Articles Posted in Child Injuries and Death

My daughter was injured in a fireworks show put on by our neighbors last night.  What responsibility does the neighbor have to pay her medical bills and other losses? 

Your neighbor’s responsibility depends on whether or not he was negligent in his use of the fireworks.  Your neighbor had the duty to exercise reasonable care while using the fireworks and, indeed, an argument can be made in the law that he had the duty to use the highest degree of care because fireworks are so dangerous.

So, before I can tell you want responsibility your neighbor has, if any, I need to know a whole lot more about how the injury occurred.  I also would need to know the age of your daughter and what she was doing at the time the injury occurred. 

I live in a neighborhood where one person has a backyard portable pool that is a couple feet deep.  However, there are lots of little kids in the neighborhood – one of them is mine.  There is no fence around the yard where the pool is located.  I am worried sick about a kid falling in the pool and drowning, but when I spoke to the property owner about it he said "if you keep an eye on your kids nothing will happen."  What can I do about this?

Recent news articles have demonstrated the risk of such pools, reporting that one child drowns every five days in portable pools.  However, unless local zoning rules or homeowner association rules require that the pool be fenced, there is no way you can force your neighbor to fence in the pool or keep it drained when it is not being actively supervised by an adult.

The law requires that the property owner exercises reasonable care for the safety of those who come on his property.  In my view, the pool creates what is known as an "attractive nuisance,"  meaning that it is an instrument of danger that the owner knows that children will want to play in.  This puts the property owner at high risk of being sued if a child is injured or dies in his pool.

My daughter, a high school student, was  run off the road by a tractor trailer.   She was badly hurt and had to miss a semester of school.  It looks like she will have permanent injuries as a result of the wreck.  What damages can she recover?

At the outset, let me remind you that no damages can be recovered unless you can prove that the truck driver negligently caused your injury.  The case you describe can be difficult, particularly if there was no impact between your vehicle and the truck and if there are no witnesses to the event. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you determine the likelihood of success of your case.

Now, back to your question.  In a personal injury cases arising from accidents with trucks, you can recover monetary damages for past and future medical bills incurred because of the injuries, past and future physical pain and suffering, past and future mental or emotional pain and suffering, loss of earning capacity, disability, lost capacity for the enjoyment of life, and disfigurement.

I gave birth to my son two and one-half years ago in a Tennessee hospital.  The delivery was very traumatic.  My son was blue when he was born.  He was resuscitated but spent months in NICU.  He is very far behind developmentally and now I have been told that he suffered a brain injury during delivery from lack of oxygen.  Is it too late to have a lawyer investigate to see whether my son has a malpractice case?

No, but your son’s deadline is approaching very fast.  Under current law if your son was injured by negligence during his birth appropriate legal action  against the health care providers who caused the injury within three years of the date of the negligence.  The first step in this process is giving formal notice of the claim to the responsible health care providers.  Do not attempt to do this on your own – it is more complicated than sending a letter or calling the providers on the phone.  You will need the help of a lawyer to get this done.

More importantly, you need the help of a lawyer to investigate this matter.  Investigating birth-injury cases is a time-consuming effort, and thus I urge you to contact a competent lawyer as soon as possible.