- Communicable diseases: Kids sleep in fairly close quarters and as with any time youngsters come together in groups, germs get passed from one to another. Most common are respiratory infections and gastro-enteritis, “stomach flu.” Most of these are minor and pass within a few days. In the rare instance of a serious outbreak of a life-threatening disease, such as measles or meningitis, depending on the circumstances, the camp’s vaccination requirements, and how the first case was handled, it might be possible to prove negligence and hold the camp liable for the cost of medical care, pain and suffering, and any long-term damage to the child’s health.
- Slip, trip, and fall accidents: If a child>slips or trips and falls because of some hazardous condition at the camp, the owners may be held liable for any injuries that occur, if it can be shown that they were negligent in maintaining the premises in a reasonably safe condition, and that they caused or allowed a hazardous condition to exist, under the legal theory of premises liability. We highly recommend contacting a San Antonio slip and fall lawyer to see if you have a case and a right to compensation for your child’s injuries.
- Injuries resulting from the failure to use appropriate protective equipment: Team sports, horseback riding, and cycling are among the camp activities that require protective gear. If the camp either does not provide the gear or does not enforce its use, they may be held liable for your child’s injuries.
- Injuries resulting from lack of supervision: There’s no telling what kind of trouble kids can get into when left unsupervised. When you send your child to camp, you rely on the staff to provide appropriate supervision. It is the camp’s responsibility to provide it. The camp can be held liable for serious injuries or deaths (drowning, for example) brought about by lack of supervision of the campers.
- Inherently dangerous camp activities: Horseback riding, football, capture the flag, wilderness hiking, and other activities common at camp come with inherent dangers for kids who participate. You will usually be required to sign a release of liability form. If the camp has provided adequate training, supervision, and protective gear, they will probably not be held liable for a child’s injury in an activity with inherent danger. However, if they were lax in any of the above, you might have a case.
- Sexual or physical abuse of children due to failure of camp to screen staff: The camp is responsible for ensuring that the people they hire to supervise and guide the children are of good character. They should perform thorough background checks to determine if there any red flags that might indicate an applicant is not fit to be around children. Needless to say, a conviction for a violent crime, domestic abuse, or a sex offense should preclude hiring someone. If any sort of child physical or sexual abuse occurs at the hands of a staff member, the camp may be held liable for wrongful hiring and failure to properly investigate those who will care for the kids.
Month: July 2017
Summer Camp Injuries: Who is Responsible?
Summer is here, and kids are celebrating the end of the school year and packing up for camp. New friends, outdoor activities, and time spent away from home to encourage independence are among the many benefits of a summer at camp. Nationwide, there are 7,000 overnight camps and about 5,000 day camps in the U.S., attended by some 11 million campers, according to the American Camp Association (ACA).
As parents, you are trusting your children to the supervision of others when you send them off to camp. Hopefully, you’ve done your research and selected a camp with a great reputation and track record of many summers without incident. Nevertheless, accidents do happen at camp. Most are minor scrapes and cuts, but serious injuries and illnesses can occur. When they do, who is responsible?
The Camp’s Duty of Care to its Campers
In most cases, the camp has a duty to keep it’s campers reasonably safe, under the legal theory of premises liability. The camp’s grounds should be maintained free of hazards, and the activities should be age appropriate, not unduly dangerous, and well supervised. The camp owes a duty to its campers and their families to review its programs and facilities to minimize injury risks. When the owner, operator, or a staff member of the camp fails in its duty to create and maintain a safe environment, and a serious accident or injury occurs, a parent might successfully sue the camp for their child’s injuries.
Types of Injuries and Illnesses that Occur at Camp
What is Wrongful Birth?
Reproductive rights have become a contentious issue in the United States. Many believe it is and essential right a woman to determine when, under what circumstances, and how often she will give birth in her lifetime. There is a viewpoint promoted by some religious groups that every conception should be treated as a human life and carried to term. But others see this as a fundamental denial of the mother’s right to determine if and when she will give birth. The problem becomes an especially thorny one when the woman is carrying a child who will never be able to live a normal life and may be subjected to painful and expensive medical procedures and intense suffering.
