Car accidents involving young children are different from cases with adult victims. If your child is hurt in a car wreck, you might end up bringing different legal claims, depending on the facts. Obtaining a settlement is also more complicated. Legally, children cannot legally agree to a settlement, but they also can’t file a lawsuit. A judge will take a leading role in ensuring your child’s settlement is fair.
Larson & Gallivan Law can assist any parent whose child was hurt in a car wreck. Let us use our experience to successfully negotiate a settlement with the at-fault driver for compensation. Call us today.
How Child Injuries are Different
Children suffer many of the same injuries as their parents in a car accident: fractures, contusions, lacerations, and concussions. Your child probably needs to go immediately to the hospital after an accident for diagnosis.
But injuries with children have some differences:
- It is harder to diagnose babies because they can’t speak and tell doctors where they feel pain. Your child might be crying uncontrollably but you don’t know why.
- Children can suffer longer-lasting emotional distress than adults because they have difficulty processing what happened.
- Some brain injuries can leave learning deficits and require ongoing medical care. Unfortunately, some of these repercussions are not apparent for years.
A child is entitled to compensation for medical care and pain and suffering. If they suffer permanent disabilities, they might also have a claim for future medical expenses and loss of earning capacity. Consult an experienced Glens Falls car accident lawyer to discuss possible claims. We can review how much to request in compensation based on an accident.
Defective Car Seats
Some children are injured even though they are in a car or booster seat, as required by law. The car seat might be defective in some way, which contributed to your child’s injuries.
Some defects include:
- Faulty buckles or chest clips
- Missing or confusing instructions about how to install the seat
- Defective base units
- Cheap materials which break under stress
- Insufficient padding
- Poor design
- Flammable materials
Children can suffer various injuries due to defective seats. Most dramatically, the seat might totally fail to restrain your child, who gets tossed around the inside of your vehicle. In other cases, the straps could cut or even choke your child’s neck. Flammable materials might catch on fire, leading to devastating burn injuries.
Contact our law firm if you suspect your child was injured by a defective booster or car seat. Please remember to hold onto the seat; don’t throw it away. We can inspect it, working with a product expert, if necessary. When a product sold to the public is defective, you have a right to bring a product liability lawsuit against the manufacturer.
Infant Compromises
Most car accident cases settle. However, there is a complication if a child is injured. Under New York law, a minor cannot form their own contract, and a personal injury settlement is a type of contract. The legal system also doesn’t believe that a child’s parents will always have the child’s best interests at heart. Specifically, lawmakers fear that parents might settle their child’s claim for too little, thus robbing their child of financial compensation.
New York has responded by putting special procedures in place for settling a minor’s personal injury claim. One protection is the infant compromise hearing held at a courthouse. The purpose is to determine whether a proposed settlement is adequate, with a judge reviewing evidence and a proposed order. These hearings are usually “ex parte,” meaning the defendant is not typically present.
The amount of compensation you are seeking will determine which court you file in. You can file in civil court provided you are seeking less than $50,000, otherwise you will file in the Supreme Court.
Attorneys must be candid with the judge at these hearings about liability for the accident and why settlement is appropriate. The judge is always thinking about what is in the child’s best interests, and sometimes going to trial is the correct course of action.
If your child is at least 14, they will sign an affidavit stating they agree with the settlement. Any settlement funds are kept for the child, which means the parents cannot spend all the money themselves. Instead, parents will usually act as guardian of the funds, placing the money in a guardianship account, where it stays until your child is 18.
Parents who spent money for medical treatment can ask a judge to release some of the funds as reimbursement for those expenses. We can discuss with you how to request permission and what information a judge wants to see. The last thing you should do is just remove the money without permission.
Deadlines for Child Victims
New York has a statute of limitations for personal injury cases. It is typically three years from the date of the accident. This is the maximum amount of time an injured victim has to sue in court.
Because children are minors, they can’t file their own lawsuits, so they get a different statute of limitations. The statutory deadline is “tolled” until they reach age 18. At that point, the clock starts running.
We highly recommend that parents of children injured in a Glens Falls car accident reach out to our firm as soon as possible. The state’s statute of limitations has many wrinkles. We can’t go into all of them here. Instead, let us analyze in a consultation whether you are approaching the deadline.
Speak with Our Glens Falls Car Accident Lawyers
Larson & Gallivan Law is an experienced law firm handling New York car accident cases. Concerned parents turn to us after a collision to help negotiate a settlement for their injuries. We can help anyone hurt in a crash, regardless of their age. Call us today or reach out online to schedule a free consultation with our legal team. We can go into greater depth about possible compensation, as well as what evidence you will need in support of your claim.
