Bumps, scrapes, and bruises are a natural part of childhood. Kids fall down, fall off their bikes, run into objects, and otherwise bang themselves up on a regular basis. But it is a totally different matter when a child sustains a serious injury that results from another party’s carelessness or willful misconduct.
In these types of situations – when your child is suffering harm that could have been prevented – it is hard not to be overwhelmed by anger and a sense of injustice.
At the first available opportunity, you should look into your legal options. You might be entitled to file a child injury claim and obtain compensation for your related expenses.
Call the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine today for a consultation with a child injury lawyer in Florida. We can evaluate your case free of charge and explain what your legal options are.
What Types of Damages Can You Recover Through a Child Injury Claim or Lawsuit?
Your child’s medical care alone could have cost you thousands of dollars out of pocket. However, that might not be the end of your injury-related expenses. In addition to the cost of your child’s treatment, we could help you secure compensation for the following:
Lost Wages
While you stayed home with your child, you might have missed valuable time from work. Lost income does not just comprise your salary, though. It can also include lost commissions, employee benefits, promotions, tips, and hourly rates.
Loss of Future Earning Capacity
If your child suffered a serious, long-term injury, you may be unable to work as much as you used to. If this is the case in your situation, you could recover compensation for the harm to your earning capacity.
Pain and Suffering
Nothing is worse than seeing your child in pain. While their physical pain and emotional suffering do not come with a price tag, it can be included as a part of your case’s value. We will calculate this expense based on the nature of your child’s accident and injuries.
Disability
If your child can no longer walk or live independently, we can determine the impact of their injuries on their quality of life. This expense is different from the program overseen by the Social Security Administration (SSA). Rather, it is intended to account for your child’s condition and the hardships that come with it.
These are just some of the damages that you may be able to recover. If you are interested in pursuing damages not included here, share that information with your legal team. We even may be able to identify other losses that you did not consider recovering.
The same goes for children injured at birth due to medical negligence or malpractice. Talk to our Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyer about your child’s medical condition. You might have a negligence case against hospital doctors, administration, or even parent company if it is the case. Allow your attorney fight for your child’s rights and seek you birth injury economic and non-economic damages from the liable party or parties. In medical malpractice cases, you could get compensation not listed here, so discuss everything with your attorney while providing them with the evidence you have gathered until now.
What is the Value of Your Fort Lauderdale Child Injury Claim?
The value of your claim depends on the severity of your child’s injuries and the expenses related to their condition. No two cases are the same. Begin gathering all bills, paperwork, receipts, and medical files related to your child’s injuries and share them with your lawyer.
After identifying liability, we will calculate the total value of your case and take the necessary steps to begin the claims process. We will file a claim with the appropriate insurance company and demand full and fair compensation. If we receive an insufficient offer, we will negotiate for more money or take the case to court if need be.
Our determined team at the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine will do everything in our means to fight for the best possible outcome for your family.
How Long do You Have to File a Lawsuit?
First things first, claims and lawsuits are two separate matters. The liable insurance company will have its own deadline for how long you have to file your claim. The deadline for filing a child injury lawsuit in Fort Lauderdale, however, is determined by the state.
Per Florida Statutes §95.11, you generally have four years from the date of your child’s accident to file your lawsuit in civil court. However, your child has the opportunity to file their own lawsuit later in life, per Florida Statutes §95.051. They would be given additional time from the date of their eighteenth birthday to file a civil action.
We recommend contacting us as soon as possible, though. The preservation of evidence is crucial to your case’s progression. By the time your child is old enough to file a lawsuit on their own, they may not have access to certain pieces of information, like witness accounts and security camera footage.
We Can Prove Negligence in Your Child Injury Case
The crux of all injury claims, for both children and adults, is what is referred to in personal injury law as “negligence.” Negligence simply means a party’s failure to act in a reasonably safe way so as not to cause others harm. It means adhering to the appropriate standard of care and not putting others at excessive or unreasonable risk of injury.
To have a valid child injury claim for which you can pursue restitution:
Your Legal Team Must Prove Duty of Care
The party you are filing against must have owed your child a duty of care. If your child was under another person’s care when the accident occurred, such as at a daycare or school, that facility owes your child a duty of care. Doctors owe patients a duty of care, just like property owners owe guests a duty of care.
Your Lawyer Must Show a Breach in That Duty of Care
The defendant must have somehow fallen short of their duty of care (i.e., acted negligently). A daycare worker not supervising a child who climbs to the top of an unsecured bookshelf, for example, constitutes a breach of the worker’s duty of care.
We Must Prove How Your Child’s Injuries Happened
Your child’s injuries must have been caused by the defendant’s negligence (i.e., your child would not have been injured if it were not for the defendant’s negligence). If the defendant was careless, but your child’s injuries were unrelated, then you have no basis for a claim.
Your attorney can use testimonies from witnesses and experts to help prove causation.
We Can Establish That You Suffered Damages
Your child must have sustained actual harm that is compensable. Medical files, psychological reports, and other pieces of information are usually sufficient to prove damages.
Your lawyer in Fort Lauderdale can prove all of these elements while you focus on being with your family. We can interview witnesses to the accident, confer with our team of consultants, and review the accident report to prove negligence.
We Can Determine Whether You Have a Valid Case
The attorneys and support staff at our firm are passionate about helping families with their legal needs when injury strikes. We can assist with all types of injury cases involving children, such as:
- Playground injuries
- Daycare and caregiver abuse and neglect
- Defective toy and equipment injuries
- Auto accidents
- Labor and delivery injuries
- Dangerous medicines
- Medical errors
- Swimming pool accidents
- Dangerous public areas
- Pedestrian, bicycle, scooter, hoverboard, and skateboard accidents
- Dog bites and animal attacks
- Wrongful death
What Kinds of Unique Challenges are Involved in Child Injury Cases?
Child injury cases can be especially challenging because there are dozens of factors that may arise and complicate matters. Below are just a few complexities that may be involved in your situation:
- School accidents: If your child was injured at school or on the bus, special rules apply because, like all public entities, public schools are partially shielded from liability.
- Medical mistakes: Child medical malpractice cases and birth injuries require extensive testimony from independent specialists. Learn more about Fort Lauderdale birth injury attorneys.
- Intentional harm: When abuse, bullying, or other intentional acts caused your child harm, there may be two separate ongoing cases – a criminal case and a civil case.
- Shared fault: When a victim partially contributes to their injuries, the final settlement amount can be affected. This is called contributory negligence. With kids, the rules for contributory negligence are more complex because kids are not capable of the same degree of reasoning that adults are. For example, a child injured while trespassing might still be entitled to full compensation, depending on her age.
- Future damages: When insurers or courts award injured victims with damages, the victim’s future medical, disability, and other needs are factored into the final settlement or verdict. It is harder to establish future damages for young children who have yet to work or even begun to live up to their potential. We can help you determine the value of your future losses, though.
Our caring, qualified injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Anidjar & Levine know how to navigate child injury cases effectively. We can assist with all aspects of your case and help you pursue the maximum compensation and justice you and your child deserve.
Call our Team of Child Injury Attorneys in Fort Lauderdale Today
We offer a free case review to anyone who wants to learn more about their child injury case, and how a Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyer can help your case. During our conversation, we want to learn how your child was hurt, who is responsible, and what you are looking for in a personal injury firm.
Connect with our team at no cost to you.
We Can Help.
