Children are just as susceptible to injuries as adults, including severe injuries like traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). As is true for adults, a minor child has legal rights if someone else’s carelessness leads to a TBI.
However, Florida law provides different methods for protecting children’s rights compared to adults. If you have a child who is diagnosed with a TBI following an injury accident, knowing these differences can mean recovering much-needed compensation instead of shouldering your child’s medical bills and other expenses on your own.
Demystifying Pediatric TBIs
Traumatic brain injuries occur when your brain is harmed after you suffer a sudden blow or other trauma to your head. This harm could come from blunt force trauma, such as a hard object striking your head and transferring trauma to your brain. Trauma can also be inflicted directly through piercing injuries that penetrate the skull and directly impact the brain.
Common scenarios that lead to traumatic brain injuries in children include:
Falls
Children can fall in many ways, from falling on ice or a slippery floor to falling off of a slide or ladder. TBIs commonly follow any type of fall in which the child hits their head.
Car Accidents
Children can sustain blunt force trauma to the head in a car accident if they hit their head on their car seat, a car window, or any other part of the car. Your child’s safety in a wreck depends on keeping them secure in an approved and appropriate car seat.
Sports Injuries
Football, soccer, and other contact sports can put your child at risk of sustaining a blow to the head that can lead to a concussion. If your child loses consciousness even for a moment, it may be a sign that they have sustained a TBI.
Rights of Children Following a TBI
Consulting a skilled child brain injury lawyer is crucial if your child is hurt by another’s careless acts. There are legal peculiarities about personal injury cases brought on behalf of a child that an experienced brain injury lawyer will be equipped to handle, including:
Cases Brought by a Parent or Guardian
It is important to note that a minor child is not legally able to file a lawsuit in their own name, even if a brain injury lawyer represents them. Instead, the child’s parent or legal guardian must act as the plaintiff.
This means you will be the one to sign all legal documents and appear in court on behalf of your child. You also have the right to settle your child’s claim if you believe it is in your child’s best interests to do so.
Statute of Limitations
Normally, an adult who sustains a TBI has two years from the date of their accident to file a lawsuit. These statutes of limitations do not disappear just because your child is injured and not an adult. To ensure you meet such deadlines, plan on speaking with a brain injury lawyer as soon as possible and filing your child’s case quickly.
Moderate or severe TBIs can leave your child in a state where they are considered legally incapacitated. If this happens, you can get up to seven additional years beyond the normal statute of limitations to file your child’s TBI injury case. Your brain injury lawyer can review your situation and advise you on whether this extension is applicable.
Additionally, just as the statute of limitations applies to child brain injuries, so too do other exceptions to the statute of limitations. This includes the “discovery rule,” which pauses the statute of limitations until you know or should have known your child suffered an injury.
For example, if your child suffered a blow to the head playing baseball but did not show symptoms of a TBI until months later, the statute of limitations may be paused and not start running until that later date.
Available Damages
When your child is injured, the costs of their medical bills and ongoing treatment needs can be recovered. Expenses that you as a parent incur, such as missing work because you have to care for your injured child, can also be compensated.
Get Started With a Child Brain Injury Lawyer Today
Any brain injury is a complicated medical and legal matter. When your child is the one who is injured, you need a knowledgeable Florida brain injury lawyer to help guide you through the legal process.
The caring and compassionate team at Schrier Law Group can use our resources to fight for you and your child. Schedule your consultation with us today.
