Was Your Child Badly Injured On A Field Trip? What To Do
If your child was on a field trip with their school or some type of group and they were badly injured because they weren't supervised properly, you want to contact a legal professional. If your child had life-threatening injuries and you don't know how long it will take them to recover from the accident, then a lawyer can help you take action. Here are a few things you want to consider right away so you can get the case moving and settled with quickly.
Gather Evidence, Witness Statements and Information
Right away—preferably before your child sits down with the school administration or people in charge—you want to gather all information possible about the accident. If your child wasn't being supervised by the adults properly, and other children or adults that were there will attest to that, you need to get the statements.
Gather photographs of the injuries and photographs of the area where your child was hurt, and get documentation of all the medical bills you have. Video evidence from a security camera or cell phone would be ideal.
Injury Severity Statement
Have a medical professional write a statement that talks about the injuries your child is suffering from and how these injuries could be a lifelong problem. You also want the statement to talk about the emergency treatment that was needed and about the treatments that may be needed in the future for your child to be fully healed in life. This could include surgeries, speech therapy, physical therapy and more.
Settle Out of Court
To avoid a lot of media exposure, the school or organization may want to settle the issue out of court. They have insurance to cover these types of problems, so have your legal team talk with their legal professionals. However, you don't want to do any negotiating on your own, or make any deals without a legal professional present. If the school's insurance company isn't willing to cooperate with the out-of-court settlement, your lawyer will go ahead and file the case.
There are a lot of reasons why the people that you trusted with your child should have to pay for all medical costs; in particular, your child's suffering is something that could have been avoided if they were being supervised responsibly. Talk with a lawyer at a firm like McFarland & Masters LLC to see if the type of injuries your child has, the proof of neglect that you have, and the other evidence is enough to pursue a settlement.