Can I file on a person’s home owner’s insurance if my child was injured at their home?
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Can I file on a person’s home owner’s insurance if my child was injured at their home?
My son was at a classmates house and he was shot with a shotgun by the classmate.
Asked on December 4, 2016 under Personal Injury, Texas
Answers:
S.L,. Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
Since your son was injured on the owner's property, you can file a personal injury claim on behalf of your son with the homeowner's insurance carrier.
Notify the homeowner's insurance carrier in writing of your son's personal injury claim. When your son completes his medical treatment and is released by the doctor or is declared by the doctor to be permanent and stationary, which means having reached a point in his medical treatment where no further improvement is anticipated, obtain your son's medical bills and medical reports. Your son's personal injury claim filed with the homeowner's insurance carrier should include those items.
Compensation for the medical bills is straight reimbursement. The medical reports will document the nature and extent of your son's injury and will be used to determine compensation for pain and suffering which is an amount in addition to the medical bills.
If the case is settled with the homeowner's insurance carrier, NO lawsuit is filed.
If you are dissatisfied with settlement offers from the homeowner's insurance carrier, reject the settlement offers and file a lawsuit against the homeowner based on premises liability. You will need to be appointed guardian ad litem to file a lawsuit on behalf of your son because he is a minor.
If the case is NOT settled, the lawsuit on behalf of your son must be filed prior to the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations or your son will lose his rights forever in the matter.
Separate and independent of the civil case discussed above, you should file criminal charges against the homeowner and his kid. The homeowner could be charged with reckless endangerment for not securing the shotgun and keeping it out of his kid's hands. Depending on the facts, if the kid intentionally shot your son, he/she could be charged with attempted murder or a lesser charge such as assault with a deadly weapon. If the shooting was accidental, the kid could be charged with reckless endangerment.
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