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While children are often injured in daycare accidents, parents would expect that any professional childcare facility will take reasonable steps to minimize risks.
If your child is hurt at a daycare in Charleston, you may have grounds to pursue compensation with the help of a personal injury attorney. Finding the right daycare injury lawyer is crucial for understanding your rights and clarifying your goals and next steps. Contact Charleston personal injury attorney Trey Harrell to learn more about a daycare injury case.
Common Injuries at A Daycare
Young children can get hurt in numerous ways, especially in a facility like a daycare center. This makes it very important for staff at that center to do everything possible to prevent injuries.
Some of the most frequent injuries at daycares include:
- Burns from the use of bottle warmers
- Objects falling off walls, tables or desks
- Playground injuries, such as getting hurt on a defective swing set or jungle gym
- Choking injuries
- Furniture injuries, such as tipover accidents or sharp edge injuries
- Exposure to dangerous medications, chemicals or other harmful substances
When the daycare facility did not practice due diligence in removing obstacles and protecting your child, you may be eligible to pursue compensation.
Risks Of Unlicensed Charleston Daycare Businesses
Parents may feel there are limited options for affordable daycare in their region in South Carolina, which may lead you to turn to an unlicensed daycare center.
Plenty of parents forget to ask for licensing credentials or inspection reports from that facility. Unlicensed daycare centers operate free from regulations or rules established by a government authority.
Without any oversight to ensure that the facility is safe or that staffing volumes are appropriate, children in the daycare center may be seriously injured. If the facility also does not have assets to pursue for the damages suffered by the child or appropriate liability insurance in place, it can be very difficult to pursue the case and recover compensation on your behalf. Wherever possible, only place your child in licensed daycare facilities in South Carolina.
Conduct thorough research to learn more about how long the daycare center has been open, the training experiences and number of staff present, reviews from past parents, and whether or not any formal complaints have been filed by parents who put their children there. Even when you do your best to make sure you’ve selected a safe facility, however, accidents can and do happen.
When Is a Daycare Negligent?
Negligence by a daycare can occur in many different forms, including:
- Failing to protect children from swimming pools, traffic, animals or other people while on or off the premises
- Inappropriate numbers of staff to properly supervise all children under the daycare’s authority
- Failing to properly control or monitor any child who threatens, harms or bullies other children
- Failure to provide or maintain safe toys, childcare equipment or playground equipment.
When these accidents happen, a parent may not know what caused the accident. It’s part of a daycare accident lawyer’s efforts to discover how an injury happened. Holding a daycare center accountable for these preventable injuries may be a parent’s only recourse to getting compensation to pay for the child’s medical bills.
Whether it’s tripping over objects, fighting among children, or falling from playground equipment, you and your family may be eligible to pursue compensation with the help of a daycare injury lawyer. A daycare injury lawyer will help you establish daycare negligence and determine which examples of negligence in a daycare apply to your pursuit of compensation.
What Should You Do After an Accident At Daycare?
You are responsible for proving that the daycare breached their duty of care and that this breach led to your child’s injuries. This means that you need to take action quickly.
When you believe that abuse or negligence is happening in a daycare, you need to remove your child from that dangerous environment and report this neglect or abuse to your regional childcare licensing office.
If your child has already been harmed due to an emergency at the daycare center, you need to contact the police to come to the scene. This police report may become important evidence in your daycare injury case in the future.
If you believe you have grounds to pursue compensation against the daycare facility, you may need to communicate with a qualified lawyer immediately.
Don’t sign anything given to you by the daycare facility until you have spoken with a lawyer. You may inadvertently harm your case or limit the facility’s liability by signing any reports, statements, or agreements without a lawyer’s review.
How can I minimize the possibility of daycare facility abuse?
There are several different steps you can take to make sure that your child is placed in a safe daycare facility and to continue to monitor that after you’ve signed them up.
This includes:
- Dropping in to visit your child without notice every so often
- Monitoring your children’s behavior
- Investigating unexpected bruises, lacerations or other injuries
- Ask your child what they did and what went on at daycare each day
What role do liability waivers play in a daycare injury lawsuit?
In many cases, your daycare facility may request that you sign a waiver for multiple options. This can be for your permission to take your child for emergency medical care if they are not able to get a hold of you.
Many of these waivers may include a statement that claims that the daycare is not liable if your child sustains an injury there. However, in many court cases, these liability waivers cannot be enforced, particularly regarding releasing the facility of any and all responsibility for an incident that has not yet happened.
If you’re unsure about whether or not you have grounds to proceed due to a liability waiver, involve a daycare injury lawyer in Charleston.
A Charleston Daycare Injury Lawyer Can Help
If you’re struggling to figure out what to do next after a daycare injury, let a lawyer review the facts of your case with you. Parents of an injured child deserve to know their rights and legal options.
Hire a Charleston daycare injury lawyer to discuss the grounds for your claim with you. Trey Harrell Auto Accident and Personal Injury Attorney has the background and commitment to help you pursue your case. Contact our team today to begin.
