Differences in Law for Child Injury Cases?

When a personal injury claim involves a child, that can bring a great deal of stress for the family involved. Because a child has not reached adulthood, he or she cannot bring a legal claim on his or her own behalf. A parent or adult guardian must bring a bodily injury claim on behalf of a minor child. Settlements involving minors also frequently require specialized filings in probate court and approval by the judge. If your child has been injured in an accident, you need a compassionate and experienced Cumming personal injury attorney with extensive experience in complicated child injury cases on your side.

Complications Inherent to Child Injury Cases

First and foremost, you want to ensure that your child has all the medical treatment and support they need. We can help you with that, as well as with every step of your claim. Child injury cases are often as tragic and upsetting as they are complicated. These complications include:

Because minors cannot file lawsuits in their own names, children must rely upon their parents – acting as their next friends – or upon court-approved representatives who act as guardians of the children’s property rights.
Children’s injury claims are distinct from their parents’ claims regarding their children’s injuries, though both can be pursued in the same legal action. The damages sought in each action, however, are different.
The parents’ claim involves the reasonable and necessary medical expenses and other related costs (that they are naturally responsible for covering), including expenses already incurred and expenses that are expected to accrue in the years leading up to the injured child’s 18^th Parents also have the right to claim a loss of the child’s services, which is a way of saying wages that the child would have earned prior to turning 18.
The injured child’s claim, on the other hand, includes all reasonable medical costs that he or she will incur after turning 18. Further, the child’s claim can include a diminished earning capacity into his or her future – beginning at the age of majority, which is 18 in Georgia. The child’s claim can include all of the following damages – temporary or permanent injuries, the temporary or permanent impairment of a bodily function, and pain and suffering that includes both physical pain and emotional anguish (past, present, and future). In some instances, the child can also seek punitive damages.

It’s important to recognize that child injury cases have unique and complicated distinctions that, in order to ensure the victims’ rights are fully protected, require the professional legal counsel of experienced personal injury attorneys.

You Need an Experienced Forsyth County Personal Injury Attorney on Your Side

If your child has been injured in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, it’s a tragic situation for which financial compensation does not always provide complete restoration. Obtaining the remuneration for losses to which your child is entitled, however, will allow you with the best possible opportunity to provide your child with the care and services he or she needs to achieve an optimal recovery and be ultimately to be made whole. The dedicated personal injury attorneys at Banks, Stubbs & McFarland LLP in Forsyth County are committed to helping you help your child on the journey toward recovery. Protect your child’s future by contacting us online or calling us at (770) 887-1209 for more information today.