Children across the country are injured every day. While some injuries may be minor and quickly heal, others may cause lifelong damage or even death. Many of these injuries are caused by someone’s negligence, medical malpractice, or defective products. Common causes of children’s injuries include:
- Defective toys and other children’s products and adult products to which children are exposed
- Negligence of supervisors on playgrounds, in daycare centers, and in schools
- Negligence of coaches during after-school sports activities
- Negligence of drivers
- Negligence of landowners in failing to take precautions against children’s injuries from dangerous conditions on land
- Medical errors made during a mother’s pregnancy or a child’s birth
- Failure to diagnose a child’s illness or other condition
If your child has been injured or killed as a result of medical malpractice, someone’s negligence, or a defective product, you may be entitled to compensation for the damages you and your family have suffered as a result of your child’s injury or death. Child injury lawyer Jeff Killino has extensive experience and expertise with all types of child injury cases and is dedicated to holding all those responsible for children’s injuries and deaths accountable through legal action. Contact attorney Killino at 877-875-2927 for a no-cost evaluation of your case and information about your legal rights and options.
Legal Liability for Children’s Injuries and Deaths
Children’s injuries may be caused by negligence, medical malpractice, or defective products and result in liability on the part of the responsible individuals and entities through the institution of negligence, medical malpractice, and product liability actions.
Liability for Children’s Injuries and Deaths Caused by Defective Toys and Other Products
Children’s injuries and deaths may be caused by their exposure to or use of defective products. These include not only children’s products and toys but also products intended for adult use to which children have been exposed. Under most states’ product liability laws, the manufacturers, designers, assemblers, suppliers, and retailers of defective products may be held strictly liable for injuries or deaths to children caused by defects in products. This means that the plaintiff may establish the defendants’ liability without proving that any of the defendants was negligent in producing the defective product or releasing it to consumers.
Toys coated with lead-containing paint often cause serious injuries or death to children who put the toys in their mouths. Strollers, highchairs, and playpens may contain defects that allow a child to become caught between rungs or the leg openings in seats, resulting in strangulation injuries or deaths. Children’s products with inadequate restraints may also pose fall hazards to children and result in injury or death. Children’s car seats with restraints that come open with the force of a child’s weight or that do not adequately protect a child’s body from impact with the interior of a car may also result injury or death to a child and liability of the manufacturer and others in the chain of the product’s distribution.
Liability for Children’s Injuries and Deaths Caused by Negligence
In addition to the negligence of medical personnel who take part in the care or treatment of a child, the negligence of child supervisors, landowners, and others may also result in a child’s personal injury or death and resulting liability of those who are found to have negligently caused the child’s injury or death. The laws of premises liability and negligence of the state in which an action is filed may determine the liability for such injuries or deaths.
Though premises liability laws may differ from state to state, most states’ laws hold the owner of land on which a child is injured or killed liable for the child’s injury or death under certain circumstances. If a landowner is aware of a child’s presence on land, for example, and takes no steps to protect the child from injury due to dangerous conditions on the land of which the landowner is aware, the owner may be found liable for the child’s resulting injury or death. This liability may be imposed in many states even when the child is a trespasser. If, on the other hand, a landowner allows public access to land free of charge, the owner may be relieved of liability for injury or death to a child caused by a dangerous condition on the land, particularly if the land is unimproved.
The negligence of an individual or entity entrusted with the care of a child may also result in a child’s injury or death. In such cases, negligent individuals as well as their employers may be held liable for children’s injuries or deaths caused by employees’ negligence. The employers may also be held directly liable for injuries or deaths contributed to by the employers’ own negligence.
Liability for Children’s Injuries and Deaths Caused by Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice during a child’s birth or the medical treatment or care of a child may result in a child’s injury or death. A pediatrician’s failure to recognize symptoms of an illness and to order appropriate tests, for example, may result in injury or death to a child. The use of improper or faulty equipment during surgery may also cause a child’s serious injury or death. Pediatricians, nurses, and other medical professionals who assist in a child’s care or treatment have a duty to exercise reasonable care for a child patient’s safety and health under all states’ medical malpractice laws. If the breach of this duty results in injury or death to a child, those medical professionals may be held liable for the legally compensable damages suffered by the child or the child’s family as a result.
Contact Us
If your child has been injured or killed as a result of medical malpractice, negligence, or a defective product, child injury attorney Jeff Killino can help you obtain the compensation you deserve. Contact The Killino Firm at 877-875-2927 for expert and experienced assistance with your case.
