Jersey, as on the rest of this site, three settings come up most often.

At a commercial trampoline park, the questions usually center on what the law asks of an operator that charges people to jump: keeping courts, pads and equipment in a reasonably safe condition, setting and enforcing rules, and watching the floor. A claim built on a failure to watch participants is often called negligent supervision. Negligent supervision means failing to use reasonable care in overseeing the people an operator or host is responsible for, such as letting jumpers of very different sizes share one court. Whether any operator met or fell short of these standards is a question of fact in each case, never a conclusion drawn from the injury itself.

In a backyard, the questions shift to the homeowner or occupant and to the guest's status. Traditional premises law sorts visitors into categories: an invitee (someone invited for a business purpose), a licensee (someone present with permission for their own purposes) and a social guest (someone invited as a friend or family member). How New Jersey currently treats each category, and how that interacts with the recreational-use sections above, depends on the state's current law and the facts.

When the equipment itself fails, product liability may come into play. Product liability is the legal responsibility of those who make or sell a product for injuries caused by a defect in it. A claim of this kind asks whether the trampoline, mat, spring, frame or enclosure was defective, and whether that defect caused the injury. A broken spring or a torn net does not by itself prove a defect.

This site covers the injuries these accidents can involve, including fractures, spinal injuries and traumatic brain injuries, and the treating physicians' records are where those injuries are described for a claim. Whether any of these legal theories fits a given accident depends on its specific facts.

Who May Be Responsible for a Trampoline Injury in New Jersey

When a family starts asking who is responsible, the honest answer is that it may be more than one party, and the facts decide which.

A commercial trampoline park operator may be a potential defendant under premises liability and, where the facts support it, negligent supervision. A property owner who leases space to an operator may also be part of the picture, depending on who controlled the premises.

A private homeowner or occupant may be a potential defendant for a backyard accident. As described above, sections 2A:42A-3 and 2A:42A-4 can affect a landowner's duty when someone enters for sport or recreation, with the exceptions section 2A:42A-4 lists.

Where a defect is claimed, the manufacturer, importer, distributor or retailer of the trampoline or its parts may be potential defendants under product liability.

New Jersey then sorts out shared fault through comparative fault, a rule that measures each side's share of responsibility and adjusts recovery accordingly. Section 2A:15-5.1 of the New Jersey Statutes states:

"Contributory negligence shall not bar recovery in an action by any person or his legal representative to recover damages for negligence resulting in death or injury to person or property, if such negligence was not greater than the negligence of the person against whom recovery is sought or was not greater than the combined negligence of the persons against whom recovery is sought. Any damages sustained shall be diminished by the percentage sustained of negligence attributable to the person recovering."

In plain terms, a jumper who was partly careless is not shut out if their share was not greater than that of the party, or the parties combined, they are pursuing. Any damages are reduced by their own percentage. For a parent worried that a child broke a park rule, this is the rule that frames the question. A conversation with an attorney can help sort out how responsibility might be divided when several parties were involved.

What a Participation Agreement Does and Does Not Decide

Many New Jersey trampoline parks ask each jumper, or a parent, to sign a document before entering. A waiver or release, often called a participation agreement, is a contract in which a person gives up certain legal rights in exchange for being allowed to take part. These documents can also contain an arbitration provision, which sends disputes to a private arbitrator instead of a court and jury.

The New Jersey Appellate Division addressed one such agreement in Docket No. A-1861-20, decided May 16, 2022 and approved for publication. The patron there had signed the agreement himself to enter a trampoline park. The court held that "the arbitration provision contained in the agreement that plaintiff signed is valid and enforceable," and that its "broad language is a clear and unambiguous waiver of plaintiff's right to a jury trial and to pursue his claims in a court of law." The court affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded for entry of a new order.

The agreement quoted in the opinion required disputes to be "brought within one year of its accrual (i.e., the date of the alleged injury) for an adult and within the applicable statute of limitations for a minor," before one arbitrator administered by JAMS. That is the agreement's own wording, not a New Jersey statute.

Three limits matter here. This is a New Jersey ruling under New Jersey law, not the rule in other states. It addressed arbitration and the jury-trial waiver for a patron who signed for himself, so it does not answer questions about a parent signing for a child. And it was not a finding that any park caused anyone's injury. What a particular agreement means for a particular claim depends on its exact language and the facts, which is often worth raising with an attorney.

