Articles Posted in Injuries to Children

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In a lawsuit against a fatal amusement park accident during a school outing that claimed the life of a child, defendant amusement park cannot seek indemnification from the school. However, according to a recent New Jersey Supreme Court opinion, defendant will be allowed to seek a verdict that allocates fault to the school, meaning it plaintiffs could ultimately receive less. 

The issue in Jones v. Morey’s Pier was that defendant amusement park failed to give proper notice of claim to the school under the state’s Tort Claims Act. Still, the park will be allowed to present evidence during the pending trial against it that the school was negligent and that this negligence was a proximate cause of the girl’s death. If the jury finds credible evidence of this, it can allocate a percentage of fault to the school, which would reduce the park’s overall liability and the amount it would have to pay the child’s parents.

This question of common-law indemnification against a public entity was one of first impression in New Jersey, and although it has no direct bearing on the court process in Florida, courts often look to the decisions of their sister courts in reaching conclusions about similar matters.  Continue reading →

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A tiny tick in a mountainous region of China set off a chain of events leading to a $40 million verdict against a Connecticut school – a verdict recently affirmed by the Connecticut Supreme Court.

Although the court’s ruling doesn’t have a direct impact on case law in Florida, state high courts often look to their sister courts in considering rulings that may set precedent. The case was certified to the state supreme court from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which sought answers as to whether public policy supports imposing a duty on a school to warn about or protect against the risk of a serious insect-borne disease in organizing an abroad trip. The court was also asked whether damages in the amount of $41.5 million warranted a remittitur (reduction). The court answered yes to the first and no to the second.

The court’s ruling underscored that schools do have an affirmative duty to protect children in their care. The ruling doesn’t definitively settle the case, the outcome of which is expected to play a role in how – or whether – schools provide such travel opportunities in the future. Continue reading →

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Serious injuries to two young girls, as well as an adult woman, who fell 35 feet from a Ferris wheel at a county fair have filed lawsuits against the fair, as well as the ride’s operators, owners and manufacturers.

The federal lawsuits, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee allege the named defendants – as well as unnamed defendants who performed maintenance on the ride – were negligent, causing them to suffer serious personal injuries. The lawsuit seeks monetary damages in an unspecified amount. Two sisters, ages 6 and 10, as well as another girl, not identified in the lawsuit, fell from the ride when the gondola  in which they were seated suddenly overturned. Another woman on the ride also fell when the same thing occurred in her gondola. The 10-year-old suffered a broken arm while the 6-year-old suffered a traumatic brain injury. The 16-year-old, who is not a plaintiff, was not seriously injured. The unrelated woman, meanwhile, suffered a sprained left arm and shoulder.

The youngest girl, who was the most seriously injured, was hospitalized for extensive injuries, and continues to undergo physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy, and continues to have ongoing treatment from neurologists. The 10-year-old has suffered severe emotional distress, while the younger girl continues to struggle with short-term memory loss, nightmares and is hypersensitive to low-level risks, such as being trapped in an elevator. Continue reading →

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A child under three is injured every eight minutes in the U.S. as a result of a product-related accident. Most of these involve products like:

  • Cribs
  • Walkers
  • Strollers
  • Carriers

In many cases, the child suffers a concussion or other type of head injury.

This information was derived from a new extensive study, published in the journal Pediatrics, conducted by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Ohio. This all breaks down to about 66,000 serious child injuries a year that require treatment at a hospital emergency department. What’s especially troubling about the study, which analyzed data over the course of 20 years, is that baby and toddler product injuries were on a downward trend for the first several years, but have since been climbing again.  Continue reading →

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Facial trauma, which is also formally referred to as maxillofacial trauma, is any type of physical trauma to one’s face. It can involve soft tissue injuries, like lacerations, burns or fractures, as well as trauma such as eye injuries. 

Particularly when it comes to children, we know many of these injuries are preventable. They are often caused by:

  • Defective products (particularly infant and toddler items);
  • Sports-related injuries;
  • Car accidents.

April is National Facial Protection Month, according to the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. The month was designated for the spring because it’s often the time at which children across the country start to become increasingly active in outdoor activities.  Continue reading →

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Parents of an Oklahoma boy have filed a personal injury lawsuit on behalf of their young son, alleging he suffered a brain injury while at day care.

