As a parent, you may trust daycare staff to protect and care for your child.
When accidents happen, your child may be seriously injured. While it can
be difficult to avoid every accident, many injuries could have been prevented
by careful supervision, the removal of hazards, and the enforcement of
strict safety guidelines. If your
child has been injured due to the negligence or carelessness of daycare staff, you should learn
what your next steps are.
Seek Medical Treatment for Your Child
Before you can take any other actions, you must take your child to see
a doctor. Seeking medical care can prevent injuries from growing worse
and start your child’s recovery so they will heal fully and quickly.
When their treatment is complete, request a copy of the associated medical
bills and reports. These reports can help to prove the extent of your
child’s injuries and be used to calculate the damages for their
pain and suffering, beyond their medical expenses.
Daycare Centers & Duty of Care
In order to prove negligence on the behalf of the daycare provider, you
must demonstrate the facility did not exercise due care to prevent a foreseeable
injury or accident. Due care means the degree of care a daycare provider
or facility should be reasonably expected to exercise to prevent foreseeable
harm. It often is determined by the circumstances of your child’s
injury and how they compare to the normal, expected operation of a daycare center.
The two main factors of duty of care are:
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The cause of the injury or the circumstances of the accident: Was there adequate supervision of your child? Were there safety measures
to prevent children from pulling over furniture, falling from playground
equipment, or tripping over a hazard? Were conditions reasonably sanitary?
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The nature of the injury, and whether or not the injury was foreseeable: It can be difficult to foresee every possible situation, but your daycare
provider should ensure that reasonable protections are in place to prevent
injury. These can include installing self-latching gates to prevent children
from going into restricted areas, placing padding underneath playground
equipment, and employing enough workers to ensure that children can be
appropriately supervised and cared for.
Proving Causation
Once you have established that your child was injured, that the daycare
had a duty of care, and there was a breach in that duty, you must prove
that your child’s injuries occurred due to the breach. If your child
would not have been injured, had the daycare had taken adequate precautions,
you can prove that the daycare staff’s negligence was the actual
cause of your child’s injuries.
You will also need to establish that the daycare was also the “proximate
cause” of your child’s injuries. What this means is there
was no other intervening cause that contributed to your child’s
injuries. A proximate cause is an unforeseeable cause that is partially
responsible for your child’s accident. If there is proximate cause,
the daycare facility may not be considered negligent.
Presenting Your Claim
Prior to filing a lawsuit, you may wish to present your claim to the daycare
facility’s insurance provider. It is possible that you will be able
to settle your claim out of court. Your personal injury attorney can help
you through every step of the process and can head up negotiations to
ensure that you receive a fair settlement offer. During the process of
filing your claim, an experienced personal injury lawyer can provide insight
and can explain the legal options available to you.
At the Paulsen Law Group, we believe every client should receive compassionate,
effective legal counsel. We understand the emotional time you are facing
after your child was injured, and our Dunedin
personal injury attorneys are here to help your family receive the compensation you deserve.
We work with a wide variety of experts to help enhance your case and secure
more favorable results for you and your loved ones.
Discuss your case today by scheduling a
free consultation.
Contact our offices by calling (727) 270-8260.