What to do when my child was hurt at school but I wasn’t contacted?
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What to do when my child was hurt at school but I wasn’t contacted?
My son was playing at recess and got headbutted. He was confused and his eyes watered. He came home and ihe has a bump that already blue and an inch off his forehead from swelling. The knot takes up his whole left side of forehead. I had to take him to ER from the pain. This should be illegal and I should have been contacted with it going a head injury.
Asked on December 12, 2017 under Personal Injury, Alabama
Answers:
S.L,. Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 6 years ago | Contributor
You should contact the school district and obtain the name, address and telephone number of its insurance carrier. Then, notify the insurance carrier in writing of your son's personal injury claim.
When your son completes his medical treatment and is released by the doctor, obtain his medical bills and medical reports. His claim filed with the school district's insurance carrier should include those items.
Compensation for the medical bills is straight reimbursement. The medical reports document the injury and are used to determine compensation for pain and suffering which is an amount in addition to the medical bills.
If the case is settled with the school district's insurance carrier, NO lawsuit is filed.
If you are dissatisfied with settlement offers from the school district's insurance carrier, reject the settlement offers and file a lawsuit for negligence against the school district. Negligence is the failure to exercise due care (that degree of care that a reasonable school district would have exercised under the same or similar circumstances to prevent foreseeable harm). The negligence here was negligent supervision of your son at recess and negligence in failing to notify you that your son was injured.
You will need to be appointed guardian ad litem to file a lawsuit on behalf of your son because he is a minor.
If the case is NOT settled, the lawsuit for negligence against the school district on behalf of your son, must be filed prior to the expiration of the applicable statute of limitations or your son will lose his rights forever in the matter.
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