What are our rights if my 21 month old son was injured at daycare due to negligence?
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What are our rights if my 21 month old son was injured at daycare due to negligence?
An incident report was never taken. I was not even notified and only found out when I picked him up from the daycare and saw the injury to his mouth. As a result he recently had to have 2 of his teeth extracted and has been traumatized; he is scared and throws a fit now every time he has to go to the dentist or doctor. We have a lot of medical bills from this accident and would like to know what our options are for filing a claim against the daycare.
Asked on August 15, 2014 under Personal Injury, Ohio
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 9 years ago | Contributor
The daycare *may* be liable if they were negligent in allowing the injury to occur. If a staff caused the injury; or the injury occured because they were not supervising children properly; or because of unsafe conditions at the school--in any of those or similar cases, they could be liable for your medical bills, lost wages (e.g. if you missed work to take your son too the doctor), and possible for some amount of "pain and suffering" from the trauma and loss of teeth. If you believe this is the case, you could sue the daycare center; to win, you would have to prove their fault in causing the injury and the extent of his injury and you medical costs. For amounts less than the maximum limit for your small claims court, you may wish to sue in small claims court, acting as your own attorney (pro se) to avoid legal fees.
However, if the day care center was not at fault, then they would not be liable; they are liable only if they did something wrong. So, for example, say they were monitoring/supervising the children well, but once, when you child was standing or walking, he happened to trip over his own feet and hit his mouth on a chair or table--that would not have been their fault and they would not be responsible for it.
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