Lots of accidents and injuries occur in schools. Whether it’s a kindergarten, childcare centre, primary school or high school, there is a duty of care that a school has to all its student, staff and visitors. Reasonable steps must be taken by the institution to avoid foreseeable accidents and school injury, so that students don’t hurt themselves, or others.
Was your child’s school injury due to the negligence of their school?
The key to your claim is working out whether it was the negligence of the school that resulted in the injury. Typical scenarios are injuries resulting from defective or poorly maintained playground equipment or facilities, school bus accidents, asbestos exposure, school yard bullying that results in physical and/or psychological afflictions, and falling over within school grounds.
Injuries sustained might include: concussions, dislocations, burns, broken bones, damaged teeth, organ damage, psychological damage, loss of senses, amputations or loss of the use of any part of the body.
Typically, a teacher or staff member won’t be held personally liable for the incident, unless the teacher engaged in serious misconduct. It is usually the school itself or the Department of Education and Training that will be ordered to pay compensation through their insurance policy.
Assuming your child is a minor (under the age of 18), they will also require a parent or legal guardian to act on their behalf in all proceedings.
The amount of compensation you may be entitled to would depend on the extent of the injuries, the loss suffered from the injury and the future needs created by the injury. Things that may be considered when calculating your losses include: loss of income, loss of earning capacity, care required, medical and dental expenses, medication, therapy, counseling, housing modifications and so on.
While children do tend to be accident prone, if your child has sustained an injury while in the care of their school – one that has greatly impacted your lives, or is proving to be quite costly – you should consider filing a personal injury claim.
If you wish to have a free consultation with one of our Injury Lawyers Brisbane to discuss the options of your child’s school injury, you can contact our office on (07) 3252 0011 or through our general enquiries page.
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