Picture this: You’ve been feeling tense and stressed out lately, so you decide to treat yourself to a relaxing massage at a local spa. The lights are dim, the music is soothing, and you’re finally starting to unwind – until you feel a sharp pain in your neck. You flinch, and the massage therapist apologizes, but the pain only intensifies. You leave the spa feeling worse than when you arrived, and later learn that you’ve suffered a serious injury as a result of the massage. Can you sue for massage injuries? The answer is yes – but the process can be complicated.

People normally pay for therapeutic or medical massage treatment to eliminate joint discomfort, back pain and other emotional and physical aches. As with any medical treatment, a massage does not always go as planned, you might aggravate your preexisting injuries or suffer new complications due to the negligence of the massage therapist. So, if it happens, can you sue for damages? Absolutely yes! You can hire a personal injury lawyer to look after your case and get you the compensation you deserve.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the legal issues surrounding massage injuries and what you need to know if you’re considering taking legal action.

What Kind of a Lawsuit?

Suing for a massage, personal injury cases are similar to those of classic medical malpractice cases. If a massage therapist fails to meet the standard of care equal to their expertise, he/she could be at fault for medical malpractice. There are several ways a massage therapist can cause injuries to you, including:

• Failure to diagnose the injury
• Failure to treat an injury properly or causes new injuries
• Failure to adequately train and supervise
• Failure to use to provide appropriate sanitary massage equipment
• Failure to ask for your medical history or pre-message evaluation
• The defective or improperly maintained equipment.

Who Can You Sue?

Although a massage therapist may be directly liable for your message injuries, you may have claim against the operators and owner of the gyms, health spas, hotels and other facilities hosting massage services. Under the vicarious liability theory, employers or business owners can be held liable for the negligence of their employees. Other staff may also be held liable for negligence, and if there was an unsafe condition of the message room, you might bring a claim on premises liability.

How to Prove the Liability

However, the liability is established when the action of the massage therapist falls below the level of care established by the professions: negligence. To establish the negligence, you must present the testimony of another massage therapist, indicating what level of care or standard. You will have to represent this testimony of negligence from an expert not only as the standard of care, but also to show that the defendant failed to meet this standard. The testimony must prove that:

• The massage therapist or massage parlor owed you a general duty of care
• The message therapist deviates from the standard of care, which breached the duty of care
• The breach of the duty of care caused a significant injury to you
• The injury caused you psychological, physical and/ or financial damages
• You were not responsible for your injuries
• The evidence of your injuries are not obtainable
• The injuries are not the kind that can ordinarily occur in the absence of negligence.

Informed Consent

If the therapist failed to obtain your informed consent before starting his or her therapeutic procedures or treatments, it can amount to negligence and may give rise to a cause of action for battery. The specific definition of informed consent in Staten Island essentially means that the massage therapist must tell you all the potential benefits, alternatives and risks involved in any massage therapy procedure. Besides, the therapist must obtain your written consent to proceed.

Hire an Experienced Personal Injury Attorney

There are a few ways to prove massage therapy malpractice. It is therefore important to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer who can prove fault in your case. The attorney will discuss the weaknesses and strength of your case, advise you on how to proceed and even represent during the court hearings.