We all know how curious children can be, and at such a young age they often don’t realise the risk of their own actions when exploring and looking for fun, and this can easily have serious consequences possibly leading to a personal injury claim. Even if land is private, the occupier (this is the owner or person in control of the land) still has the responsibility to ensure the land is either safe should a child trespass or ensure that the security around the lands makes it impossible for a child to enter.
Therefore, although your child may have been trespassing, it may be possible that the occupier is to blame for the injury sustained. However, there are several points that need to be considered to determine whether your child is entitled to claim compensation.
These include whether the injury was reasonably foreseeable or whether the land the injury was sustained on run an unreasonable risk of danger? Was the location a place which a child would obviously be likely to trespass? And was there an allurement, something which would attract your child to the private land? It is understood that children don’t understand the dangers as adults do, as well as not being able to notice standard warnings such as ‘No Entry’ signs, or a barbed wire fence, and these cannot be classed as adequate security.
