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For most parents, protecting children from harm is the top priority. Unfortunately, as much as we would like to be able to keep our kids from ever getting hurt, accidents happen, and when negligence is at the root of it, then your child may be entitled to financial compensation. To be negligent, one must start with a duty of care and then have breached that duty.
Due to their small physical sizes and developing bodies and brains, children can get severe injuries from even seemingly minor accidents. Parents may need to take time away from work to provide care for the child, putting further financial stress and strain on the family. Personal injury claims are one way to get compensation for those costs. Parents can pursue those claims on behalf of their children, and if they opt out of doing so, children have a short period after reaching adulthood to file their claims. An Aurora child injury lawyer can help families explore their options.
Given that children generally have greater supervision and protection than other people, it may be surprising to learn that they are much more likely to get injured than adults. Accidental injuries are the leading cause of death for children over the age of one. They are active, curious, and do not understand the potential dangers that they face.
While almost anything can expose a child to risk, some things are much more likely to lead to injuries than others. The top causes of accidental injuries among children include:
The nature of the injury helps determine the nature of the case. Theories of negligence can include product liability, premises liability, breach of a duty of care, and intentional harm, among others. An Aurora lawyer who handles child injuries will focus on the duty of care the wrongdoer owed to the child and how they breached that duty.
When something on their property hurts a child, the property owner’s responsibility depends on the type of harm. For example, Illinois has strict liability for dog bites but uses a negligence standard for most other types of harm. Even with an attractive nuisance, if the property owner took appropriate steps to exclude the child from the property, they may not be liable. A child injury lawyer can explain how the law might impact this type of claim.
When parents leave their child in the care of another adult—or even a teenager—they expect that older person to use proper supervision to watch the child. It can be challenging to determine whether an injury is due to negligence —it requires more than showing that an injury happened while the child was under someone else’s care.
Many times, the proof relies on a child’s account of the events, which may differ from the account given by the supervising adults. In a he-said, she-said context, factfinders may overly rely on the accounts given by adults rather than listening to the accounts by children. An Aurora child injury attorney may look for other evidence to substantiate the child’s claim, such as video evidence, reports by other caretakers, or reports by children.
Defective products are another common cause of childhood injuries, especially toys or things like a stroller or a baby crib. Products can be defective in several ways—design, manufacture, or marketing. Product liability is strict liability. In other words, an Aurora attorney does not need to prove that the manufacturer was negligent in order to win the claim. Instead, they have to prove that there was a defect, that the defect led to an injury, and that the injury led to the damages that the victim is claiming.
Protecting a child from injuries is not always possible, but you can still protect your child by helping them get the compensation they need. If your child suffered an injury, determining the responsible parties and understanding your child’s rights is the first step to recovery. Schedule a free consultation to talk to an Aurora child injury lawyer to learn more.