When a Child Is Hurt in the Midlands
- Prisma Health Children’s Hospital–Midlands on Medical Park Drive became South Carolina’s first verified pediatric trauma center in 2016, and its records often anchor a Columbia family’s claim.
- Any minor’s settlement over $25,000 requires a verified petition and circuit court approval, while a claim of $2,500 or less can be settled by a parent without a judge.
- Since Standard v. Shine in 1982, South Carolina measures a child’s conduct against a child of like age, intelligence, and experience rather than an adult.
- Injuries at a Richland or Lexington County public school fall under the Tort Claims Act, which caps recovery at $300,000 per person regardless of how many agencies are involved.
- Parents who paid the medical bills hold a separate claim that runs on the ordinary three-year clock, even though the child’s own deadline is extended by minority.
When a child is hurt, the law treats the case differently: different filing rules, different deadlines, and court oversight of any settlement. Many children recover fully, but others live with injuries that affect growth, schooling, and the work they can do as adults. Families across Columbia, Cayce, Forest Acres, St. Andrews, Denny Terrace, and the wider Midlands often meet these rules for the first time while their child is still in treatment.
If your child was injured because someone else was careless, whether a driver, a property owner, a daycare, or a product maker, a Columbia child injury lawyer at Shelly Leeke Law Firm can handle the claim properly: brought by the right adult, valued over a lifetime, and approved by the court so the money is protected for your child. Our Columbia office is at 1111 Laurel Street, Columbia, SC 29201, and we have represented injured South Carolinians since 2007.
Cost should never be the reason a family waits to protect a child’s claim. We work on a contingency fee basis, so you pay no attorney’s fees or case expenses unless we recover compensation for you. Our fee is calculated on the gross recovery before expenses are deducted. Request a free consultation to talk through what happened, which deadlines apply, and whether a court will need to approve any settlement for your child.
How Children Get Hurt in the Columbia Area
Children are hurt in many of the same places adults are, but they are less able to spot danger and more dependent on the adults around them. Nationally, 1,129 children age 14 and younger were killed in traffic crashes in 2022, according to NHTSA’s Traffic Safety Facts on children. The cases Midlands families bring to us most often include:
- Car crashes, with children hurt as passengers, as pedestrians in school zones and neighborhoods, or while riding in a bike accident
- Playground and daycare injuries, including unsafe equipment, poor supervision, and hot-car incidents
- Swimming pool accidents and drownings, including unfenced residential pools
- School and school-bus injuries, including claims against a public school district
- Dog bites, which often injure a child’s face, hands, and arms
- Sports injuries where supervision or equipment failed
- Defective toys, car seats, and other children’s products
- Accidental poisoning from unsecured medications and household chemicals
In Columbia, seriously injured children are commonly treated at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital–Midlands at 7 Medical Park Drive, which in 2016 became the first American College of Surgeons verified pediatric trauma center in South Carolina. Because Columbia straddles two counties, a lawsuit is generally filed in the Court of Common Pleas for Richland County (Fifth Judicial Circuit) or Lexington County (Eleventh Judicial Circuit), depending on where the injury happened and where the defendant can be sued.
Injuries Children Commonly Suffer
The type of injury shapes both a child’s treatment and the value of the claim, and a child’s body responds to trauma differently from an adult’s. Bones are still growing, the brain is still developing, and a scar on a five-year-old will change shape as the child grows. These are the injuries we see most often in Midlands child injury cases:
- Broken bones and growth plate fractures: a fracture near the end of a long bone can disturb how that bone grows, and the effect may not be clear until months or years later.
- Concussions and head injuries: a traumatic brain injury in a young child may show up first as changes in attention, behavior, or schoolwork rather than obvious symptoms.
- Burns and scarring: burns from hot liquids, fires, or defective products can require skin grafts and repeat procedures as the child grows.
- Spinal and catastrophic injuries: a spinal cord injury or other catastrophic injury can mean a lifetime of medical care, equipment, and home changes.
- Dog bite wounds: facial bites can leave scars that need revision surgery when the child is older.
- Emotional trauma: nightmares, fear of cars or dogs, and anxiety at school can follow the physical injury and deserve their own attention.