This situation forms the basis for two types of legal action in some common law legal systems, such as the United States, for “wrongful birth” and “wrongful life.” These two causes of action may arise when a doctor knows that a woman is likely to be carrying a child with a serious congenital defect and fails to inform the parents, resulting in the pregnancy being carried to term, allowing the severely ill child to be born who requires expensive care to maintain a poor quality of life.
It may involve:
- The withholding of genetic information that would predict the likelihood of a congenital disease or abnormality
- Failing to disclose the availability of genetic or prenatal screening procedure
- Failing to inform a woman who was given a drug, or who became ill with a disease like rubella, that the fetus could have been affected
- Failing to inform parents of an abnormality or high possibility of one, discovered during routine prenatal care
What Damages May Be Claimed in a Wrongful Birth Action?
These are the potential damages that parents may claim in a wrongful birth action:- The additional costs of raising a child with special needs, above and beyond those of raising a healthy child, such as medical care, special schooling, therapy, medical devices, and so forth;
- Parent’s emotional distress
- Loss of consortium
- Pain and suffering of the mother during delivery of an abnormal or unhealthy baby
Complexity and Controversy
Wrongful birth and wrongful life cases are fraught with complexity and controversy. Proving causation can be tricky. While the doctor cannot be held responsible for actually causing the abnormality, it must be shown that the doctor was negligent in withholding information that would have allowed the parents to make an informed decision to prevent the birth of an unhealthy child. Opposing religious, philosophical, and political views regarding the sanctity of life and the beginning of legal personhood further complicate the matter and add a layer of controversy and emotionality that goes beyond the medical facts of the case. Parents contemplating this type of action need to ensure that they hire an experienced attorney without ambivalence about this type of case, who will provide the wholehearted commitment and compassion to help the plaintiffs weather what might be a wrenching emotional storm.What Does a School Liability Waiver Actually Do?
If you are a parent of a school-age child, you probably sign many, many permission slips. If you don’t, your child will be left at school, sitting alone in a near-empty classroom, missing out on all the fun of a class field trip or other off-campus activity or unable to participate in an after-school sport program. A permission slip typically contains a waiver of liability; you agree not to hold the school responsible for any harm that might come to your child. But isn’t it the responsibility of the teacher or other supervising adult to take reasonable care to avoid a child coming to harm—regardless of where the class is?
Signing permission slips has become so routine that parents may give little thought to them—until their child is injured. Then, they often assume that since they signed the liability waiver, their hands are tied, and they are unable to sue, even if a teacher or other member of the school staff was negligent. Simply requiring that parents sign these waivers serves as a deterrent to parents who might otherwise be inclined to initiate a lawsuit against a school district.
You May Still Have Legal Recourse
Having signed a waiver, however, does not automatically mean that you are without legal recourse if your child has been hurt. Why? Because state courts frequently will not uphold a waiver. Schools and their staff still have a legal responsibility to supervise their charges and keep them from harm, regardless of anything a parent may have signed. You have the right to sue for negligence by showing:
- That school personnel had a duty to keep watch over your child
- That they failed in this duty of care
- That as a direct result of their failure to supervise, your child was injured
- That your child and you suffered actual damages as a result.
Have Distracted Driving Laws Reduced Crashes?
Distracted driving poses a serious threat to our health. According to government research on driver behavior, in 2014 nearly 3200 people were killed and an additional 431,000 were injured in motor vehicle accidents in which distracted driving was a factor.
Distracted driving is defined as any activity that can divert a person’s attention away from their primary task, which is driving. Examples of distracted driving include texting, talking on the phone, eating or drinking, applying makeup, reading maps, consulting a navigation system, even adjusting a radio. Since text messaging requires digital, cognitive, and visual input, it’s often seen as the biggest threat. And we text a lot – according to federal data, we sent nearly 170 billion texts in December 2014 alone. A lot of us text while driving – around 660,000 at any given time.
To reduce the number of distracted driving related crashes, lawmakers have passed sweeping regulations to address texting on the road. Today, nearly every state in the union prohibits it. But are they doing any good?
New York was the first to pass a handheld device provision in 2001. Not only are residents not allowed to text, but they’re not allowed to talk or use their devices (hands-free talking is allowed in some states). Currently, fourteen states have this provision, as well as the District of Columbia. Forty-four states prohibit texting while driving, but allow talking and use of a navigation system.