Filing Deadlines Under New Jersey Law

A statute of limitations is the law's deadline for filing a lawsuit. New Jersey sets several that can touch a trampoline case.

For an injury to the person, section 2A:14-2 of the New Jersey Statutes provides that, except as otherwise provided by law, every action for an injury "caused by the wrongful act, neglect or default of any person within this State shall be commenced within two years next after the cause of any such action shall have accrued." The same section has a separate rule for birth-injury malpractice that does not apply to trampoline injuries.

For a child, section 2A:14-21 of the New Jersey Statutes provides that if a person entitled to bring an action covered by that section "is under the age of 18 years," or has a mental disability that prevents understanding legal rights or bringing an action, at the time the claim accrues, the person may bring it "within the time as limited by those statutes, after reaching majority or having the mental capacity" to pursue their rights.

For a death, section 2A:31-3 of the New Jersey Statutes requires a wrongful death action to be "commenced within 2 years after the death of the decedent, and not thereafter," except that if the death resulted from murder, aggravated manslaughter or manslaughter for which the defendant has been convicted, found not guilty by reason of insanity or adjudicated delinquent, "the action may be brought at any time."

A separate rule applies when a public entity, meaning a government body such as a town or a publicly operated recreation facility, may be responsible. New Jersey's Tort Claims Act is the law governing injury claims against public entities and employees. Section 59:8-8 of the New Jersey Statutes requires a claim to be presented "not later than the 90th day after accrual." Suit may be filed after six months from the date the notice is received. The claimant is "forever barred" if the claim was not filed within 90 days of accrual "except as otherwise provided in N.J.S.59:8-9," if two years have elapsed since accrual, or if the claimant settled the claim. The section also allows a minor or a mentally incapacitated person to bring the action within these time limits after reaching majority or returning to capacity.

When a claim accrues, and which of these rules applies, depends on the facts. If you are trying to work out which deadline governs your family's situation, you can request a case evaluation to talk it through with our attorney.

Damages New Jersey Law May Allow

Damages are the losses the law measures when a claim succeeds, not a promise that any will be awarded. Which categories of loss New Jersey recognizes in an injury or wrongful death case, and how they are measured, depend on the state's current law and the facts. One point is settled: under section 2A:15-5.1, discussed above, any damages are diminished by the injured person's own percentage of negligence.

For families after a death, wrongful death is a claim brought because a death was caused by someone else's wrongful act or neglect. Section 2A:31-2 of the New Jersey Statutes says who brings it. The action is brought "in the name of an administrator ad prosequendum or administrator of the decedent." An administrator ad prosequendum is a person appointed by a court for the specific purpose of bringing the lawsuit. Where the person who died left a will that is probated, the executor named in the will, or the administrator with the will annexed, brings the action. If a qualified person filed before being formally appointed, the court may allow that designation and let the pleadings be amended to relate back to the first filing.

What a wrongful death action may cover depends on New Jersey's current law and the facts of the family's loss. Grieving families often find that the first practical step is simply learning who has to be appointed before anything can be filed.

Records and Information That Often Matter in These Cases

Each element of a claim has to be shown with something concrete, and the records usually come from a few familiar places. If you were hurt, the records that usually matter include:

• Medical records and treatment notes, from the emergency visit through follow-up care, which describe the injury and its treatment.
• Photos and video of the court, the backyard, the equipment and the injury, including any footage the park recorded.
• The participation agreement or release signed at the park, which can bear on arbitration and timing under the 2022 decision discussed above.
• Incident or accident reports a facility prepared after the fall.
• The names and contact information of witnesses, such as other jumpers, parents and staff.
• Where a product defect is at issue, the trampoline, mat, springs or enclosure themselves, along with the receipt, order history or other purchase records.

Families often find these items scattered across phones, email and a bag of paperwork from the hospital. Each one connects to a question the law asks: the medical records to damages, the scene photos to breach, the equipment to a claimed defect. For comparison with neighboring rules, this site's Connecticut trampoline injury law and Maryland trampoline injury law pages show how differently two other states treat the same questions, and the trampoline accident claims overview covers the general elements.