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As a parent, you try your best to keep your child safe. Sometimes, even those best efforts fail, and your child gets injured either by accident or negligence.
Getting your child the care they need to recover is essential. This entails getting the proper medical care and securing a financial recovery with help from an experienced personal injury attorney. You could file a claim on your child’s behalf for medical bills and other expenses. A Beech Grove Child Injury Lawyer could help you understand your rights and obligations when seeking justice for an accident they experienced.
The number one cause of injuries to children is falls. Most falls result in minor scrapes and bruises, but thousands result in ER visits each year. Falls that result in injuries tend to happen with force. Children can fall on sidewalks, from windows or landings, off playground equipment, or slip and fall on wet or icy surfaces.
Car accidents are a major cause of childhood injuries and the leading cause of death among children. Sometimes, children contribute to negligence in a car crash. At other times, the other driver’s negligence is the sole cause of the injuries.
For young children, water is an especially attractive hazard, and drowning is the number one cause of death for children ages one to four. Children could potentially drown in neighborhood pools, ponds, and lakes, while smaller bodies of water like bathtubs also pose a threat.
Animal bites, burns, and product defects round out the other top causes of injuries to children. Depending on the circumstances, a parent may be able to make a financial recovery due to the incident. That could be essential, since medical expenses may be prohibitive and catastrophic injuries could result in a need for lifelong medical care. A parent’s ability to recover for a child’s injuries often depends on whether a third party was negligent or failed to exercise reasonable care. A Beech Grove attorney with child injury experience could help explain these circumstances.
To pursue a lawsuit for an injured minor, a parent and their lawyer must demonstrate:
Once a parent establishes those four things, they may be able to recover for medical expenses, disabilities, loss of earning capacity, emotional distress, and pain and suffering.
Under Indiana Code § 29-3-9-7, if the recovery is more than $10,000, parents need to get court approval to compromise or settle the claim. The court may appoint a guardian to oversee the estate and ensure parents use the funds on the child’s behalf.
While minors cannot sue on their own behalf, they may do so once they turn 18. While it is normally two years, under Indiana Code § 34-11-6-1, the state tolls the statute of limitations until a person reaches the age of majority. Hence, a person injured as a child has until they turn 20 to bring a personal injury claim. However, this does not apply to parents’ derivative claims. A child injury lawyer in Beech Grove could explain the intricacies involved with filing this type of lawsuit.
When your child is injured, you may feel very alone. You have to focus on taking care of your child’s immediate medical needs, which makes it difficult to focus on securing their future. A good legal team could remove that burden and do the work to ensure your child gets the protection they need. Contact a Beech Grove child injury lawyer to find out more.