J. Cogburn Car Accident and Personal Injury Lawyers | September 26, 2024 | Personal Injury

Who is Liable in Research-Related Injuries?

Many people participate in medical research or clinical trials involving experimental therapies, drugs, or treatments that might present dangers to the participants. If you participate in such a study and suffer injury or even death as a consequence, is financial compensation available? 

Possible Defendants

Financial compensation may or may not be available under Nevada law. The liable party, if any, will probably be the party that initiated and administered the study–a university, for example, or a government agency. Liability might also extend to manufacturers of defective drugs or devices used in the study, 

Following are some examples of common research-related injuries:

  • Adverse reactions to drugs
  • Complications from medical procedures
  • Emotional distress or psychological harm
  • The worsening of a pre-existing medical condition
  • Infections from contaminated equipment

There are hundreds more common examples.

The Elements of a Negligence Claim

In a negligence claim, you are telling the defendant, “Your carelessness injured me, and I demand compensation.”  To win compensation, you must prove:

  1. Duty: The defendant owed you a duty of care. In a research study, that duty of care is higher than, say, the duty of care that a driver owes other drivers on the road.
  2. Breach: Whatever the applicable duty of care, the defendant failed to meet its demands.
  3. Damages: You suffered some sort of harm, typically physical harm.
  4. Actual cause: It was the defendant’s breach of duty that caused the harm you suffered.
  5. Proximate cause: The harm you suffered was a foreseeable consequence of the defendant’s breach of duty.    

You have to prove all five of these elements to win a negligence claim. 

The Assumption of Risk Defense

When you participate in a research study, you are taking a risk. Typically, the administrators of the study will pay you for your time, effort, and risk. They will also inform you of the risks in writing and have you sign a waiver of liability. This process is known as “informed consent.” Signing a waiver of liability makes it more difficult to sue the administrators if you get hurt because they can assert the assumption of risk defense. 

In an assumption of risk defense, the defendant basically says, “You knew the risks and voluntarily accepted them, so you can’t demand compensation if you got hurt.” However, the defense has loopholes (see below).

Defective Waivers of Liability

You might have signed a waiver of liability, but is it effective? Here are some defects in a waiver of liability that might render it legally ineffective: 

  • Intentional misconduct or gross negligence: Any waiver that purports to shield the defendant from this degree of misconduct is legally invalid as a matter of public policy. 
  • Vague wording: The waiver was difficult to understand or missing information
  • Failure of informed consent: The waiver contained insufficient information to allow you to gauge the risks you will be exposing yourself to.
  • Inherently dangerous activities: The risk involved “inherently dangerous activities,” such as testing a new vaccine. Some activities are so dangerous that no amount of caution can render them safe. You cannot waive the right to compensation for harm arising out of an inherently dangerous activity. 
  • Unreasonable danger to the public: Intentionally infecting someone with an extremely contagious disease to test the effectiveness of a new treatment, for example, is a risk that the law will not allow the public to assume. After all, “patient zero” might start an epidemic. If you are patient zero, a liability waiver will not protect the defendant.
  • Particularly vulnerable participants: The participants in the study are particularly vulnerable, rendering it unjust to hold them responsible for assuming a risk. This might mean children or the mentally handicapped, for example.


Keep in mind that special procedures apply to filing claims against government agencies, even when liability is clear. 

Handling a personal injury claim arising from participation in a research study will definitely require the intervention of an experienced Las Vegas personal injury lawyer. Your claim might be worth more than you think, especially once you include pain and suffering.

Contact J. Cogburn Car Accident and Personal Injury Lawyers today to schedule a free consultation if you have been injured.  

For more information, please contact our Las Vegas personal Injury attorneys at J. Cogburn Car Accidents and Personal Injury Lawyers to schedule a free consultation today.

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