Leaving your child at a daycare means that you fully trust the facility and its caregivers to ensure your kid’s wellbeing. This is why it can come as a shock when you learn that your child has suffered serious injuries due to poor supervision.
At this point, it’s normal to want justice, as well as some form of financial remedy for the physical and psychological pain your child suffered. While this does not erase the suffering experienced in any way, it makes it more comfortable to get your family’s lives back on track.
So, where do you start when pursuing compensation for negligent supervision? The first place to start is seeking legal counsel from a personal injury law firm like Louthian Law Firm. From here, you’ll learn your rights, the laws, and how much of a settlement your child’s case should be awarded.
What Is a Negligent Supervision Claim?
A negligent supervision lawsuit is a claim filed against an individual or institution for their lack of proper supervision, which caused harm and injuries. Generally, this type of negligence can occur in other settings, including at the workplace or in a nursing home facility.
When it comes to the negligent supervision of children, other parties that could be potentially liable include another parent, nannies, coaches, teachers, youth camp leaders, private property owners, and so on.
In a childcare facility, negligent supervision can occur due to understaffing or reckless caregivers who are not concerned with the children’s wellbeing. The most common injuries, in this case, are bites, bruises, heat exhaustion, pool accidents, or even broken bones!
Children are playful and can get minor bruises from normal play. However, if this keeps happening, it might be time to investigate negligent supervision with the help of a child injury lawyer.
Examples of Childcare Negligent Supervision
Unfortunately, improper supervision in daycare can go unnoticed for months or until it’s too late. Common instances when you can sue for negligence that caused harm are as follows:
- Improper care or neglecting an injured child
- Failing to protect a child from emotional or physical harm, such as bullying, from other children
- Improper storage or placement of items that could be dangerous to a child, such as prescription drugs, weapons, chemicals, and so on.
- Failure of a facility to satisfy the required staffing ratio.
- Improperly supervised physical, sport, or gym activities.
How to Prove Negligent Supervision in a Daycare Facility
The only way to successfully file a claim and get compensated is to prove that negligence in supervision occurred.
Start by looking at the legal duty that a childcare facility owes you as a parent. This duty of care might be stated under the state’s government guidelines or through a contract you signed. Next, how was this duty of care breached, and were there resulting injuries?
Some of the signs you can watch out when determining negligent supervision in a daycare include the following:
- Unexplained changes in your kid’s behavior
- Presence of injuries that the caregivers struggle to explain
- Failure to report or document a child’s injuries and bruises
- Improperly organized play areas
- Aggression among the children
After ascertaining negligent supervision, the next, and final step, is to calculate all the damages that the child has suffered and put a value on them. Things like resulting medical bills or property damage can be easier to quantify, unlike intangible damages, such as emotional pain.
Consider working with a child injury lawyer from the beginning because they are familiar with the laws, deadlines, and will know how to quantify your non-economic damages.