As a parent, few things are more devastating than when your child suffers an injury. Because children are still developing and growing, injuries can significantly and lifelong impact them. While some injuries occur quickly without wrongdoing by anyone, others result from someone’s negligence. In those instances, you can care for your child by seeking compensation from the person who hurt them through a personal injury lawsuit.
Severe injuries are more expensive than many people realize. When they happen in childhood, they may impede the child’s ability to support themselves, shifting the financial future of the whole family. While children may qualify for Social Security disability payments, those payments are not enough to cover living expenses, much less medical payments. A New Orleans child injury lawyer could help you pursue compensation to cover your child’s present and future needs. Call one of our dedicated personal injury attorneys today.
In most situations, people only have a duty to refrain from actions that would harm a reasonable person. Likewise, they only need to behave like a reasonable person. However, the standard is different when the person is a child.
Children are not held to adult standards. Instead, their behavior is measured against other children of a similar age. If the child contributed to their injuries, a factfinder will examine whether the child’s behavior was reasonable using the standard of other children. They’ll take the child’s age, the presence of nuisances, and the type of activity into consideration.
Caretakers must consider the child’s age when watching a child. The younger the child, the more intense supervision is required to keep them safe. Supervision that may be negligent for a two-year-old might not be negligent for a 12-year-old child.
In addition, people must protect children from attractive nuisances. An attractive nuisance is something on a person’s property that could tempt children to trespass on that property. Some examples include animals, swimming pools, and wells. Adults should take steps to protect trespassing children from those hazards.
The activity can impact the court’s standards. If the child was engaged in adult behavior at the time of the injury, the court may choose to treat them as an adult. For example, teen drivers must follow all of the same traffic laws as any other driver—their age does not diminish that duty.
A lawyer in New Orleans could help explain the reasonable child standard in an injury case. They will also discuss the duty that the adults present had toward the child. If it is an express duty, like when an adult is in a caretaker role, it may be easier to prove negligence. If it is an implied duty, like the duty people have to all other people, negligence may be more challenging to prove.
The statute of limitations for most personal injury lawsuits in this state is one year. However, it is longer for children. Under the Louisiana Civil Code Annotated Art. 3492, the statute of limitations does not begin running until adulthood. So minors can bring a personal injury lawsuit until they turn 19. Before they turn 18, the parents can bring that lawsuit on their behalf.
While parents may not be under the same time pressure to bring a child injury lawsuit as other personal injury victims, it is still important to do so as quickly as possible. One reason for a statute of limitations is that evidence becomes less reliable over time. Waiting to bring a lawsuit can result in unavailable witnesses, missing evidence, and other challenges. During an initial consultation, a New Orleans attorney could discuss the best time to pursue a child injury claim.
A child injury can have a devastating impact on the entire family. Significant injuries can leave your child developmentally or physically disabled, presenting lifelong physical, emotional, and financial challenges for your family.
A New Orleans child injury lawyer could help you explore legal remedies. We could identify potential defendants, evaluate the strength of your claims against them, and assess whether they have the assets to pay claims. With our guidance, you could have the information needed to make the best decisions for your family. Call today to schedule a consultation.
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