Schools are supposed to be a safe space for our children, where they can learn, grow and make lifelong friendships. Sometimes, though, children get injured at school. When those injuries go beyond a scraped knee or bruised skin from tripping while running around the playground, many parents lose faith in the schools to protect their children and need to find a way to restore that faith. Thankfully, the team at Pope & Howard, PC can help.
The first thing you want to do if your child is seriously injured at school is to get your child proper treatment. By making sure your child gets proper care, you are getting documentation about the injury as well as showing that you did not contribute to the injury by delaying treatment.
While your child is getting proper care, you want to find out how they were injured. If your child was playing on the playground during recess and there was a piece of faulty equipment that caused the injury, then the injury would fall under a product liability claim.
Similarly, if your child gets food poisoning but the school has food from an outside vendor, then the injury would also be a product liability claim.
If the injury occurred while playing sports, then you need to review if there was a waiver signed, and if so, bring the waiver to the team at Pope & Howard to see how much protection it provides to the school. If your child was injured because the school did not provide a safety measure, failed to provide enough people to monitor the students, or failed to provide backup for a school nurse, then there may be negligence on the part of the school.
If your child was injured because of a failure of the school to provide proper monitoring, staff support or safety measures, then the school is considered negligent in its duty of care. If your child is in public school, then you would need to make the school district aware of the injury and file a claim as soon as possible.
Only after you notify the district and make a claim would you be able to bring suit against the district. If the school is private, then you would be able to direct the team at Pope & Howard to file suit against the school.
During the lawsuit, you’ll be in the experienced hands of the Pope & Howard personal injury team. Our Atlanta legal staff will request the medical records and any other documentation needed to prove the case and get you the best results. Not only do we have a proven track record of getting just compensation for our clients, but we also have a committed, compassionate staff who will make sure you understand every step of the process.
Schedule a free consultation at our Atlanta office today by calling (404) 885-9999. We can also do a virtual consultation if you don’t feel comfortable coming into the office.