If a pool accident or drowning in Las Vegas left you or a family member seriously injured, you deserve compensation. The attorneys at Drummond Law Firm will fight to recover it. Pool accidents in Nevada cause severe, often life-altering injuries, including anoxic brain damage from near-drowning, spinal cord injuries from diving accidents, and wrongful death.
If a property owner’s negligence caused the accident, you may be entitled to recover medical expenses, lifetime care costs, lost wages, and pain and suffering. With more than 20 years of trial experience, our attorneys offer a free consultation to evaluate your claim. Call (702) 366-9966.
Pool Accident and Drowning Attorneys Serving Las Vegas
Drummond Law Firm represents pool accident and drowning victims throughout Las Vegas with direct, attorney-led legal representation. Every client works with a licensed attorney who investigates the property, documents the safety code violations, and builds a case designed to recover the full value of your claim. You will never be passed off to a paralegal for the decisions that count.
Clark County is home to more than 200,000 swimming pools across residential, hotel, and commercial properties. Drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages one to four nationwide. Nevada is one of only ten states where drowning surpasses all other causes of death in children under fourteen.
When a property owner fails to secure a pool, maintain required barriers, or provide adequate supervision, the resulting injuries carry severe legal and financial consequences.
Craig Drummond has litigated premises liability and wrongful death cases throughout Nevada and brings more than 20 years of trial experience to every case. As a former U.S. Army Captain and JAG attorney, he prepares every claim with the discipline that litigation against property owners and their insurers demands.
Without an Attorney vs. With Drummond Law Firm
Without an attorney, pool accident victims and their families are left negotiating directly with the property owner’s insurance company. Insurers contact victims quickly after a pool accident, often within days. The offers they make at that stage are calculated to close the file before the full cost of the injury is known.
A parent whose child suffered permanent brain damage from a near-drowning cannot know the lifetime cost of care in the first week after the accident.
With Drummond Law Firm, your case is built on the evidence the insurer does not want you to gather. Craig Drummond secured a $300,000 result in a pool drowning case.
Our attorneys retain life care planners who project the full lifetime cost of rehabilitation, cognitive therapy, and in-home care for brain injury survivors. We retain safety code experts who inspect the property and document every barrier violation, broken gate, and missing safety feature. We do not submit a demand until the medical evidence supports the full value of your claim.
The Reduced Fee Guarantee ensures our attorney fee will not exceed your net recovery, and you will not pay a fee unless we win your case.
When the stakes are high, you need an attorney who’s already been tested under pressure.
Types of Cases We Handle in Las Vegas
Drummond Law Firm handles pool accident and drowning claims across every property type in Clark County. The type of pool and the cause of the accident shape the legal strategy your attorney pursues.
Residential pool drownings are the most common cases we handle. Children gain access to backyard pools through broken gates, propped-open barriers, or missing fencing. These cases often involve the attractive nuisance doctrine.
Hotel and resort pool injuries arise when commercial operators fail to maintain safe pool deck conditions, post required depth markings, or install compliant drain covers. Las Vegas hotels process millions of guests annually, and the duty of care they owe those guests extends to every pool and spa on the property.
Near-drowning submersion injuries produce the most severe consequences of any pool accident. When a child or adult is submerged long enough for oxygen deprivation to occur, the result can be permanent anoxic brain injury. These victims require 24-hour care, specialized equipment, and decades of rehabilitation.
Diving injuries from unmarked shallow areas, drain entrapment injuries from non-compliant suction systems, and slip-and-fall injuries on wet or poorly maintained pool decks round out the cases our firm handles.
How Nevada Law Affects Your Pool Accident Case
Nevada follows modified comparative negligence under NRS 41.141. Your recovery is reduced by your percentage of fault, and if a jury assigns you more than 50 percent responsibility, you are barred from recovering anything. The property owner’s insurer will use this rule aggressively in pool accident cases.
In adult pool injuries, the defense will argue you were swimming alone, ignored posted warnings, or entered the pool while intoxicated. In child drowning cases, the defense will argue the parents failed to supervise. Your attorney must counter these arguments with evidence that the property owner’s negligence, not the victim’s conduct, was the primary cause of the accident.
Nevada recognizes the attractive nuisance doctrine for pool cases involving children. Under this doctrine, a property owner can be held liable for a child’s injuries even when the child trespassed onto the property and was never invited. The law recognizes that pools are inherently attractive to children and that children cannot appreciate the danger. The property owner has a duty to secure the pool against unsupervised access.
Nevada places no cap on non-economic damages in pool accident or wrongful death cases. A jury is free to award the full amount it believes the victim’s pain, suffering, and loss of life are worth.
What Determines the Value of a Pool Accident or Drowning Claim?
The value of a pool accident or drowning claim depends on measurable factors, not guesswork. Your attorney evaluates each factor to build a demand that reflects the full cost of the injury.
Injury severity is the primary driver. A fatal drowning produces a wrongful death claim with defined damages. A near-drowning that causes anoxic brain injury produces a lifetime care claim that can exceed wrongful death values. The surviving victim requires decades of medical treatment, cognitive therapy, and daily assistance.
In a Las Vegas apartment complex case involving a 2-year-old who nearly drowned after gaining access through a broken pool gate, the family recovered $26 million. The gate had failed a Southern Nevada Health District inspection three months before the accident.
