School Yard Injuries

Most school-aged children spend a majority of their waking hours on school premises.  It only follows that injuries will occur while at school, and some of those injuries result from mistakes or failures on the part of the school, the school district, and/or their employees.  For these types of negligence actions, it is extremely important to retain experienced attorneys as soon after the injury as possible.

Strict time lines apply to those injury claims filed against most schools or school districts, and there are special procedures that must be followed in order to have your day in court.  Additionally, the advantage is most often in favor of the school/school district, since it has access to the witnesses, the reports made about any injury, and the actual premises/property where the injury occurred.

Despite these advantages, experienced counsel will be able to successfully navigate these hurdles and achieve an ideal outcome for the benefit of the injured child.  A recent example comes from a school yard injury involving a slide, where a former kindergartener injured her arm and hand after falling off a slide that was constructed with a slope that was too steep.  Because the slide was constructed in violation of federal safety standards, the child’s attorneys argued, the school district was negligent for failing to keep the equipment up to standards, failing to maintain safe premises, and failing to properly supervise or protect the children using the slide.  A settlement of $170,000.00 was reached in that case.

Here at Heiting & Irwin, our attorneys have well over 100 years of collective experience handling injury cases of all sorts, including school yard injuries arising from unsafe premises, out of date equipment, and failure to supervise.  Remember that the passage of time is so very critical to the outcome of these types of cases and call us today!