My Child Was Injured at School -Who is Liable?
When children return to school in the fall, they are eager to spend time with their friends and play on the school playground. However, school playgrounds and other school areas can pose safety hazards for children. Children can fall off play equipment, hurt their heads on the ground or against something hard, and bump into each other. Wounds, broken bones, dislocations, and internal injuries are just a few of the many injuries that can happen on a school playground or gym. In 2016 alone, more than 200,000 children were sent to the emergency room for playground injuries. 20,000 of those injuries resulted in traumatic brain injury.
If your child has been involved in a California school injury, call our personal injury lawyer today. You won’t have to pay anything until we settle your case to your satisfaction or win a trial. For a free case assessment call 1-800-208-3538.
California School Injury Laws
Liability for the injury depends on whether the school is private or public.
Public Schools- The supervision and upkeep of public school playgrounds and gyms are the responsibility of the school district. Like many other government entities, school districts enjoy a “sovereign immunity” that prevents them from being sued except in the case of student injury. In order to sue, you must prove negligence on the part of the school district, and follow a strict set of rules in order to sue, such as providing written notice of an injury claim within six months of a student’s injury.
Private Schools– Private schools can be directly held responsible for school injuries. Both private and public schools can be sued under the premise liability laws, which states that the owner of a property is responsible for injuries that happen on their property.
Negligence Explained
Many school injuries happen because of negligence, which is the failure to take the care that a reasonably prudent person would do in the same set of circumstances. For example, younger kids require more supervision on the playground. It is expected that if the younger children are outside, an adult will be keeping an eye on every child and making sure they are safe. If the person on duty is spending their whole time outside talking on the phone when a child falls from the monkey bars, the school is considered negligent. When establishing negligence, one must look at duty, breach of duty, and causation.
- Duty is what someone such as a teacher or coach is legally expected to do toward someone in his or her care.
- A breach of duty happens when that same person fails to carry out their duty.
- Causation looks at what type of harm happened to the student, such as the type of injury.
These are all important factors to consider when putting together a personal injury claim.
There are times when liability extends to the manufacture of playground equipment or other school equipment that causes an injury. If the equipment is deemed faulty, the manufacturer could be sued for product liability. For example, if a child is swinging on a brand-new swing set at school and the chain breaks off because the manufacturer did not secure it tightly enough, the manufacturer could be held liable for any injuries.
Get the Help You Need Today for a California School Injury from an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer
There is a very strict and time-consuming process for filing a claim against a school for personal injury. If your child has suffered from a school injury in California, let our experienced personal injury attorney do all the work for you. We know the process, and can help walk you through it quickly and easily. Remember that we won’t charge you anything until we have successfully settled your claim or won your case. Just in the last several years alone, we have settled more than $50 million dollars for our clients. Contact Johnson Attorneys Group for a free case review at 1-800-208-3538. We conveniently have 12 locations in California.
