Accidents at school can be complex cases, mainly because it is inevitable that children will sustain small injuries whilst playing in the school yard. However, some accidents do happen that could have been prevented and therefore in some circumstances there is the option to pursue a personal injury claim.
Most accidents at school are claimed to be because of a ‘lack of supervision’- but this is very difficult to prove.
Sometimes no matter how much supervision there is, children’s game play can often lead to tears and therefore negligence is not automatically presumed.
However, there are basic rules regarding how much supervision should be provided to a specific amount of children- basically, the more children you have, the more supervision there should be. To put this in a bit of ‘legal context’ (don’t worry it’s really not that complicated!) to pursue an accident at school claim you need to prove negligence. This requires 3 steps:
- That the other side owed a duty of care to the victim.
- That this duty of care was breached
- That there was a causative link between this breach and the injury- without the negligence nobody would have got hurt!
As you can see, the last point is always going to be the most difficult to prove. In these types of claims it would be necessary to show that the lack of supervision directly cause the accident to happen. For example: a child falls from a piece of playground equipment and injures themselves due to there being no supervision.
Another type of accident at school claim that has come to my attention recently is regarding open windows! If a window opens out onto the playground and is at head height, it is ridiculously easy for a playing child to run straight into this and cause serious head injury.
If you feel one of these circumstances have caused your child to sustain injury- they may have a claim for compensation! After all, injuries sustained as a child can have long lasting effects such as scars.
Of course, a child cannot be expected to pursue a claim themselves but the system in place is incredibly simple. A litigation friend will do this for them! This is usually the parent/guardian and once a certificate of suitability is signed, this person runs the claim as it was their own.
The only difference between an adult pursuing their own claim and a litigation friend doing so on a child’s behalf is when the settlement arrives. The court will assess this and decide whether it is a suitable offer- if yes- this goes into a trust fund until the child turns 18.
So if you wish to pursue a claim and become ‘a litigation friend’ fill in the form below and one of our expert personal injury team will call you back.
