Injuries to Children

Published on: February 16, 2015

Halvorson v. Sweetwater County – School Injury Case Weighed

Given that school is where students spend roughly a third of their day, it’s no wonder it is the site of many injuries. School districts can be successfully sued for negligence resulting in child injury, but cases must overcome assertions of sovereign immunity, damage caps and denial of duty owed.

The kinds of injuries for which schools may be responsible include playground injuries, sports-related injuries, bullying-related injuries, school bus accidents or general premises liability injuries related to dangerous conditions on school grounds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate the cost of playground injuries alone in the U.S. is $1.2 billion.

However, as the recent case of Halvorson v. Sweetwater County School Dist. reveals, these cases may be fraught with challenges for plaintiffs. That’s why having an experienced injury lawyer is critical.

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Published on: February 5, 2015

Myers v. City of West Plains – $425K Child Injury Verdict Upheld

By Dean Freeman

A boy who sustained serious and lasting damage to his knee as a result of deep lacerations caused by shards of broken glass at a public park is entitled to the $425,000 damage award granted by a trial jury, an appellate court ruled recently.

The fact the child was not supervised by his mother at the park at the time of the injury did not diminish the responsibility of government workers to clean up the mess, which witnesses testified had been present for upwards of six weeks.

The defendant city in Myers v. City of West Plains argued trial court’s decision to specifically instruct jurors not to consider the fact that the boy’s mother wasn’t present was improper, something the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Southern District rejected. The appellate court backed the trial court’s decision to give the instruction, reasoning the lack of supervision was not a significant contributing factor in the boy’s injury, but such information might have unfairly prejudiced plaintiffs had the instruction not been given.

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Published on: January 31, 2015

Ruiz v. Victory Props. – Child Injury Lawsuit to Proceed

By Dean Freeman

The law treats children differently in many respects.

In criminal courts, for example, juvenile courts aim for rehabilitation rather than punishment.

In civil court, children are often granted exceptions in terms of their understanding of danger and liability. One example of this is seen in the doctrine of attractive nuisance. The principle holds it is the property owner’s responsibility to protect children from on-site hazards that may be present and which might be attractive to children and yet inherently dangerous. The theory holds children are naturally curious and not yet fully developed enough to recognize certain dangers and protect themselves in the same way we might expect adults to do.

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Published on: December 20, 2014

Report: Toy Injuries Among Children Higher Than Ever

By Dean Freeman

As we near the greatest gift-giving season of the year, we do recognize toys can be of great benefit to children, helping them to develop, learn and explore. However, they are also a source of serious injury.

A new report published in the journal Clinical Pediatrics indicates the number of toy-related injuries among children has risen sharply in the last two decades. Today, a child is rushed to an emergency room every 3 minutes for treatment of a toy-related injury.

In fact, researchers for the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found more than 3.2 million children were treated in U.S. emergency rooms for toy-related injuries from 1990 through 2011. More than half of these instances involved children under the age of 5.

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Published on: November 16, 2014

Florida Day Care Owner Charged in Toddler’s Death

By Dean Freeman

Parents who use day care services to help with their family responsibilities should be wary of the potential for negligence and abuse. As with any for-profit caretaking business, it is important to screen individual workers as well as the record of the day care facility. A Florida day care owner will face criminal charges after the death of a 16-month-old boy who suffered a catastrophic injury while under her care. A state attorney announced that he plans to charge the day care owner with aggravated child abuse, a criminal charge equivalent to second-degree murder.

According to reports, the 55-year-old defendant operated a day care center from her home in Pensacola. The 16-month old was brought to the hospital after he suffered from injuries consistent with violent shaking or “shaken baby syndrome.” The state attorney is continuing the investigation and plans to present the case to a grand jury to pursue a first-degree murder charge. Given the severity of the case and the level of abuse that resulted in the death of the infant, the case must be brought before a grand jury before murder charges can be filed. If convicted, the nursing home owner could face life in prison.

This is a tragic case of alleged child abuse and abuse by a day care facility that resulted in the severe and catastrophic injuries of the victim. According to statements made by the team of pediatric doctors who treated the infant, they had never seen so much trauma to a child with a head injury. The defendant told investigators that she was at home with the victim and two other four-year-olds. She alleges that one of the other children struck him with a wooden-block. The 55-year-old defendant said that she rocked the baby to sleep and placed him in the crib. When she went back to check on him, he had vomited in his sleep. When she went to clean up the vomit, he began to seizure. She called 911, then phoned the baby’s parents once the ambulance had left. She insists that she did not cause any harm to the child.

