Negligent Supervision Claims

Was Your Child Injured Due to Negligent Supervision?

When you think about it, most children spend more time in school on a weekly basis than they do with their own families. Because of this, teachers and staff members have an important obligation to provide adequate levels of supervision to keep their students safe. However, when this does not happen, a variety of serious things can happen. Whether it is a child getting seriously injured on a playground or perhaps being abducted by a stranger, these and other situations can lead to claims of negligent supervision being filed against a school, staff members, or others. If your child is in a school, day care center, or other facility where you trusted others to protect your child and something goes terribly wrong, immediately contact a Los Angeles personal injury attorney for advice on how to proceed.

Child Injuries Liability

Since kids will be participating in various activities while on school grounds and also doing other things such as taking field trips, staff members at schools or day care facilities must exercise great caution to ensure they are providing levels of supervision that will prevent serious injuries from occurring. Should something happen, the question of adequate supervision comes into play. From a legal standpoint, adequate supervision is defined as providing a proper level of supervision based on the circumstances at that moment. However, since there can be many variables involved in making this determination, seek legal counsel from a Los Angeles supervision-related injury attorney if filing a lawsuit.

Establishing Fault for an Injury

Since a school or day care center has a legal obligation to protect your child while your child is in their care, establishing fault for an injury can have many factors playing into whether or not legal action will be required. Since adequate supervision is viewed by those in schools as a very situation-specific task, a school will often point to many different things that happened leading up to the child being injured as a way to lessen the blame directed their way. Ultimately, it will require an experienced lawyer for child injuries at school to sort out what happened by interviewing those involved as well as witnesses, examining personnel records for past incidents of inadequate supervision by specific staff members, and many other factors. Should you believe a lawsuit is necessary, pick up the phone and schedule an immediate consultation with a personal injury lawyer for claims involving minors.

Specifics of Adequate Supervision

Since in the eyes of the law there are no hard-and-fast rules on what specifically constitutes adequate supervision, your legal counsel will need to carefully examine the incident in question. To do so, they will look at a variety of factors that are often used to make a determination of whether or not adequate supervision did or did not take place. The most common factors include the child’s age, cognitive levels, experience level of the child, the activity the child was engaged in when injured, and any factors that may have been out of the staff member’s control. Due to the many complex issues that always arise in such situations, you will need to rely on the services of the most experienced attorney you can find to handle your case and get justice for you and your child.

Minimizing Threats

While most people assume the school or day care facility’s obligation in these situations is only to ensure the child’s safety during an activity, that is not where their obligation ends. In fact, they also have a legal obligation to minimize threats from the surrounding environment where the child is located. In most cases, this means providing protection from fellow students who may bully or physically assault a child, as well as from adults who may attempt to abuse or abduct a child. Should an incident take place, it is probable a school or day care facility will try to convince you everything was out of their control. Yet before taking their word for this, discuss what happened with a lawyer for child injuries at school to get their opinion on the matter and how you should proceed.

Taking the Appropriate Steps

Should you decide a personal injury lawsuit will be necessary to get compensation for what happened to your child, it will be crucial you take the appropriate steps when beginning the process. In most instances, this will involve filing a notice of claim, which will be required if your child was injured while in the care of a school. If you fail to file a notice of claim and then try to pursue a lawsuit, the court will dismiss your case, eliminating any chances you may have had to hold those who were responsible for your child’s injuries accountable for their negligence and carelessness. Rather than lose out on the only chance you may have to get the justice you and your child deserve, discuss your situation in detail with a personal injury lawyer for claims involving minors.

Don’t Let Yourself be Intimidated by the School

Should something happen to your child at a school or day care facility, do not let yourself be intimidated by teachers or administrators. In some cases, those responsible for your child’s injuries may try to downplay the seriousness of the situation, or in fact simply try to make you out to be a hysterical parent who is blowing things out of proportion. In other situations, the school may imply that taking legal action would be too costly and a waste of your time and money, and that you would have no chance of winning your case. However, don’t take their word for anything. Instead, meet with a lawyer to learn what legal options may be available to you in this situation.

If you feel strongly that a school or day care facility failed to adequately supervise your child and allowed an injury or other serious situation to occur, consult at once with an attorney.