Alexandria Child Injury Lawyer

No parent wants to see their child hurt—ever. Parents work hard to protect their children and keep them safe at all times. But accidents can happen when children are being watched by someone who isn’t their parent. When they do, contact an Alexandria, Louisiana, child injury lawyer to help answer your questions and set you on the right path.

These unfortunate situations can leave you with a lot of unanswered questions. Was the harm preventable? Who is at fault? How can you get help with your child’s medical bills? Struggling to know who’s really to blame, it’s easy to feel confused and upset. But you don’t have to handle this alone.

If your child was hurt while under the care of another person, you may be eligible to receive compensation. The Laborde Earles Injury Lawyers is here to help you through this difficult time.

Has Your Child Been Injured?

Children, just like adults, can be hurt in many ways. But when that injury happens under someone else’s not-so-watchful care at school, daycare, or someone’s home, someone should be held accountable. Child injury cases may include:

• Swimming pool injuries (while under the care of a lifeguard or pool manager)
• Animal attacks (including dog bites)
• School and daycare injuries (while in the supervision of childcare professionals)
• Injuries sustained from another child
• Injuries at a theme or water park (due to a lack of safety protocol at the park)
• Injuries on a public playground (due to unsafe equipment)
• Injuries from the use of a dangerous product (often defective, damaged, or simply unsafe)
• Bicycle accidents
• motor vehicle accidents (including 18-wheeler accidents)

If your child’s injuries came under any of these circumstances, it’s important to determine who’s liable for the damage. A person, institution, or company that neglected to protect your child and keep them safe could owe you compensation. 

Potential Damages to Claim in a Child Injury Case

Of course, there’s no amount of money that can make up for your child getting hurt. But a financial award or settlement can help to remove some of the burden after an accident. Some different forms of compensation that could be awarded in a child injury case include:

• Medical bills (past and future)
• Therapy costs
• Pain and suffering
• Lost future income

Expenses for your family aside, an injury to a child can be devastating for their development. And sometimes the lasting effects can be hard for their parents to see early on after the accident. When it comes to settlements, the other party will try to keep you focused only on immediate costs. But a child injury lawyer can help you understand what you’re really owed when you consider the future of your loved one. 

Determining Liability in School Injury Cases

School should be a safe space for children to learn and play. The last thing a parent thinks about when they send their kids to school is a possible liability. But if your child was injured at school or on the way to school, there could actually be several parties at fault. An Alexandria child injury lawyer can help you determine who is really responsible for your child’s injury.

It’s not always easy to determine which party has been negligent (and should be sued). For example, there are many potential defendants in the case of a school bus accident coming to or from school.

• The school district may be at fault for not providing appropriate training for the driver.
• The driver may have been distracted and could be negligent for that reason.
• The school bus designer may have included a faulty part. 
• A mechanic who recently serviced the bus could have made a mistake. 

It is also possible that more than one of these parties was negligent. A child injury lawyer can help you make sense of these complex issues.

Liability Depends on the Accident Type

There are a variety of other ways that children can be injured at school. Your child may have fallen due to overly slippery floors. In this case, the school system may be at fault. Your child may have been injured on a playground. For this situation, the negligence may be on the playground manufacturer.

Children can get hurt in school by anything from bullying, broken equipment, or food poisoning in the cafeteria. Depending on the case, liable parties might be:

• The school system
• Administration
• Teachers
• Bus drivers
• Clinic worker
• Outside vendors
• Janitorial staff
• Other students

An Alexandria child injury lawyer can help you determine who is liable in your case and what your legal rights are.

How Long Do You Have to File Your Lawsuit?

Your children are your whole world. When you’re dealing with a child injury, it’s hard to think of much else—especially not filing legal paperwork. You are also likely dealing with new expenses and unexpected stresses. While this is completely understandable, there is a time limit for filing your child injury case.

A statute of limitations is the amount of time a person has to file a lawsuit following an event. For personal injury cases, including child injury claims, the state of Louisiana only allows for two years. Allow expert Alexandria area attorneys to help you get started. We can handle the legal footwork while you make sure that your child focuses on recovery. 

Giving Your Child a Legal Voice

In cases where a child was injured due to the negligence of another, these situations are rarely cut and dry. There are often multiple factors, and determining liability and negligence can be difficult, especially when you’re focused on helping your child heal.

If your child was hurt and you believe someone else could be to blame, contact the Laborde Earles Injury Lawyers. Our team will investigate your case, determine liability, and handle the legal end of things while you focus on what is really important: your family. Contact us today for a free case review to help you get started.