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No parent wants to think that their child might end up seriously injured because of another adult’s reckless or careless misconduct. Unfortunately, this exact scenario plays out every day across Indiana. If you are not intimately familiar with what rights you have when taking legal action on your child’s behalf, your family may have no choice but to bear the consequences of this accident yourselves.
Support is available from a capable Hammond child injury lawyer who knows from past experience how to handle cases like yours. Your child deserves every cent of compensation necessary to cover the harm their injuries have caused and will continue to cause. A compassionate personal injury attorney’s help is vital to getting a positive outcome in your civil case.
Just as they could be if their misconduct led to another adult getting hurt, an adult who causes an injury to a child by acting in a reckless or careless way can be held financially liable for the child’s losses. In both scenarios, the vast majority of civil claims would be built around the legal theory of “negligence.” This means obtaining compensation for the child’s injuries would require proving that the named adult defendant directly caused those injuries by breaching a duty of care owed to the child.
Breaches of duty can take different forms depending on the reason why the child’s injury occurred. Sometimes it can even depend on who the adult defendant is. For instance, medical professionals are subject to a unique “standard of care” based on what an equally qualified professional would have done under similar circumstances. On the other hand, all motor vehicle drivers have basically the same duty to obey traffic laws and act rationally behind the wheel.
It should be noted as well that adults can sometimes be liable for causing injuries to children when they would not be liable for an adult’s injuries occurring under the same circumstances. Most notably, some landowners fail to ensure curious children cannot trespass onto their property and access dangerous things like swimming pools or construction equipment. A Hammond child injury attorney could potentially pursue litigation against that landowner under the “attractive nuisance” doctrine.
Unfortunately, young children are especially likely to suffer debilitating and permanent harm from traumatic accidents caused by the negligence of others. This means that it will be important when pursuing a personal injury claim on a child’s behalf to account for long-term losses like:
Importantly, though, Indiana state law puts strict rules in place for how child injury settlement funds must be court-approved and managed until the child is old enough to take possession of the funds. A child accident attorney in Hammond could assist a parent in explaining how this system works.
Injuries to children always make for legally and emotionally complex civil cases, especially if the injury will have life-changing effects for them. No matter how badly your child has been hurt or what losses you need to recover for, there is help available from the dedicated legal professionals at McCready Law.
A Hammond child injury lawyer could be your ally throughout the entire litigation process, working fiercely to ensure your family is fairly compensated. Contact us for more.