School Injury Lawyer in Los Angeles
Injuries At School
If your child was injured at school in the Los Angeles area, call Blair & Ramirez LLP for the answers and help you need – and to learn how much your claim may be worth.
The last thing you expect when you send your children off to school each morning is for one of them to be injured in the course of the day. Unfortunately, injury-causing accidents at school are all too real and all too common. If your child has been injured at school, you need an experienced school injury lawyer in Los Angeles in your corner.
Common Types of School Injuries
While children can be injured in any number of ways at school, some of the most common include:
- Accidents taking place on the playground, during gym, or while playing team sports
- Slip and fall accidents
- Bullying or physical violence
- Bus accidents
- Exposure to dangerous chemicals
Some of the most common injuries include:
- Broken bones
- Concussions and other forms of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Spinal cord injuries
- Burns, cuts, and abrasions
- Soft tissue injuries
- Food poisoning
What You Should Do If Your Child Were Injured at School
If your child was injured at school, the most important first step you can take – after seeking immediate medical attention for them – is consulting with a seasoned school injury attorney. The fact is that the sooner you have a dedicated school injury lawyer on your side, the better prepared you will be to obtain the just compensation that is necessary to help ensure your child reaches their fullest recovery. Your lawyer for child injury at school will immediately begin the process of taking on all the following important tasks:
- Gathering all the evidence relevant to your child’s accident, including eyewitness testimony, and compiling it into a strong, comprehensive claim
- Supplying the insurance company with the information that it needs in your child’s claim and skillfully negotiating for a fair settlement
- Helping you better understand the legal process – to help you make the right decisions for you throughout
Investigating a School Accident
The sooner the incident that caused your child to be injured at school is investigated, the better protected their claim will be. If your child attends a private school, you can sue the school in the same way that you would any other private entity. Doing so is a complicated process, but if the school that failed to protect your child adequately is a public school, you can expect far more challenging legal parameters. California has careful procedural rules in place when it comes to suing a governmental entity. A primary distinction when it comes to going after a public school for the losses your child has suffered due to its negligence is that the window of time for doing so is quite brief. Reaching out to an accomplished school injury lawyer in Los Angeles early in the process is the surest path forward.
Common Questions Related to School Injuries
If your child has been injured at school – where you expect your children to be well cared for and safe – you very likely have many questions about how best to proceed. While your claim will be unique to the situation involved, the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions can help.
Who is liable in a school negligence case?
California schools have a duty to protect the children who attend them. This duty includes providing adequate supervision for all the children in the school’s care. While you should not expect your children’s school to ensure their safety, it is required by law to provide reasonable supervision for all the students in attendance. If the cause of your child’s injury and attendant losses is the school’s (or one of its employees’) failure to provide reasonable supervision, it can be found liable. Often, the school itself or one of its employees is found directly responsible for school negligence cases.
Common examples of school negligence include failing to:
- Provide adequate supervision and have adequate safety measures in place for sports and other physical activities
- Provide adequate supervision during recess, lunch, breaks, and extracurricular activities
- Keep buses and other forms of student transportation well maintained
- Ensure that food for the students is prepared in a safe and sanitary manner
- Keep the school grounds, recess equipment, and structures well maintained
- Address slipping and tripping hazards both inside and out
- Have adequate emergency plans in place for natural disasters, fires, school violence, and more
Can you sue the school if your child gets hurt?
If your child was injured and suffered legal damages (or losses) at school – as a result of the school’s negligence or failure to live up to its responsibility to your child – you may seek compensation for your child’s losses by suing the school. However, it is important to understand that the path forward will be challenging and that having the professional legal counsel of an experienced Los Angeles school injury attorney on your side is well advised.
Why should I hire a school injury lawyer in Los Angeles?
While personal injury claims are notoriously complicated, they are even more so when they involve a governmental entity, such as a public school. Your trusted school injury lawyer will help to ensure that you bring your strongest claim (backed up by all the relevant evidence), that your claim is well within the stringent legal parameters that are in place, that you are well prepared to fight for your child’s legal rights (and rightful compensation), and that you make well-informed decisions throughout the claims process.
What if I can’t afford medical treatment for my child? Can you help me?
If you are unable to keep up with your child’s medical bills – related to the injuries they suffered at school – there are options available in California. An experienced Los Angeles school injury attorney can help you find a healthcare facility that will provide your child with the care they need on a lien basis (or can help you ask your own medical provider to do so). Working on a lien basis means that the medical professionals involved will continue to provide your child with the necessary care in exchange for payment that will ultimately flow from your school injury claim.
Compensation for a Child Injured at School
If your child was injured as a result of their school’s negligence, you can seek compensation for all the following forms of loss:
- Your child’s related medical expenses, both current and ongoing
- Any lost earnings your child experiences (if they had a job or was poised to obtain one at the time that they were injured)
- The physical and emotional pain and suffering your child is forced to endure, which can prove exceptionally challenging
Selecting a Law Firm to Represent You
Your child has been injured, which makes your claim especially important, and you want to find a firm that inspires your confidence while helping you to feel comfortable throughout the process. To this end, look for all of the following in the law firm that you ultimately choose to represent you:
- A law firm that has considerable experience successfully guiding claims like yours toward advantageous outcomes that uphold the rights of their clients
- A law firm that allows you to feel heard and to feel comfortable in the process of being heard (about this exceptionally difficult experience)
- A law firm that helps you to understand how your claim is likely to proceed and that endeavors to ensure you understand the process as it does move forward
- A law firm that answers all your questions in a manner that you understand
- A law firm that cares about you, your child, and your claim
What Is My Claim Worth?
As mentioned, school injury claims are complicated legal matters, which makes identifying how much your claim will be worth prior to it being finalized exceptionally difficult. However, at Blair & Ramirez LLP, we are committed to streamlining the process and to helping our clients better understand how their claims are likely to proceed, including offering a free case evaluator tool, which can provide you with a good idea about what your claim is likely to be worth.