Childcare facilities have become increasingly popular with the rising rates of dual-income and single-parent families. When parents are off at work or have other obligations throughout the day, the kids need a safe place to go. Many parents trust their local daycare to create that safe and enjoyable space for their children, yet unfortunately, accidents can still happen in these environments. Moreover, these spaces are seeing record levels of neglect, with almost 50% of surveyed parents saying that they have had to make serious adjustments in their work schedule because of childcare issues.
If your child has been injured in a daycare accident, you may have the potential to receive compensation for the resulting medical expenses, therapy, and other damages. To help you file a claim or lawsuit, our team at Valley Law Accident and Injury Lawyers is standing by to provide legal aid which can make the litigation process easier to manage. Our skilled attorneys have years of experience representing people like you who have experienced neglect from daycare facilities, and we’re determined to help families through these traumatic events with compassionate and comprehensive representation.
Schedule your 100% free, confidential case review with a daycare negligence lawyer near you when you call (801) 810-9999 or contact us online.
Why Consider Hiring a Utah Daycare Accident Attorney?
As a parent, your main goal is to do your best to protect your children. Having a professional at your side through a daycare accident injury claim can be one of the simplest ways to advocate for their best interests throughout the recovery process.
By working with an attorney, you’ll gain their skills, resources, and experience along with the capabilities of their entire legal team, so you’ll never have to worry about overlooking important details or walking through the journey alone. They’ll help you gather all needed evidence and hold all parties accountable, avoiding common mistakes that allow negligent childcare providers to often sidestep liability for the injuries they cause.
Managing the steps of your child’s daycare accident on your own can leave you susceptible to being overlooked or taken advantage of. It can also leave you in the dark when you have questions or concerns. The help of an personal injury attorney in Utah ensures that every step is completed appropriately, precisely, efficiently, and in a highly organized fashion.
At Valley Law Accident and Injury Lawyers, your family is our family, so we offer the following to each and every client with the level of commitment and zeal that we’d extend to our own:
- An open line of communication with a team of professionals in the field
- Comprehensive management of your case, from the big steps to the fine details
- Protection from common injury claim traps
What Commonly Causes Injuries in Childcare Facilities?
Accidents happen, and kids of all ages will occasionally sustain injuries at daycare — but when do we cross the line from minor to serious?
When you put your child’s care into the hands of another adult, you’re justified in wanting answers after an injury occurs. Sometimes, a simple playground bump or scrape is to blame, but other times more threatening issues like neglect, abuse, or dangerous equipment may be behind it all. How are you supposed to recognize the differences?
More often than not, a childcare facility isn’t going to plainly admit if they’ve done something wrong. This means that as a parent, you are tasked with arranging the details of their story and seeing if it matches your observations of your child.
Generally, you’ll want to look out for signs that don’t add up, or if your child is communicative, discrepancies in their story compared to the facilities. For example, if you picked up your child with bruises around their arm and underarm (no cuts or scrapes), but the employee brushed over the details of how they tripped on play equipment, you could infer that this is implausible because of how the injury doesn’t match the story.
Many of the most common injuries are sustained in these situations:
- Slip and falls
- Use of defective or dangerous toy/equipment
- Exposure to toxic substances or hazardous environments
- Conflicts or accidents involving other children
- Improper supervision
- Child gets into an area without childproofing
- Intentionally abusive or neglectful caregivers
Childcare Facility Liability
When you leave your child in the hands of a daycare facility, they become liable for their wellbeing. While a waiver can alleviate some of that responsibility, it does not offer any omnipotent protection to the facility.
In case of an accident, every daycare in Utah is required to have coverage general liability, professional errors & omissions, and all vehicles.
What Changes If I Signed a Waiver or Contact?
A contract cannot protect a facility from things such as negligence or operating in an unsafe environment. If you sign a contract, waiver, or other sort of agreement with a daycare facility, you most likely signed something that covers things like rules and the fees for breaking them.
However, signing a contract cannot waive a daycare’s liability to act with a duty of care to all clients and their children. If you have evidence that your child was injured due to the neglectful or plainly abusive actions of a staff member, a contract cannot protect them from legal action. The best a contract can do is help the company shift any blame in accidents not related to neglect or abuse.
The Four Points of Negligence
Many child care accident cases involve one big question: was the facility negligent? Negligence can take many forms. It can mean what we typically think of as neglect, but it can also mean a failure to engage in proper sanitation procedures. A facility may also be considered negligent when they fail to vet a prospective employee, hiring someone who has a history of causing harm or engaging in criminal activity.
Negligence is not as simple as proving that your child was injured on daycare property. There is a standard set of four points that must be met in order for an injury to be considered the result of negligence.
The four points of negligence are mapped out as follows:
- Duty of care: The person suspected of negligence has an established duty of care to the victim of the accident.
- Breach of duty: Said person was acting in violation of that duty.
- Causation: The breach in their duty of care can be proven to be the direct cause of the accident.
- Injury Damage: Lastly, the breach of care which caused an accident also resulted in some notable injury, and subsequent damages.
What Should I Do If My Child Was Injured at Daycare?
Seeing your child come home injured from daycare is a nightmare for parents of young children, so what are the proper steps to protect them moving forward?
First and foremost, ensure that they never return to the daycare center that left them injured. You’ll want to have your attorney contact them for more information, but this should be the only communication from the point of your child’s injury. The recovery process will look different for each family, so facing each step patiently with an open mind can keep many aspects of the journey sailing smoothly.
Meet With Your Child’s Pediatrician
One of the first things you’ll want to do is set up an appointment for your child to meet with their pediatrician as soon as possible. It is essential that your child’s doctor is able to assess their condition soon after their accident to document the immediate effects of their injuries. Follow-up visits for continued treatment may also be necessary.
In some cases, a daycare facility may withhold information or tell outright lies about the events of your child’s accident, so it is always essential that a medical professional is consulted as a precaution.
Keep a Thorough Record of All Evidence You Have
If you notice that your child has developed an injury, and you suspect the negligent actions of their daycare facility, it is critical that you spend some time gathering thorough and compelling evidence.
Be sure to take pictures or a video of your child’s injuries as they develop, and you can even help them create a log that documents the progression of pain and healing. This can really emphasize how impactful the accident seems to an insurer or within the proceedings of a lawsuit.
You may also ask for security footage or ask employees questions to put more pieces of the puzzle together. An attorney can also help you understand what makes good evidence and what you may not need.
Report the Facility
Another step that you can take to add to the formality of your case is to file a report with multiple agencies such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the Department of Health and Human Services. When you make an official report against a negligent daycare facility, you can not only help preserve the integrity of your own case while creating documentation of your concerns, but you may also help prevent the same issue from happening to other children once protective agencies step in to assess the business.
Looking for a Utah Daycare Accident Law Firm? Call Valley Law Today
Facing the aftermath of your child’s injury can be overwhelming and heart-wrenching for the parents and family. During the healing journey, you’ll want to spend as much time as possible helping your child recover. So instead of fighting this battle alone, get the professional legal help you need to give your claim a high chance of success.
An attorney can manage the bulk of the details regarding a claim or lawsuit. Navigating the claim process can be confusing and overwhelming at times, but with the team at Valley Law Accident and Injury Lawyers, you’ll gain a team of skilled advocates who can be there to watch your back and answer any of your most pressing questions along the way.
Call (801) 810-9999 or contact us online to schedule a free case review and speak with a trusted member of our team.