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Published on: November 12, 2014

Haynes v. Middletown – School Bullying Lawsuits on the Rise

By Dean Freeman

There was a time when bullying – even severe bullying – was scene as strictly within the purview of schools and parents and those youth involved. Increasingly, however, as awareness has risen and cyberbullying makes harassment almost inescapable, these matters are being handled by the courts.

In Florida, a Coral Springs mother filed a lawsuit against the local school district in 2011 after she said bullying led her 13-year-old daughter to the brink of suicide. In 2012, parents of a Palm Beach County middle school student filed a civil lawsuit against the local district for incessant bullying of their 14-year-old son suffered repeated thefts, harassment and stalking by the son of the principal, who did nothing to address the problem. Earlier this year, parents of a 12-year-old Orlando-area girl who killed herself after being bullied for months on social media (being told to “drink bleach and die” and “go kill yourself”) sued the school district for failing to stop the harassment.

But it’s not just Florida. Recently, a bullying lawsuit made it all the way to the state supreme court in Connecticut, where justices ruled plaintiffs in Hayes v. City of Middletown were entitled to a new trial, after finding numerous errors by both the trial and appellate courts.

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Published on: February 19, 2014

Focus on Child Traffic Safety Long Overdue

By Dean Freeman

Better car seats, seat belts and more effective air bags have been able to decrease the number of child auto accident fatalities by close to 45 percent since 2002, but there have still been over 9,000 child car accident fatalities in the last 10 years — a third of which involved children who were not wearing seat belts. According to NBC News, officials with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are focusing on just how vulnerable our young motorists are in these incidents.

“Based on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration calculations, an estimated 3,308 lives were saved by child safety seat use among children aged 0–4 years during 2002–2011,” the report concludes. “If child safety seats were used in motor vehicles 100 percent of the time for children aged 0–4 years, an additional 837 lives could have been saved.”

Our child injury attorneys in Pompano Beach know the importance of motor vehicle safety when it comes to children. These young motorists rely on us for safety on our roadways. Passengers of all ages should be buckled in during each and every car ride. Children need to be seated in an age/weight-appropriate child seat until they’re at least 8-years-old. Only then should they be upgraded to an adult seat belt. Still, all children should ride in the back seat until they’re at least 13-years-old.
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Published on: January 26, 2014

Florida School Liability for Child Injuries

By Dean Freeman

Some child injuries are expected—minor cuts and bruises, and scrapes are common for school-aged children. When parents send their kids off to school, they may anticipate some injuries, but what if the injuries are more serious or permanent? Can parents hold a school liable when a child suffers a serious injury while under the care of a private or public school? According to researchers 1 in 14 children suffers a medically-attended or temporarily, disabling injury while at school. In many cases, teacher, staff, or administrative negligence is to blame.

School liability in child injury cases are on the rise. When children suffer serious injury or wrongful death because of failures in standards of care, it is important that responsible individuals and entities are held accountable. Our West Palm Beach personal injury attorneys are dedicated to protecting the rights of victims and in raising awareness to prevent future injuries and wrongful death. With a comprehensive understanding of school liability, we are dedicated to keeping parents of our community abreast and informed of their rights.

Personal injury or tort cases require that the plaintiff demonstrate that the defendant acted negligently or violated a duty of care. For school personnel, officials, and districts, wrongful death, injury harassment and bullying are all instances of liability that could return significant settlements or verdicts for victims and their families.
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Published on: December 29, 2013

Attractive Nuisance Doctrine in Florida

By Dean Freeman

Establishing negligence in West Palm Beach personal injury claims is sometimes fairly straightforward. For example, someone drives drunk and causes an accident that results in serious injuries.

Other cases, however, are a bit more complex. Those that involve the attractive nuisance doctrine, often pertaining to child injuries.

The attractive nuisance doctrine makes a person or entity negligent for leaving a piece of equipment or some other condition on a property that could be both attractive and dangerous to children. Some examples might be an unguarded swimming pool or an open pit or an abandoned refrigerator.
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Published on: November 28, 2013

Florida’s Fight for Booster Seat Laws

By Dean Freeman

There are 48 states with laws requiring children over the age of 3 be restrained in a booster seat. Unfortunately, Florida is not one of them. It seems that our state has lagged behind in creating booster seat laws for our youngest passengers. Some state representatives are working to enact a booster seat law that would make automobiles and roads safer for child passengers.

Safety rules and regulations are always evolving to meet the needs of motorists and their child passengers. It can often take regulators time to catch up, even when recommendations and trends are clear. Our Fort Lauderdale child injury attorneys are dedicated to public health and road safety. We also stay abreast of national trends and are committed to raising awareness in our own state to prevent future accidents and injuries.
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