subject: How To Avoid A Frightful Halloween Lawsuit [print this page] According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Halloween is one is of America's most dangerous and deadly holidays. Statistically, Halloween usually competes 1-2-3 with Fourth of July and New Years Eve for the most injuries and deaths. These injuries and deaths oftentimes turn into lawsuits and claims. Here are tips on how to keep from getting nailed with a frightful Halloween lawsuit.
You certainly don't want your Halloween decorations to turn into a premises liability lawsuit. On Halloween you have to expect kids and adults to be coming to your front door, ringing the doorbell, and screaming "Trick-or-treat." Whether you put out decorations or turn out the lights and pretend that no one has been in your home for months, you still have to expect the young, the foolish, and the crazies to come onto your property. When folks come onto your property and get injured, you can't be surprised if you get sued. Like everything else, an ounce of prevention will keep you out of court.
You need to look at your property from the perspective of an ultra-excited hyper four year old. You know their coming, now is the time to protect yourself from liability. Here, your main focus is fall and burn hazards. Trick-or-treaters are usually all decked out in costumes that limit visibility and affect mobility and coordination. In other words, they have difficulty seeing and walking. Therefore, you need to take extra effort to eliminate tripping hazards on your yard, porch, and walkway. Remove anything that could be an obstacle such tools, toys, and ladders from lawns, steps, and porches. Check around your property for flower pots, low tree limbs, support wires or garden hoses that may prove hazardous to young children rushing from house to house.
While a dark yard might seem fun and scary, it certainly will feel scary when you get served with the lawsuit. It's best to keep your yard well lit to minimize slips, trips and falls.
Consider fire safety when decorating. Do not overload electrical outlets with holiday lighting or special effects, and do not block exit doors. Candlelit jack-o'-lanterns should be kept away from landings and doorsteps where costumes could brush against the flame.
The nicest, mild-mannered chow-chow or pit bull can and will easily freak out when ghosts and monsters start to walk across their yard. Don't rely on the "one-bite" rule to shield you from legal liability. Many states, including California, no longer follow the "one-bite" rule. It is very foreseeable your dog will bite a monster slinking across its front yard screaming "trick-or-treat." Your best bet is to confine, segregate or otherwise prepare your house pets for an evening of frightful sights and sounds.
Pedestrians' deaths and injuries soar every Halloween. Every year children and adults get hit by cars in staggering numbers. At dusk its young children roaming residential streets all over America. At dark it's older kids and young teens terrorizing these same neighborhoods. Later, it is the older teens, college kids and young (and not so young) adults. Mix in dark costumes, costumes that limit visibility and mobility and you have a receipe for disaster. Throw in alcohol and you can easily understand why Halloween is so deadly to pedestrians.
The first thing you need to recognize as a driver on Halloween is that people believe they own the streets and have the right of way. Forget you are driving a car and expect people to stay out of your way. You have to drive extremely defensively. Expect kids to run out into the street behind parked cars. Expect kids wearing black costumes while walking in pitch dark with their backs facing traffic. Expect that trick-or-treaters aren't going to see you because their costumes obscure their visibility.
Drive very slowly and defensively. Watch for children and pedestrians crossing the streets. Enter and exit driveways and alleyways slowly and carefully. Expect kids to walk behind high profile SUV's and trucks that have blind spots.
The same goes for college campuses, college housing, and the like. They come out of the woodwork on Halloween. Instead, of dealing with the judgment of a five year old, you now have to expect the "trick-or-treaters" to be drunk or worse. In other words, the five year old probably has better judgment. Expect idiots, drunks, and fools.
Speaking of alcohol, drinking and driving is never a good idea. However, it doesn't take an ex-deputy District Attorney to tell you nothing screams; "Pull me over," more than people driving at 1:30 a.m. while decked out in their full Halloween party regalia. You don't want to trick your treat in the county jail. And that's if you're lucky. Lucky Halloween drunk drivers end up in the drunk tank. As opposed to the morgue or the hospital. Hit a pedestrian while impaired and you will face jail time and a civil lawsuit. And, most States justifiably allow punitive damages against drunk drivers that injure or kill people.
It's never a good idea to drive in a Halloween costume that impairs visibility or mobility. Trying to see traffic while wearing a monster mask is not recommended; nor is trying to find the brake pedal while wearing a horse outfit.
Besides doing your best to avoid Halloween litigation, you still need to have ample insurance protection. Small children are held to a lower standard of care than adults. In other words, it will be much easier for a child to sue you for a Halloween related injury than an adult. Be sure to have adequate homeowner's insurance and auto insurance. Most homeowners policies provide basic coverage. Which provides little or no protection against a catastrophic injury or death.
You want to have enough insurance to cover the value of your assets. Most basic homeowners policies come with about $100,000 of liability coverage. Buying an umbrella policy is the easiest and least expensive way to increase your liability coverage. For about $200 to $300 a year, you can get up to $1 million or more of coverage. This additional protection applies to your auto and homeowners coverage. Finally, in these economic times you need to assume that other drivers don't have adequate liability insurance or have no insurance. Your best protection is uninsured motorist/ under insured motorist. Auto insurance companies downplay this type of insurance because it is not a money maker. You need to insist on the highest uninsured motorist coverage possible.
If you follow these suggestions, then you have a pretty decent chance at avoiding Halloween tragedy and the lawsuit that will inevitably follow.
