Tampa School Injury Attorney
School attendance is required, and parents have a right to expect that schools will accept the responsibility for their children’s safety and well-being while they are in their care. Yet playground injuries send 200,000 children to the emergency room every year. Children get hurt playing sports or doing other extracurricular activities on or off school property. Children get injured in fights with other students, and an untold number are sexually assaulted by other students, teachers and staff members. The U.S. Department of Education estimates 962,300 violent incidents occurred in U.S. public schools during the 2017-18 school year, including rape, sexual assault, robbery, physical attack or fight, and the threat of physical attack.
Schools can’t be expected to prevent every injury that takes place in the schoolyard or hallways, but they can and should be held accountable when their failures to provide adequate supervision allow preventable accidents and injuries to occur. If your child suffers an injury at school, you’ll need the help of a personal injury attorney who is experienced and knowledgeable when it comes to the unique issues involving childhood injuries and government entities like school districts. Tampa personal injury lawyer Eric Moore has experience in this area combined with a dogged determination to get the best results for his clients. At Moore Law in Tampa, you’ll find a dedicated attorney who looks out for your children’s best interests and is an aggressive advocate for their well-being. If your child has been injured at school or while on a school-related activity, call a Tampa school injury attorney at Moore Law for a free case analysis to discuss your potential claims.
What Kinds of Tampa School Injuries Does Moore Law Handle?
Moore Law is here for you and your child after any school injury caused by negligent supervision or improper misconduct on the part of teachers, administrators or school support staff. Our school injury practice includes the following:
Playground Equipment Injuries
The most common injuries in the schoolyard happen from climbing and falling from playground equipment. A fall from heights for a child can end in broken bones, cuts, bruises, strains and sprains, broken or missing teeth, and more. Left unsupervised, too many children may be on the equipment than is safe or they may play in ways that are unreasonably risky or dangerous. Often, these injuries occur because children were not properly supervised on the equipment. The school district can be liable for not providing enough teachers and aides to properly supervise the given number of students, or if staff do not perform their playground duty with the appropriate level of skill and care.
Playground injuries also occur when the equipment itself is defective, causing it to break, collapse, or expose sharp edges that can cause severe damage. When playground equipment was improperly installed, negligently maintained, or continued in use past its useful life, the school district can be liable for injuries that result. If the equipment was dangerously designed or defectively manufactured to begin with, the injured children and their parents might have a product liability claim against the manufacturer or distributor of the equipment. Lack of proper ground cover is another negligent cause of child injuries that the school can be liable for.
Assaults
School districts can be held liable for physical assaults, sexual assaults and even some non-physical assaults perpetrated by teachers, staff, students, or third parties allowed on school property. Children can suffer severe and lasting emotional or psychological injury when exposed to inappropriate behavior. School personnel stand in the shoes of parents and are obligated to look out for not only their physical safety but their emotional health and well-being as well.
Sports Injuries
Athletic activities involve physical contact or effort, and injuries can occur in the performance of sports or other extracurricular activities. Parents and students are informed ahead of time of the risks and decide whether to consent to participation. This consent does not excuse school liability for gross negligence or lack of supervision during exercise, practice or gameplay. Coaching staff should be trained and responsible so that athletics occur without exposing students to risk unnecessarily.
School Injury Cases Present Unique Issues in the Law
Insurance claims or lawsuits against school districts proceed differently than claims against private individuals. The issues of duty and breach of duty are often more complicated, as well as the level of negligence necessary to get beyond “sovereign immunity” and lawfully sue a school district under Florida’s tort claims act. Most importantly, the timelines to provide notice and initiate a claim can be much shorter. It is critical to promptly call an attorney experienced in school injuries to preserve your rights to file a claim and recover compensation for the harm done to your child.
Injuries to children are different than injuries to adults. Children are still developing physically and cognitively; they are smaller and more vulnerable. Children also tend to have slower reflexes and poorer judgment than adults, weakening their ability to avoid injury or lessen the impact of an injury. Getting the right amount of compensation to deal with a childhood injury is another reason it is important to contact a lawyer with experience handling school injury cases. In addition to medical costs, parents might have to miss work to transport their kids to special facilities. They might even need to quit their job to care for their child or incur the expense of a caregiver. At Moore Law, we consider all of these factors when building a strong case for compensation against the school district.
Get Legal Help From an Experienced Tampa School Injury Attorney
If your child has been injured at school, don’t delay in contacting an experienced school injury lawyer to protect your ability to recover the compensation you’ll need to deal with the immediate and long-term aftermath of the injury. In Tampa, call Moore Law at 813-510-5400 for a free case analysis.
