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Daycare Injury Lawyer

You trust daycares to supervise your child and ensure that they are not harmed, but daycare accidents are an unfortunate reality of our modern world. Children can be injured as a result of daycare negligence, which leaves parents worrying about how to pay for medical bills.

An injury lawyer familiar with daycare accidents can help your family recover from the financial costs of these devastating events. A successful daycare accident claim provides money for hospital bills, follow-up care, and compensation for other losses. Certain claims may also provide for the pain and suffering experienced by the child and the mental anguish experienced by all. If a child needs psychological counseling following a traumatic event, certain cases may be able to obtain compensation for that, too.

Determining the best legal strategies for obtaining the appropriate forms of compensation for your case often requires the guidance of an experienced daycare accident attorney. Daycare centers can make proving your case difficult without an attorney, especially if the center is part of a larger corporation or franchise operation.

If your child has been hurt, remember that you have the right to ask questions and pursue a claim — up to the point of filing a lawsuit, if need be. Auger & Auger wants to provide a daycare injury lawyer who can help your case have the maximum chances of success.

Speak to a daycare accident attorney for free during an initial case review. You can schedule your appointment now by calling (800) 559-5741 or by using our quick form to contact us online.

Proving Negligence After a Daycare Incident

Children can get hurt. It’s a fact of life. But sometimes these injuries are not the result of “kids being kids” but rather the result of child care facilities neglecting their duty of care to maintain a safe environment.

Proving that a daycare center was negligent is not always easy, especially since the center may obscure information or prevent access to things like employee rosters.

The services of a child care accident lawyer can be invaluable in these situations. Your attorney uses their familiarity with the law and past cases to find common indicators that negligence took place. They also seek evidence to back up the claim, proving that the child’s injury was the direct result of a negligent act.

All daycare negligence claims contain the following elements:

Duty of Care

A daycare center has a duty of care to protect children against “foreseeable” hazards to the extent that any “reasonable person” could. Much of this duty is enforced through state and federal laws. In North Carolina, for instance, a child care facility must abide by certain design standards, safety rules, instructor-to-child ratios, and more. Maintaining certification is often a rigorous process, and those centers that have a record of violations are more likely to be considered acting contrary to their duty of care.

Breach of Duty

A breach of a duty of care occurs when a daycare facility or its employees either commit an act they know to be dangerous or omit practices in such a way as to likely cause danger. Poor supervision, unsafe playground designs, and non-compliance with industry regulations can all represent a breach in duty.

Causation

It is not enough to know that an injury occurred following a breach in the child care center’s duties. The injury must be directly attributable to the breach, showing causality.

Foreseeable Risks

Another important component to child care injury cases is proving that the injury incident was not a “freak accident” or anomaly. Daycare centers may not be held responsible for injuries stemming from a chain of events they can claim no “reasonable person” would ever predict. A child care injury lawyer must prove that the facility either had knowledge of the risk or could have known of its existence had they operated under the “reasonable” standard.

Proof and Evidence

Allegations of an injury or a breach in duty are not enough. Parents need documented evidence of the injury and some form of proof that a breach took place. Most importantly, there must be testimony from an expert that no “reasonable” facility would have allowed the event to happen or that the facility in question directly knew about the risks.

Common Injuries at Daycare Centers

Severe injuries can occur at a childcare center for a number of reasons, including:

• Falls
• Swallowing and choking incidents
• Crushed hands or fingers in doors
• Ingesting poisons
• Unsafe equipment or activities
• Severe allergic reactions
• Bathroom accidents
• Fights and dangerous play

A Liability Waiver Doesn’t Always Mean You Can’t Sue

Many parents feel deterred from taking legal action against a child care facility because they signed a waiver before their child was allowed to attend. In truth, many of these waivers get ruled as unenforceable in courts because it gives up too many rights, and parents may not be aware of what they are being asked to sign away.

Some cases are made more difficult by the presence of a waiver, but parents owe it to themselves and their child to at least explore their options for obtaining fair compensation. Speaking with a daycare accident lawyer can reveal all available legal options for moving forward, with or without the presence of an existing waiver agreement.

Be Wary of Dealing Just With Daycare Attorneys and Insurers

Attorneys and insurance companies representing the daycare facility have their client’s best interests in mind, not yours. Parents may be shocked to receive an initial settlement offer made in order to put their claim to rest. This offer will likely not contain the full amount of available damages, past and future, that can compensate the parent(s) for all of their financial and non-financial losses.

Furthermore, accepting an initial settlement does nothing to deter the negligent practices that allowed the child to become injured in the first place. Facilities that engage in negligent acts — or ongoing negligent practices — deserve scrutiny. By evaluating their practices in the course of pursuing a child care injury claim, parents can reveal violations and help promote enforcement of state and federal laws.

Having your own daycare injury lawyer also prevents you from accepting misleading information at face value. You may be told you have no case, that a child’s injuries were their own fault, that the treatment for the injury wasn’t all “necessary,” and so forth. Your lawyer will build a strong case to counter these claims and seek to back all of your assertions with available evidence.

Speak to a Daycare Accident Attorney Who Cares

Auger & Auger knows the stress that a childcare injury can put your family through, and we want to help. Our main goal is reducing the workload placed on you to prove your case while building the strongest case possible that seeks the maximum amount of compensation available.

If you have experienced a recent daycare accident injury in your family, do not hesitate to pick up the phone and defend your legal rights. Schedule your free, no obligation consultation today when you call (800) 559-5741 or contact us online.