Accidents are the leading cause of death in children aged 1 to 14 years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2014, 3,857 deaths were caused by unintentional injuries in children among this age group. Unintentional drowning and unintentional motor vehicle traffic were the two main causes of unintentional injury deaths. The leading causes of death in young children, such as auto accidents, drowning, suffocation, falls, dog bites, poisoning, and fires are all incidences that could have been prevented from occurring in the first place. This leads to the question of negligence. Negligence, in personal injury law, is the failure to use reasonable caution or care which leads to injury to another person. Because children do not have the maturity and awareness to understand the obvious dangers of their environment, they cannot be held responsible for their actions if they are injured. When a child suffers serious injuries or is killed, there is another person responsible. That someone is always an adult. Whether it is a parent, caregiver, driver, or any other person, someone is legally liable. When a child is injured or killed on commercial or private property, determining legal liability will be of the utmost importance.
Personal Injury Claim for Child Injury or Death
When a child is injured or killed in a fall, fire, drowning accident, car crash or any other way on commercial or private property, legal liability falls on the property owner in most cases. This means that they are legally liable for any incurred damages – medical bills, pain and suffering, ambulance bills, physical therapy, reconstructive surgery, and much more. In cases where the child is killed in a drowning, auto accident, a fire or a fall or any other accident which was preventable, then their parents may be entitled to file a wrongful death lawsuit on their child’s behalf. They will need to contact a qualified personal injury lawyer to pursue maximum compensation on behalf of the child. They will need to prove that the child was killed as a result of another person’s negligence or recklessness. The best person to help them do this is an experienced personal injury lawyer. The parents of the child can recover damages for emotional distress or emotional trauma and the relationship they lost with their child. Depending on the circumstances surrounding the death of the child, the courts can also award punitive damages to the surviving members of the family. This type of damages can be awarded in cases where the defendant, or negligent party, engaged in a particularly egregious or reckless type of behavior which resulted in the death of the child. Punitive damages are designed to serve as punishment to the defendant and deer or prevent similar behavior in the future.
A Top Law Firm
If your child has been killed in an accident caused by another person’s negligence or recklessness, you should seek the counsel of a qualified and experienced personal injury attorney at Rosenberg, Minc, Falloff, & Wolff of RMFW Law at 212-344-1000. We know how to win cases. We do it all the time. This is because we know how to pick them and because of our acuity and perseverance. We know the law and we know how to attack the other side and when to do it. Give RMFW Law at 212-344-1000a call. It will cost you nothing but perhaps be a very wise decision on your part.