Of course, our injury lawyers know that kids are prone to getting hurt. They can be clumsy. They don’t always pay close attention to where they are walking or climbing or running. They often fail to appreciate the danger in every day situations. But that’s all common knowledge, and that’s precisely why a company running a daycare has the responsibility to keep a watchful eye. They have a duty to make sure their staffers are fully vetted, properly trained and carefully watched. They have a responsibility to make sure they hire enough staffers in ratio to the number of children in their care and that appropriate action is taken to prevent accidents, injuries and illnesses that are foreseeable.

Plaintiffs in these cases need to show that the child’s injuries were the result of negligence, which means the daycare facility and/ or staffers failed to exercise due care to prevent a foreseeable injury. Accidents that involve falls from playground equipment, illnesses caused by unsanitary conditions or slipping on some substance that wasn’t quickly cleaned – these are all incidents that were probably foreseeable. Similarly, a child injured by a daycare worker with a violent criminal background or a lack of basic experience would also be a foreseeable injury. Continue reading →

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We send our children to school with the expectation that the grounds are reasonably safe and the kids will be properly supervised. When this is not the case and an injury results, it could be grounds for litigation. 

Generally, personal injury lawsuits against school districts tend to be tricky because, first and foremost, public schools are agents of the government. As such, they are entitled to certain protections, such as sovereign immunity, which is only waived under certain circumstances. Still, it’s usually accepted that there is a special relationship between school staffers and students, and thus a duty to protect.

In a recent case out of Wyoming, the question was whether a school district should be liable for injuries suffered to a child who fell while playing on a patch of ice on school grounds during school hours. The Wyoming Supreme Court, in reviewing the lower court’s ruling, analyzed four different elements of this case and determined the answer to the question of liability was: No.  Continue reading →

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An increasing number of new mothers and fathers are finding especially handy baby slings, those cloth wraps that can be used to help carry an infant in a reclined or upright position. The problem is that there weren’t any federally-mandated standard to regulate the safe design and use of those slings – until now.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that the new federally-mandated standard created by ASTM International, Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Sling Carriers.

The new standard incorporates some of the most recent voluntary standards, with a slight modification involving label attachments. The new rule slightly modifies the ASTM’s standard by making it necessary to manufacture warning labels in a way where they will be permanent on the garment. The other mandatory standards for the baby carriers/ slings cover:

  • The structural integrity to make certain that even after all testing, there isn’t any tearing in the fabric, seam separation or breakage;
  • That the slings can carry triple the recommended weight of the manufacturer;
  • That the devices will stop the child from falling out when it’s being used normally (i.e., even if the child is wiggly).

Continue reading →

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While the holidays are over, hopefully the kids are still getting some mileage out of their gifts. Chances are, some of those included toys. Safety of children’s products is largely overseen by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which announced recently it was teaming up with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) to halt the flow of dangerous toys from reaching children this season.

The effectiveness of the effort this past year is still being weighed, but we do know this: Over the four years prior, the team stopped more than 8 million units of about 4,500 different kinds of toys and children’s products that failed to meet federal safety standards from reaching store shelves. These shipments included high levels of lead, small parts, sharp points and violations of labeling requirements. Further, in fiscal year 2016, the number of toy recalls fell sharply to 24, with only one of those being a lead violation, as compared to the 172 toy recalls issued in fiscal year 2009, with 19 of those involving high lead levels. Last year, toys were recalled for dangers that included fire and mechanical and choking hazards.

A new report released by the CPSC indicated that in 2015, there were an estimated 185,500 toy-related injuries that had to be treated at hospital emergency rooms. These cases involved only children under the age of 15, and at least 11 incidents resulted in death (final death counts may not yet be available). Most toy-related injuries involved some type of cut or bruise. Of those injuries that resulted in death, nearly half were riding toys – specifically, non-motorized scooters.  Continue reading →

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Jurors in California have awarded $19.7 million in damages to the parents of a young boy who shot himself in the head with a loaded gun that was left out near a toy box by his great-grandfather. 

Although the boy survived the gunshot between the eyes, he suffered severe and permanent brain damage. Now 8-years-old, he needs 24-7 medical care and assistance with daily activities.

As the personal injury lawyer representing the boy’s parents explained the damage amount was reached via careful consideration of not just the pain and suffering of the actual shooting, but a meticulously-crafted life care plan that takes into account his medical bills, the cost of previous surgeries, the kind of care he will need in the future, the lost wages he has suffered, the lost wages his parents have incurred and the loss of life events, like having a relationship with his parents or ever starting a family of his own. The damages will be placed in a special trust that will be drawn from throughout the boy’s life to help cover his expenses. He is expected to incur $10 million in medical expenses over the course of his life. Continue reading →

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