Three Rules That Make a Child’s Injury Case Different
Three legal rules separate a child’s case from an adult’s in South Carolina, and each one can change how and when a claim should be brought. Insurers know these rules well; parents usually do not.
1. The deadline is paused while your child is a minor, but don’t rely on that
South Carolina’s usual deadline for an injury claim is three years (S.C. Code § 15-3-530(5)). For a child’s own claim, S.C. Code § 15-3-40 pauses the clock during minority, but the extension can run no longer than one year after the child turns 18. The Tort Claims Act deadline in § 15-78-110 expressly incorporates this rule.
Important limits still apply. Medical malpractice claims cannot be tolled for more than seven years because of minority (§ 15-3-545(D)), and a parent’s own claim for medical bills they paid runs on the ordinary three-year clock. Deadline warning: the parents’ claim and a medical malpractice claim can expire while your child is still young, and camera footage, witnesses, and school or daycare records disappear long before any child turns 18.
2. A court must approve your child’s settlement
Under S.C. Code § 62-5-433, how a minor’s settlement is approved depends on its size:
- A claim of $2,500 or less can be settled by a parent or guardian without court approval.
- A claim of $25,000 or less can be approved by the probate court or the circuit court.
- A claim over $25,000 requires a verified petition to the circuit court, which must find that the settlement serves the child’s interests.
Larger sums generally must be held through a conservatorship or a similar protected arrangement rather than paid to a parent, so the money is still there for your child at 18. This court approval process protects the child, and a quick check offered without it should make any parent cautious.
3. Young children are judged differently on fault
Insurers often try to blame the child: “she darted out,” “he wasn’t watching.” South Carolina does not treat children like small adults. In Standard v. Shine (1982), the South Carolina Supreme Court held that a child’s conduct is judged by what a child of like age, intelligence, and experience would do under similar circumstances, replacing the older rigid age presumptions. For adults and older teens, the ordinary comparative negligence rule applies: an injured person can recover if their fault is 50% or less, with damages reduced by their share (Nelson v. Concrete Supply Co., 1991).
Who Files the Claim for a Child?
A minor cannot sue in their own name. The claim is brought on the child’s behalf by a representative, usually a parent or legal guardian, and South Carolina’s civil procedure rules provide for a guardian ad litem to act for a minor in court where needed. A conservator may also be involved when settlement money must be managed. Parents may have their own separate claim for the medical expenses they paid. We handle these procedures so the family can focus on the child’s recovery.
Who Can Be Held Liable?
Depending on how the injury happened, more than one party may share responsibility. The most common defendants in a child injury claim are:
- Negligent drivers, and their employers when the driver was working, including in a car accident or a crash with a commercial truck.
- Property owners, including under the attractive nuisance doctrine: an owner who keeps something dangerous and enticing to children, such as a pool, trampoline, or equipment, can be liable even if the child trespassed, when reasonable precautions were not taken. These are premises liability claims.
- Daycares and private schools, for negligent supervision, unsafe premises, and hiring failures. State licensing standards can serve as evidence of the expected level of care.
- A public school district or other government entity, through the South Carolina Tort Claims Act. Damages are capped at $300,000 per person and $600,000 per occurrence (§ 15-78-120(a)). Suit is generally required within two years, or three years if a claim is first filed under the Act (§ 15-78-110).
- Dog owners, who are liable under § 47-3-110 when their dog bites a child who was lawfully present and did not provoke it. See our dog bite page.
- Manufacturers and sellers of defective toys, car seats, and children’s products, through a product liability claim under § 15-73-10.
- Doctors and hospitals, when a birth injury or pediatric error leads to a medical malpractice claim.
