When Parents and Childcare Providers Face Liability
The majority of parents have hosted their kids’ friends in their homes or driven a vehicle with kids’ friends present. In other situations, adults provide childcare for others in their homes. Many, however, are completely oblivious to the legal ramifications should an accident occur.
Premises Liability
The fact of the matter is that homeowners are legally responsible for the conditions and for whatever happens on their property. So if someone is injured, the homeowner is financially responsible. There is an even higher duty to kids who are invited to the property. Even so, about one-third of parents report that they do not regularly enforce safety rules in their homes. And while no one can prevent all accidents, when supervision is lacking for children and an accident occurs, that’s a real problem. A lack of supervision can result in minor issues related to falls that require no more than a bandage and a pat on the head, or to more significant injuries that require hospitalization. In addition to being held accountable for medical bills, homeowners who fail to exercise reasonable care related to their property may face personal injury lawsuits based on their negligence.
Common Dangers
Danger is everywhere and kids are expected to have accidents here and there—but liability issues arise when homeowners don’t take the necessary and reasonable steps to reduce the chances for accidents:
- Swimming pools are a significant hazard, resulting in more than a quarter of serious injuries and fatalities for children under age five.
- Dog bites can result in both civil and criminal charges.
- Trampolines lead to more than 100,000 visits to the emergency room annually, with 500 of those visits revealing what turns out to be permanent neurological damage.
- Accidental poisoning results in over one million calls to poison centers every year.
- About half of parents say televisions and other heavy furniture has not been secured and could tip over onto children.
- 14 percent of adults say they never check their smoke detectors, even though working alarms cut the chances of dying in a house fire in half.
- Nearly 100,000 young children have accidents on stairs, many of which have no safety gates or are cluttered with toys and other objects.
- Kids aged 0-5 who were killed accidentally were shot by other children under the age of 10 half of the time, and two-thirds of these deaths occurred when kids were showing off the guns and/or playing with them.
- Half of accidental gun deaths for kids aged 6-10 were at the hands of children aged 11-17.
Seeking Justice
Has your child suffered serious injury or death due to negligence in the home of someone else? If so, the dedicated La Plata & Waldorf personal injury attorneys at The Law Office of Hammad S. Matin, P.A. can help. Schedule a confidential consultation today.
Source:
safekids.org/sites/default/files/documents/ResearchReports/report_to_the_nation_protecting_children_in_your_home.pdf
