Daycare Injury Lawyers

Many parents rely on daycare facilities to keep their children safe, whether the parents are working, taking classes, running errands or taking part in other activities. No parent wants to receive a notification that their child was injured at a daycare, but it’s a more common occurrence than you might think.

Children are curious by nature and aren’t always conscious of dangerous situations, so some accidents are going to happen even in the best circumstances. However, when a daycare facility’s or worker’s negligence causes an injury, that’s a different story. An experienced daycare injury lawyer from Cellino Law can help you file a claim and obtain the compensation you and your child deserve.

What Are New York’s Daycare Injury Statistics?

To demonstrate how widespread this problem is, let’s examine the statistics for serious injuries and fatalities in New York daycare facilities in 2023. Although tragic, there was only one fatality due to safety and health violations.

This report lists the number of serious injuries that occurred in various facilities. A serious injury in these instances is one that requires professional medical treatment, not including routine illnesses. Minor injuries, such as scrapes, shallow cuts and bug bites, are not included in these figures:

These numbers reflect only New York State Office of Children and Family Services-regulated facilities. Unfortunately, many unlicensed daycare options exist. While some unlicensed daycares may provide excellent care, others may present a higher risk of injuries.

Regardless of licensing status, your Cellino Law legal team can help you seek justice if negligence led to your child’s injury.

What Is Negligence?

In legal matters, negligence means failing to act as a reasonable person would in the same situation, whether by action or inaction. Negligence is the basis for most personal injury claims, including daycare injuries.

When a daycare agrees to take charge of your child, they are accepting a legal duty of care to keep your child safe from harm. To prove negligence, you will need to show that these statements are true:

• Someone owed you a duty of care.
• That party breached their duty of care.
• Your child sustained an injury.
• Your child’s injury and associated damages are a direct result of the breach.

It’s not enough to make a statement placing blame. You must have solid evidence to support your claim. Especially at younger ages, children aren’t reliable witnesses, so you’ll need to find other sources of evidence through an investigation.

You probably don’t have the investigative experience or resources necessary to thoroughly investigate your child’s accident. As a leading NYC personal injury firm, Cellino Law can conduct an effective investigation and gather evidence to hold the guilty parties accountable for their negligence.

What Kinds of Negligence Can Lead to Daycare Injuries?

Daycare facilities should adhere to several obligations designed to protect your children. Some accidents are basically unavoidable, and not all injuries result from negligence.

If you are facing a situation not listed here, you may still qualify to seek compensation for your child’s daycare injuries. Contact Cellino Law to request a free case evaluation for case-specific information and advice.

Hiring Workers

The caregiver-to-child ratio should be low enough to allow the worker to give simultaneous attention to each child under their direct supervision. Even the most attentive child care providers aren’t as effective when they have too many children to deal with.

Daycares should carefully screen applicants for caregiver positions, looking for things that might suggest incompatibility with the responsibilities, such as a history of child abuse or neglect. Each worker should receive thorough training and be made aware of their duties and obligations. In larger facilities, supervisors should ensure that individual caregivers fulfill their responsibilities.

Worker Distractions

Daycare workers should focus their attention on the children under their care. Distractions like cell phone usage and conversations with coworkers can divert focus, sometimes allowing preventable accidents to happen.

Failing To Meet Basic Needs

Children in various age groups have different needs. Babies and some toddlers need regular diaper changes; failing to do so can lead to diaper rash and other medical conditions. All children need food and drink. Children who are mobile need to exercise or play under close supervision. Daycare facilities or workers who neglect or don’t meet these basic needs can be guilty of negligence.

Abuse

Unfortunately, not every daycare facility or worker cares about keeping your child safe and well cared for. Daycare abuse might take the form of workers yelling at or striking your child, inappropriate touching or making threats. Workers may also allow other children to abuse your child.

Poor Maintenance

Daycare facilities should be clean and free of obvious hazards. Uneven flooring, broken steps and objects left lying around can cause children to trip and fall. Toys that aren’t age-appropriate or that a manufacturer has recalled may present choking hazards to small children. Spills that aren’t cleaned up quickly can cause children to slip and fall; they may also tempt curious youngsters to taste the spilled substance, which can lead to illness or poisoning.

Daycare managers and workers should vigilantly maintain the premises and address risks immediately. They should also stand ready to try to prevent accidents from happening.

Allowing Free Access

Children shouldn’t have access to cabinets storing cleaning supplies and sharp objects. Any outdoor play areas should have fences or other containment measures in place to keep children from leaving and unwanted visitors from entering the area.

What Are Common Daycare Injuries?

Daycare injuries can have many causes, including falls during playtime, contact with sharp objects, spilled liquids, slippery surfaces and exposure to toxic substances. Common injuries include cuts, scrapes and bruises, broken bones, head injuries, concussions, choking and poisoning from unrestricted access to chemicals or other toxic substances.

Children are often very creative when they play, so it’s impossible to predict every type of injury they might sustain. If your child’s injury results from negligence, Cellino Law can help.

What Kinds of Damages Can You Receive for Daycare Injuries?

Compensation amounts can vary significantly based on case-specific details. Your Cellino Law legal team can tell you how much your case is worth. In most cases, you can seek various compensatory damages. Rarely, you might qualify to seek punitive damages.

Economic Damages

The first type of compensatory damages reimburses you for injury-related expenses. These include medical treatments and wages you lose if you need to take time off work to care for your child.

Some injuries, particularly those resulting from abuse or neglect, cause emotional trauma and can severely affect the injured child and their families. The costs associated with mental health treatments also fall under economic damages.

The compensation for economic damages is exact, determined by the precise financial burden the injury causes. Keep your invoices and receipts to use as evidence.

Non-Economic Damages

The other compensatory damages compensate you for the adverse impacts your child’s injury has on their life; it may also include the effects on parents. Ask your daycare injury lawyer for more details.

Non-economic damages cover things like emotional distress, permanent disfigurement or disability and pain and suffering. Because the effects of these conditions are intangible, they are difficult to quantify.

Insurance companies may balk at paying non-economic damages. Specific types of evidence are often needed to support your claim for these damages, and your Cellino Law daycare injury lawyer knows how to find them.

Punitive Damages

To be eligible for punitive damages, the guilty party must have acted in specific ways to cause your child’s injury. Qualifying conditions include willful or wanton negligence and a high degree of moral turpitude. If this applies to your case, we will help you pursue punitive damages.

Can You Handle a Daycare Injury Claim Yourself?

No law requires you to hire a daycare injury lawyer to help with your claim. However, claimants who have legal representation typically receive significantly higher compensation amounts. Your legal team also provides many other benefits.

Any kind of personal injury claim has a lot of required paperwork. You must complete these forms properly and submit them before various deadlines. You may also have to provide substantiating documentation. Your Cellino Law team can do all this for you.

Insurance company representatives and daycare managers or workers will likely contact you often. When you hire a lawyer, we can require that all communications go through us. That leaves you free to concentrate on your child’s recovery.

Insurance companies often offer unreasonably low settlements in the hope that claimants will not realize they can ask for more money. Your attorney can usually negotiate for a substantially higher amount without needing to go to court. However, we won’t hesitate to take your case to trial if the circumstances warrant doing so.

Why Choose a Daycare Injury Lawyer From Cellino Law?

A Cellino Law firm has helped those injured in New York since 1958. Our decades of experience, large-firm resources and dedication to our clients have helped us win over $2 billion in settlements and millions more in recoveries.

Contact Cellino Law today to request your free case review. We don’t charge any upfront fees; in fact, you don’t pay unless we win compensation for you.