Daycare injuries can have devastating repercussions for all involved. More serious incidents could incur medical bills and income losses as well as long-term disabilities or deformities that require permanent treatments.
Consulting a qualified attorney may help determine the most effective course of action.
Document the Incident
Families may assume that any injury to their child at a daycare facility automatically qualifies as grounds for legal action. But this may not always be true: whether the daycare had a duty to keep your child safe, breached it, and their actions caused your child harm is all important consideration.
First step to successfully filing a claim against a daycare is documenting the incident. As memory fades with time, documenting an incident as soon as it occurred is key for making your claim successful. A detailed incident report should include information such as date and time of accident; names and contact info of witnesses involved; any immediate medical treatment received such as hospital visits or follow up care plans; as well as risks or hazards such as physical abuse or neglect that were known about by the daycare.
Your attorney will work to demonstrate that a daycare had an obligation to maintain its equipment in good condition and that this duty was breached, thus injuring your child.
Successful daycare injury lawsuits hinge on proving causation – that the negligence of the daycare was directly responsible for your child’s injuries. Your attorney will conduct a comprehensive investigation, interviewing witnesses and your child as well as gathering strong evidence like surveillance footage and medical bills to build your case successfully.
Seek Medical Attention
If your child sustains an injury at daycare, the first thing that should happen is taking them to see a doctor for medical treatment. Not only is this beneficial to their wellbeing, but also in creating a record of their injuries which will serve as valuable evidence against any legal claims that may follow.
Following an accident at a daycare center, it is imperative to obtain an official incident report as this will provide documentation of how it occurred and identify possible negligence on their part. Inquire whether there may be surveillance footage that may prove useful in your case.
While some injuries at daycare may be unavoidable, most are the result of negligence or wrongdoing by the facility itself. Daycares must meet strict safety requirements in order to provide children with safe environments; failing to do so could result in serious injuries to children who attend there.
Assuming, for example, that a daycare hires staff without properly screening them and one of them injures your child as a result, this would constitute negligent hiring and you might be entitled to compensation in terms of medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, disfigurement and emotional distress. An experienced personal injury lawyer could assess your case to ascertain whether the daycare is responsible.
Gather Evidence
Parents seeking to file a successful daycare injury claim against a facility must show evidence that it owed them a duty of care to ensure children were safe at daycare. For this purpose, evidence such as witness testimony, medical records or photographic documentation are often required as proof.
Evidence may seem like an uphill struggle, but with help from an experienced personal injury attorney it can become achievable. A specialist in daycare negligence will have access to more evidence than an individual could on their own; such as checking whether video surveillance cameras exist at the daycare and interviewing witnesses who could provide valuable statements.
An attorney can also review any liability waivers signed upon enrollment at daycare facilities, which state that if their child is injured while there, all responsibility lies with their parents and no legal claims can be pursued against the daycare. This can be critical as many daycares have waivers stating this fact and cannot pursue legal claims on their behalf if injuries occur while attending daycare.
If a daycare’s negligence directly led to your child’s injuries, you can pursue compensation for medical expenses, pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement and emotional distress. To do this, it is necessary to establish that they were negligent by showing how their failure to supervise safe conditions or meet state regulations caused the injuries of your child.
Contact an Attorney
Parents often worry that when their child is injured at daycare, whether the cause may be abuse. Even minor scrapes and bruises should raise an eyebrow – therefore it is imperative that injuries are reported to the institution as quickly as possible and medical attention sought as soon as possible – especially if there is any suspicion that this was due to abuse by staff at daycare. A New York personal injury lawyer can offer invaluable legal support should such issues arise.
As part of enrolling your child into a daycare facility, they may ask you to sign a liability waiver. This waiver protects them against liability in case your child experiences injury while under their care; however, this does not preclude you from filing suit if an incident does arise that caused harm to your child.
An attorney can help you establish that a daycare was negligent by showing that it owed them a duty of care, breached it, and that its violation caused your child’s injury.
Eyewitness statements will also be necessary, and an experienced attorney can help you interview witnesses and secure statements which support your claim. Furthermore, they can assist with calculating any damages including pain and suffering as well as quality of life issues that you may be eligible to recover from the negligent party.