What a Child’s Case Is Worth: A Lifetime, Not a Bill
A child’s damages are measured across the longest horizon the law recognizes, because an injury at eight can change what work is possible at 28. Compensation can include:
- All medical care, past and future, including surgeries timed to growth, therapy, and adaptive equipment
- The parents’ out-of-pocket medical expenses, through their own claim
- Future lost earning capacity where the injury is lasting
- Pain and suffering, emotional trauma, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of childhood, such as missed sports, school, and milestones
- Educational support where an injury affects learning
Punitive damages are possible where the defendant’s conduct was willful, wanton, or reckless, proven by clear and convincing evidence (§ 15-32-520), and are generally capped at the greater of three times compensatory damages or $500,000 (§ 15-32-530). If an injury takes a child’s life, the family may bring a wrongful death claim through the estate’s personal representative (§§ 15-51-10 and 15-51-20), and settlements of those claims also require court approval (§§ 15-51-41 and 15-51-42).
What to Do After Your Child Is Injured
The first days after an injury matter for both your child’s health and the claim. These steps protect both:
- Get medical care immediately and keep every appointment. Children often minimize or can’t describe symptoms, and gaps in treatment become the insurer’s argument.
- Document everything: photos of the scene and injuries, the names of supervising adults, and incident reports from the school or daycare.
- Report the incident to the responsible party in writing, but do not sign anything or give a recorded statement to an insurer.
- Preserve the evidence, including the toy, the car seat, and the clothing.
- Keep a recovery journal noting how the injury affects sleep, school, mood, and play. It becomes proof of non-economic damages.
- Talk to a lawyer before accepting any offer. A settlement that ignores future care cannot simply be undone after court approval.
Shelly M. Leeke and the Laurel Street Office
Families who contact our Columbia office work with Shelly M. Leeke, the firm’s managing partner. Before turning to plaintiff work at Morris Bart, she represented insurance companies in auto and workers’ compensation defense at Blue Williams. That experience is useful when an adjuster tries to settle a child’s claim quickly, because she knows how insurers value a case and what they leave out when a child’s future needs are still unknown.
Her education fits cases where a child’s development is part of the evidence. She earned a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Government from Wofford College in 1999, then a J.D., cum laude, from Tulane University Law School in 2002, and served as a judicial law clerk at the Louisiana Supreme Court. Licensed in South Carolina and Louisiana, she wrote The South Carolina Accident Book, was named to the 2017 Forty Under 40, and has been recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star. She is a member of the South Carolina Bar, the South Carolina Association for Justice, and the American Association for Justice.
Areas We Serve
From our Laurel Street office in downtown Columbia, we represent families in Columbia, Cayce, West Columbia, Forest Acres, St. Andrews, Denny Terrace, Irmo, Lexington, Blythewood, Orangeburg, and the rest of Richland, Lexington, and Orangeburg counties. Injury cases involving adults, from falls to workplace accidents, are covered on our Columbia personal injury lawyer page, and we can explain which kind of claim fits your family.
Get Your Child’s Midlands Claim Started
A child’s settlement has to be right the first time, because once a court approves it, it is final. If your child was hurt in Columbia, Cayce, Forest Acres, or elsewhere in the Midlands, call our Laurel Street office at (803) 281-6054 and we will explain the deadlines and the court approval process that apply to your child’s case.
Columbia Child Injury FAQ
The insurance company says my child was partly at fault. Can they do that?
They can argue it, but South Carolina judges a child by what a child of similar age, intelligence, and experience would do. For older teens and adults, fault of 50% or less reduces a recovery rather than barring it.
Do we have to go to court to settle our child’s claim?
Usually yes. Settlements over $25,000 need circuit court approval, and those of $25,000 or less go to probate or circuit court. Only claims of $2,500 or less can be settled by a parent without a judge’s review.
My child was hurt at a public school in Richland County. Is the school district immune?
Not entirely. Claims against a school district run through the Tort Claims Act, which caps damages at $300,000 per person and sets a two-year filing period. Report the injury to the school in writing right away.
My child wandered into a neighbor’s pool. Do we have a case even though he wasn’t invited?
Possibly. Under the attractive nuisance doctrine, an owner can be responsible for a hazard that is both dangerous and enticing to children, like an unfenced pool, if reasonable precautions weren’t taken. Trespassing does not automatically end the claim.
How long do we have to file a child injury claim?
A child’s own claim can usually be filed until one year after their 18th birthday. The parents’ medical-bill claim runs three years from the injury, and malpractice claims have tighter limits, so act on the shortest deadline.
