You dropped a healthy and happy toddler off at daycare but picked up a child crying in pain. Just because the injury clearly happened while your child was at daycare does not mean the daycare center will be held liable for the pain and suffering. For that to happen, you will have to prove negligence and causation with the help of a Texas child abuse attorney.
What Is Considered Daycare Negligence and Abuse in Texas?
If you suspect something is going on with the daycare your child is attending, check out our list of the symptoms of negligence and abuse are by following the link below:
Watch For These Signs Of Daycare Abuse In Your Young Children.
As stated in the article, it can be simple things such as your child coming home thirsty and hungry every day, or constantly coming home with bruises. No matter how big or small an injury to your child is, the daycare should be held accountable. Continue reading to find out how to hold a daycare accountable for its negligence. Keep in mind that many times a daycare worker will not inform a parent of an injury for multiple reasons. Some of them being that they are scared to lose their jobs or get the daycare in trouble. No matter how an injury happened, a parent has the right to know the truth.
How To Prove Negligence When Your Child Is Injured At Daycare
Whether you are informed of an injury by the daycare center, or you discover it on your own at home later, your first step should be a visit to the doctor. Having the injury assessed and treated is important, not only for your child’s health and healing but for an injury claim you may later make. Medical records documenting the timing and seriousness of the injury will play a fundamental role in any future settlement. Also, a record of all treatment expenses will be vital to obtaining a fair settlement on behalf of your child.
The injury alone, however, will not be enough to sue for compensation. After all, accidents do happen and it may be no one’s fault. To hold the daycare center and childcare providers liable, you will have to show the following:
- The daycare center breached its duty of care. You will have to show that an employee failed to exercise due care to prevent a foreseeable injury. This means that the circumstances leading to the injury were ones that a reasonable daycare center should have prevented. For example, it is foreseeable that a young child could fall off a play structure; therefore, if a child is unsupervised on a jungle gym and he falls off and breaks his arm, the daycare center may have breached its duty of care.
- This breach of duty caused the child’s injury. As well as proving that the daycare center acted negligently, you must also show that negligence was the cause of the child’s injury. The court will ask whether there were any intervening forces or events that contributed to your child's injury. If there were none and the injury was a direct result of an employee’s negligence, the daycare center may be found liable.
Check out our article on How To Report Daycare Negligence And Abuse.
Don’t Settle for Less Than You Deserve If Your Child Was Injured At Daycare
Daycare centers are required to carry liability insurance. This coverage protects them when children are injured in their care, and they may make a settlement offer at the time of the injury. However, it is important that you work with a daycare injury attorney to reach a settlement that is fair and adequately compensates your child for his medical care and pain and suffering. The Button Law Firm has the experience needed to negotiate a fair settlement in a daycare injury case.