College Sports Injuries

College Sports Injuries in Providence, RI

Sports are an integral part of the college experience for many students, whether they’re playing on a school-affiliated team or for recreation. While sports are great for getting exercise and bonding with other students over a shared passion, they can also lead to significant injuries and a lasting impact on your life. If you were injured in a college sporting accident, you may be entitled to compensation for your medical expenses, lost wages, and other losses.

At DeLuca, Weizenbaum, Barry & Revens, Ltd., we’ve been representing injury victims in New England for over 40 years and have secured more than $100 million in settlements and verdicts for our clients. Contact us today for a free consultation with a knowledgeable member of our legal team to learn more about how our firm can help you seek the compensation you need after a college sports injury.

Common Sports Injuries

Any sport can lead to serious injuries. While you might immediately think of contact sports like football or wrestling, other sports like tennis, swimming, track, and baseball can also leave athletes requiring extensive medical treatment. Some of the most common sports injuries include:

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), including concussions, are caused by impacts to the head and can lead to permanent cognitive or physical disability.
Spinal cord injuries are caused by heavy impacts to the spinal column, pinching or severing the nerves that run through it. In severe cases, these injuries can result in paralysis.
Sprains and strains to soft tissues like ligaments, tendons, and muscles may require weeks or months of physical therapy and rest to recover from.
Fractured bones and dislocated joints are common injuries sustained in falls or due to contact with other players.
Knee injuries, including ACL and MCL tears, often require surgery and extensive rehabilitation. These injuries can end a college athlete’s career.
Shoulder injuries are common in swimming and sports involving throwing, like baseball, football, and some track and field sports. Injuries like rotator cuff tears may require surgery to repair.
Heat-related injuries, such as dehydration or heatstroke, can occur if athletes don’t receive enough water breaks during practice or games in hot weather.

Long-Term Consequences of Sports Injuries

While many college athletes recover from their sports injuries with proper treatment, some injuries have long-term or permanent consequences. For example, a football player who sustains a serious knee injury may have lasting mobility issues even after receiving surgery. Not only can this devastate their ambitions of playing for their school and potentially in the NFL, but it can also impact their daily life.

Brain and spinal cord injuries are also some of the most severe sports injuries, often resulting in long-term impacts. Even relatively minor head injuries can cause brain damage to build up over time, leading to debilitating conditions like chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Who Is at Fault for a College Sports Injury?

Identifying the party or parties at fault for your sports injury is essential for recovering compensation. Some of the parties that may be at fault in your case are:

Your college or university could be liable if it hired an unqualified coach or medical staff, provided inadequate training or safety equipment, or failed to follow established safety protocols to prevent injury.
Your coaches and athletic trainers could be liable if they pressured you to play through an injury, ignored signs of a head injury, or used dangerous training methods such as requiring athletes to finish practice before getting a water break.
Equipment manufacturers, like helmet manufacturers, could be liable if the safety equipment failed to work as advertised or worsened your injury in some way.

Proving Liability After a College Sports Injury

Proving liability after a college sports injury involves gathering various types of evidence. Some of the most common pieces of evidence used in these cases include:

Photographs of your visible injuries and the external factors that caused them, such as defective equipment or poorly maintained fields, courts, or tracks
Video footage of your injury occurring that puts the injury in context
Eyewitness statements that back up your claims or provide additional information that strengthens your case
Expert testimony from medical, vocational, and other professionals explaining the extent, severity, and impact of your injuries
Medical records detailing your diagnosis, prognosis, and recommended medical treatments for your injuries

Our lawyers can gather this evidence for you while you focus your attention on your recovery. We’ll investigate the incident, follow up with witnesses and other leads, and build a strong case on your behalf.

Compensation Available to Injured College Athletes

Through a personal injury lawsuit, you can seek economic and non-economic damages for the college sports injury you sustained. Economic damages are the compensation sought for your losses with tangible value. Non-economic damages are the compensation sought for your losses with subjective value.

Economic Damages

Calculating your economic damages typically involves adding up medical expenses and lost wages and estimating how much your injury will affect your future income. If you sustained a catastrophic injury, such as a spinal cord injury resulting in paralysis, your loss of future earning capacity could be a significant portion of your total damages.

To maximize your recovery, you must work with an attorney experienced in handling sports injuries and who will consult with vocational experts to determine the long-term impact your injuries will have on your earning potential.

Non-Economic Damages

Calculating your non-economic damages is often more challenging, as the losses these damages cover, such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, and the impact of your injuries on your daily life, are subjective. To seek fair compensation for these losses requires working with attorneys who can put themselves in your shoes and understand what you’re going through and will continue to go through.

These losses are also harder to establish with traditional evidence. Instead, they rely on expert testimony from medical professionals who can explain your symptoms and their impact on your life as well as other evidence.

Steps to Take to Strengthen Your Legal Case

The following steps can help strengthen your legal case after sustaining a college sports injury:

Report the injury to your coach and school as soon as possible and request that they provide a copy of their incident report for your records.
Follow up with all medical treatment and doctor’s appointments until you are told you have fully recovered or reached a point at which further recovery is no longer likely.
Keep track of all medical bills related to your sports injury. Your lawyer will use these bills to calculate your past medical expenses and estimate your future medical expenses.
Avoid providing a recorded statement to insurance companies. The at-fault party’s insurance company is not on your side, even if they say they just want to help you get compensation.
Consult a sports injury lawyer right away so they can assess your case and begin gathering evidence before it disappears or becomes harder to locate.

Contact Our Rhode Island Sports Injury Lawyers

If you suffered an injury while playing or practicing sports as part of a college team or program, contact DeLuca, Weizenbaum, Barry & Revens, Ltd., for a free consultation with one of our experienced and knowledgeable sports injury lawyers. We’ll review your case, explain your options, and walk you through the steps involved in seeking the compensation you need both in the short and long term.