The victim’s age affects both economic and non-economic damages. A child who suffers brain damage faces 50 or more years of future care costs, while an elderly victim’s economic damages are calculated over a shorter projected lifespan.
The number of safety code violations on the property strengthens your case and increases the settlement pressure on the defendant’s insurer. A property with one broken gate latch produces a different case from a property that failed multiple SNHD inspections and continued operating without repairs.
The type of property determines which insurance policies are available, and that availability sets the practical ceiling for recovery. Residential homeowner’s policies typically carry $100,000 to $500,000 in coverage. Hotel and commercial policies carry limits in the millions.
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Who Can Be Held Liable for a Pool Accident or Drowning?
Liability falls on whoever owned, operated, or maintained the pool where the accident occurred. More than one party often shares responsibility for a pool accident.
Residential Pool Owners
Homeowners are liable when their pool lacks code-compliant barriers, has a broken or propped-open gate, or is accessible to children in the neighborhood. The burden of securing the pool falls squarely on the homeowner.
The homeowner’s insurance policy is the primary source of recovery in residential pool cases, with umbrella policies providing additional limits above the base amount.
Hotels, Resorts, and Casinos
Hotels owe guests a heightened duty of care under Nevada’s innkeeper statute, NRS 651.015. This statute holds hotel owners civilly liable when a foreseeable wrongful act causes death or injury on the property and the owner failed to take reasonable precautions. A hotel that operates a pool without trained lifeguards during posted hours, fails to maintain drain covers, or ignores broken deck surfaces is not meeting that standard.
Commercial pool policies carry significantly larger limits than residential policies, which increases the available recovery. The presence of lifeguards does not excuse a broken barrier or a non-compliant drain cover. When a third-party staffing company provided the lifeguards, that company may share liability alongside the hotel.
HOAs, Apartments, and Property Managers
Property managers and HOAs are liable when community pools have broken barriers, non-compliant gates, or missing safety equipment. A management company that ignores documented safety violations at a community pool faces significant liability.
Apartment complexes with documented gate defects carry heightened exposure when prior notice can be proven. Management companies and HOAs carry their own insurance policies separate from the property owner, and your attorney can file against both.
Why Do Pool Barrier Code Violations Strengthen Your Case?
Pool barrier code violations create negligence per se in Nevada. This means the code violation itself establishes that the property owner was negligent without requiring your attorney to prove carelessness through additional evidence. The violation IS the proof.
The Southern Nevada Pool Code requires residential pool barriers to be at least 60 inches high, non-climbable, and equipped with self-closing, self-latching gates. Doors and windows leading to pool areas must be alarmed. Tables, chairs, and planters must be secured so they cannot be used to climb over the fence.
Public and semi-public pools are regulated by the Southern Nevada Health District under NRS Chapter 444. This chapter sets detailed requirements for water quality, drain covers, signage, lifeguard staffing, and operator certification.
When your attorney can point to a specific code violation that directly contributed to the drowning or injury, the defense loses its strongest argument. A gate that did not self-latch, a fence that was only 48 inches high, or a non-compliant drain cover are all code violations. They establish liability before the jury hears any other evidence.
What Compensation Can You Recover After a Pool Accident?
Nevada law allows pool accident and drowning victims to recover economic, non-economic, and punitive damages.
Economic damages cover emergency medical treatment, ICU stays, surgery, rehabilitation, lost wages, and future medical costs. For near-drowning victims with anoxic brain injury, economic damages extend to cover every cost of long-term care for the rest of the victim’s life. These figures can reach millions of dollars.
Non-economic damages account for pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of companionship. Families who lose a child or a loved one to drowning face grief that no settlement can undo. Nevada law ensures that the responsible party bears the financial consequences of that loss.
Punitive damages may apply when the property owner knew about a safety hazard and failed to correct it. A landlord or HOA that received an SNHD inspection citing non-compliant barriers and continued operating the pool without repairs may face punitive liability.
How Long Do You Have to File a Pool Accident Lawsuit in Nevada?
Nevada gives you two years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit under NRS 11.190. Once that deadline passes, the court will almost certainly dismiss your case.
If the pool is owned or operated by a government entity, you must file a government tort claim before you can pursue a lawsuit. This applies to municipal pools and public park facilities. The notice period for government claims is significantly shorter than the standard two-year deadline. Missing it can bar your claim entirely.
Pool drowning evidence disappears quickly after the accident. Gates are repaired, barriers are replaced, and surveillance footage is overwritten within days. Contacting an attorney early preserves your ability to document the conditions that caused the accident before the property owner corrects them.
How Drummond Law Firm Can Help
Drummond Law Firm provides attorney-led representation for pool accident and drowning victims across Las Vegas and Clark County. Drawing on more than 20 years of trial experience, our attorneys fight to recover the compensation your family deserves. Craig Drummond, a former U.S. Army Captain and Bronze Star recipient, brings military discipline to every case our firm handles.
Our team projects the full lifetime cost of every injury so that no future expense is left out of your demand.
The Reduced Fee Guarantee ensures we will never take more than you receive in a settlement, and you will not pay a fee unless we win your case. Call the Captain today at (702) 366-9966 to schedule a free consultation.
