Keeping our children safe is a top priority, whether in our care or someone else’s. Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way. Daycare injuries in New York affect hundreds of families every year.
Children aren’t aware of dangers in the way adults are, so they are prone to having accidents while playing. While you might expect minor scrapes, serious injuries are another matter. If a daycare facility or its workers are negligent in allowing or causing your child to sustain injuries, you can seek compensation. Let the experienced attorneys from Cellino Law help.
Can You Sue for Daycare Injuries?
In some instances, you can sue for daycare injuries by filing a civil lawsuit. However, most daycare injury cases start with filing an insurance claim rather than a lawsuit. To qualify, you need to prove that the daycare or specific workers were negligent.
In a legal context, negligence refers to someone acting differently than a reasonable person would in the same situation. To establish this, you will need concrete evidence. You need to prove that:
- Someone owed you and your child a duty of care: When daycares accept the responsibility of caring for your child, they become obligated to provide a duty of care.
- That party breached their duty of care: The daycare or certain caregivers didn’t provide the duty of care.
- Your child sustained injuries.
- The breach was directly responsible for your child’s injuries and related damages: Failing to provide the required duty of care directly led to your child’s injuries and caused associated damages, such as medical bills and emotional trauma.
In the context of daycare, a duty of care is the responsibility of the daycare and its workers to act reasonably to avoid the likelihood of harming your child or allowing harm to come to them. This includes providing a safe environment, adequate supervision and appropriate care.
Finding Evidence
It is sometimes challenging to find the evidence you need in daycare injury claims if you handle your case on your own. Younger children may not be able to verbalize what happened, and slightly older children usually don’t make good eyewitnesses.
When you hire Cellino Law, we will investigate your child’s injury to find evidence. If the daycare facility has video cameras used to monitor activity, we will request copies of the relevant recordings. We will also interview workers and other parents if they may have witnessed your child being injured.
Your legal team will need copies of your child’s medical reports because we can use them as evidence as well. We will build a solid case so you can hold the guilty parties accountable for injuring your child.
How Do Negligent Daycare Injuries Happen?
Many types of negligence can lead to daycare injuries, and most of them stem from not providing a safe environment, adequate supervision and appropriate care. Some accidents are bound to happen when there are a lot of children grouped together, and negligence isn’t always the cause.
If you believe that negligence contributed to your child’s injuries, request your free Cellino Law case review. We will assess the situation and tell you how we can help.
Abuse
Although caregivers can seem friendly and genuinely caring when parents are present, some drop their masks when parents leave. Abuse can take many forms and includes inappropriate touching, yelling, making threats, insults and hitting. Workers may also shake babies or fail to provide adequate support for their heads.
Injuries resulting from abuse aren’t always physical. Abuse can cause emotional distress, changes in behavior, an increase in separation anxiety, anger and episodes of “acting out.” If you notice unusual instances of these changes or unexplained physical injuries, abuse may be taking place.
Falls
When children play, they are going to fall. However, some falls should never happen. Spilled liquids, toys or other objects left on the floor or on the ground in outdoor play areas, curled rug corners and loose stairs are examples of things that can cause children to slip or trip and fall. Other falls happen when children climb higher than they should.
Basic upkeep and close supervision could eliminate many of these falls.
Free Access
Some items should not be accessible to children in daycare facilities, such as sharp scissors and cleaning supplies. Whether by placing gates, closing doors or installing cabinet locks, daycares should restrict access to hazardous items.
Outdoor play areas should also have restricted access. A barrier such as a fence should be in place to keep children from wandering away and trespassers from entering these spaces.
Neglect
Daycares should meet your child’s care needs, and these may vary according to your child’s age. Babies need regular diaper changes to prevent diaper rash. All children need snacks, meals and drinks throughout the day.
When daycares don’t meet these basic needs, your child can suffer from neglect.
Unsafe Premises
Along with removing fall hazards and restricting access to certain areas or items, daycares should keep their facilities clean. Toys should be age-appropriate, and toys recalled by the manufacturer shouldn’t be allowed in the facility.
Worker Issues
Some daycare injuries happen because the workers responsible for supervising your child are distracted. Others happen because individual caregivers have too many children under their direct care.
While a specific worker might be responsible for your child’s daycare injuries, the facility may also be liable. When hiring employees, facilities should screen applicants thoroughly and avoid candidates who aren’t appropriate for a caregiver role. The facility should also ensure that new employees receive proper training and perform their duties competently.
How Can a Daycare Injury Lawyer Help?
Hiring a qualified attorney can provide many benefits, whether you want to file a claim or sue. Many times, we can settle your claim satisfactorily without needing to take your case to court. Suing through a lawsuit takes additional time and expense, and it can also cause unnecessary stress. However, there are times when a trial is warranted.
When you hire a daycare injury lawyer from Cellino Law, we will:
- Provide information, offer case-specific advice and help you decide on the best course of action
- Perform case-related administrative tasks, such as completing and filing paperwork before deadlines
- Handle communications with insurance companies and the daycare facility on your behalf
- Investigate your child’s injuries and/or accident, gather evidence and build a solid case to substantiate your claim
- Negotiate a favorable settlement amount or recommend suing by filing a civil lawsuit
Without a competent lawyer on your side, you will need to perform all these tasks yourself. You need to care for your injured child, so let your Cellino Law legal team help.
Compensation Amounts
If you don’t know how much your case is worth, you can’t negotiate effectively with liable insurance companies. Most people who hire a lawyer receive significantly higher compensation amounts because we know how to value your claim and make guilty parties pay.
Why Choose Cellino Law If You Want To Sue for a Daycare Injury?
Since 1958, the Cellino Law firm has assisted injured New Yorkers with a wide variety of claims. Due to our focus on personal injury law, experience and dedication to protecting our clients’ rights, we have won over $2 billion in settlements and millions more in recoveries.
Best of all, you won’t pay any upfront fees to hire Cellino Law, and we won’t charge you any fees unless we win compensation for you. Contact Cellino Law today.