Daycare Injuries: How a Child Abuse and Injury Attorney Can Help

Whenever you take a child to a daycare facility, you expect that the child will be well taken care of. That is why it can be shocking to find that your child has gotten hurt while at the daycare, and very frustrating when nobody will give you straight answers about how the injury occurred. 

Common Causes of Daycare Injuries

There are several causes of injury when a child is at a daycare. Some of these include:

• Falling – Usually, this occurs when the child was not properly supervised, or when playing on playground equipment that is faulty. 
• Ingesting toxins – Caused by poor supervision.
• Ingesting known allergens – Usually because the child’s allergies were not properly recorded, or staff were not properly trained.

Many times, a child is unable to express themselves and cannot say why or how the injury occurred.

Daycare Waivers

Whenever you take your child to a daycare center, they will probably have you sign a waiver saying that if your child suffers injury while at the daycare, you cannot sue them. Even though you have signed one of these, it is not to say that you waive your right to get compensation for the child’s injuries. If a child is hurt, the daycare is not granted immunity, particularly if they were negligent. This is important because the child is defenseless and innocent and lifting responsibility away from the daycare center could lead to the abuse of children.

This means that even if you signed such a waiver, you can still go to court. Daycare centers only include it so that you as a parent can be discouraged from seeking out a child abuse and injury attorney to file a lawsuit against them if your child is injured, but such a waiver cannot stand in court.

Why You Need an Attorney

When dealing with the case of a child hurt at a daycare center, you need to prove negligence. You will need to prove that the person accepted responsibility for the child and then proceeded to be inattentive towards the child or to act carelessly, resulting in injury to the child. You need to produce evidence against the person you are suing in order to be successful. Additionally, you must prove that the person was not properly watching the child.

Moreover, you will be required to show that the injury to the child was both foreseeable and preventable and that it only occurred because the person watching the child failed to properly do so. Some of the more extreme cases of child abuse atdaycare centers include kicking and hitting the child. In such cases, you should definitely pursue a lawsuit so that the daycare center is held liable for any and all damages.

How an Attorney Can Help

An attorney can help you do the following:

• They can verify the credentials of the daycare workers and directors as well as check the daycare’s licensing.
• Verify that all equipment in the playground and all toys are properly installed and maintained.
• Investigate any other complaints lodged against the daycare that may be similar to yours.
• Check whether the daycare complies to set child-staff ratios.