As a parent, your worst nightmare is something harmful happening to your child and no matter how you try to protect them, sometimes accidents and injuries happen. When someone else is at fault for hurting your child, you need to seek restitution for the harm they’ve caused. At Shelly Leeke Law Firm, we stand ready to help you understand your options.
When you need a North Charleston personal injury lawyer, contact our professional legal team. We listen compassionately to your story and provide guidance on how to proceed. We will connect with medical, investigatory, and other experts who will help us build a strong case for you.
Potential Value of a Child Injury Claim
When your child is hurt, especially from a young age, the consequences can last for decades, if not their lifetime. If an otherwise healthy child ends up permanently ill or disabled, you must not only plan to care for them during your life but also provide for their care after you pass away. The final total to pay for economic and non-economic damages in a child injury claim can be enormous.
Understanding the potential value of a claim requires the expertise of a North Charleston child injury lawyer who works with these cases. When you and your family are first recovering from the injury, it can be difficult to imagine the amount of compensation you will need to protect your family’s financial security. There are many kinds of damages you can seek.
Medical Bills
Your child may require emergency room or ICU care immediately after an injury. During a birth injury, your child could need NICU services and specialists to ensure optimal development despite the damage. They could face repeated surgeries to correct ongoing issues or may need extensive physical rehabilitation.
Bills like these can easily add up to millions of dollars over several years, and your lawyer can help you estimate what you will need. You should not be held responsible for these bills. Let an attorney help you hold the responsible party accountable.
Mental Impairment
In addition to bodily injury, some children suffer brain damage that can leave them unable to care for themselves, hold a job, or live on their own. Many children may recover some function but still need assistance for the rest of their lives. You will need resources to support you and your child, especially if you must stop working to care for them.
Psychological Distress
Many children suffer trauma after incidents such as car crashes or animal bites. They may develop anxiety, depression, phobias, or PTSD. Physical scars could also cause them emotional distress and shame, leading to isolation.
Expenses for counseling and therapy should be included in your damage calculation, as well as reimbursement for the pain and suffering your child experiences. These damages can be added to your claim. Let an attorney evaluate your case today.
Reduced Quality of Life
No matter what the child’s age is, when they are injured, they may suffer a temporary or permanent decrease in their quality of life. Perhaps they can no longer enjoy their hobbies, visit with friends, or spend time with family, and their schoolwork may suffer, leading to additional issues. If they must overcome extensive physical injuries, they may feel overwhelmed and angry at the freedom they have lost.
Decreased Income Potential
If a child is harmed to the point they can no longer pursue their passions, they may face a loss of earning potential. A violin prodigy or talented basketball player might now face a life of unfulfilled employment, which can lead to depression and reduced earnings. They could lose scholarships or other resources that would have helped them realize their dream, and these losses must be reimbursed by those who hurt them.
How We Determine What Your Child’s Injury Case Is Worth
There are many potential losses your child may have due to their injury. Yet, even with all of these types of losses, it may seem impossible to know what options are actually available to help with estimating value. Here are a few things to keep in mind.
- We consider the short-term medical losses you have but also the long-term implications to your child’s life and well-being. Often, there are many additional losses that will play a role in their life for years to come.
- Your child’s doctor can shed light on limitations. Based on their experience, especially as a specialist, they may be able to provide insight into what this injury or illness means to the child long term.
- Cases like your child’s are considered. We also use our experience as child injury lawyers in North Charleston to understand what the court has awarded to others in similar situations.
Often, economic damages are very straightforward. It is easy to know how much the medical bills are. Yet, when you rely on our team to help you with the non-economic damages, you can rest assured you will have accurate, honest information about what to expect.
Punitive Damages
We can also help with punitive damages. In cases where the behavior was specifically damaging, we want to be sure the court considers punitive damages. For example, if your child was struck by a drunk driver, the court may agree to award punitive damages in that case. The value here is also often dependent on what past cases like your child’s have led to.
Exploring the Lasting Risks to Child Injury
One of the things many families need to think about when it comes to child injuries is the impact. No matter if it is a car accident or a pool accident, there are going to be long-term complications. Trauma is one of the most common.
A child’s brain is not fully developed, and that often means they cannot process what happened to them fully or appropriately. That leads to trauma development, which carries long-term implications. We want to be sure that trauma receives treatment, too, and that your child has the ability to work through these challenges.
Another of the concerns is changes to their abilities in the future. A child that suffers a traumatic brain injury may not fully recover their mental capacity to where they were, and that means that their life is forever changed. We want to be sure that, in situations like this, your family has access to all of the financial compensation possible so you can continue to pursue the most advanced care and treatment for your child over time.
Common Accidents that Cause Child Injury
From before they are born, children can be at risk for extreme injury from accidents or the actions of others. When your child has been hurt in the Lowcountry of South Carolina, you can rely on a Shelly Leeke child injury attorney in North Charleston to uncover who is to blame. Your loved one may have experienced physical injury, emotional trauma, or a combination of both, and we have handled the following types of cases:
- Injuries at birth: Despite advances in medicine, many things can go wrong during delivery. Negligent nurses or doctors can cause lifelong disabilities and harm to a newborn.
- Dog bites and animal attacks: Smaller children often suffer horrific injuries from animals. Even a small dog can severely harm or kill a toddler or infant.
- Pedestrian accidents: Young children can dash in front of moving vehicles too quickly for an adult to rescue them. They lack an understanding of the dangers and are easily injured or killed.
- Vehicle accidents: Crashes involving cars and school buses are primary causes of death and injury to children.
- Bicycle accidents: A pleasant bike ride in the neighborhood can end in disaster when drivers fail to look out for kids. Bike accidents are second only to car accidents in causing injuries to children each year.
- Water-related accidents: Swimming pools, private ponds, rivers, and oceans all present a risk of injury from watercraft or drowning. Children may also catch infectious diseases, resulting in permanent illness or disability.
While accidents happen without apparent cause by another person or group, a careful investigation can often show that someone’s negligence led to the mishap. Faulty brakes on a car, unclean public water, debris in parking lots, or reckless driving can all bring harm to your child. Uncovering who is responsible can be confusing and expensive unless you engage a reputable attorney to take this work off your hands.
Why Child Injuries Occur in North Charleston
It can be impossible to say why your child is suffering from an injury brought on by another person. You may ask numerous times why this happened, and often, there is no way to know the answer. However, we can tell you some of the most common reasons these types of injuries occur, and that may help us to gather more information to help you in pursuing compensation for your losses.
Medical Malpractice
A common cause of child injury in North Charleston is medical malpractice. A doctor failed, in some way, to provide the expected type and level of care a child needed, and that led to the child’s losses. For example, your child’s doctor may not have diagnosed a health condition properly, and that led to the wrong treatment or medication being provided.
If that doctor should have known from the information available to them what was actually occurring, they could be responsible for the losses. Another concern can happen in a medical setting that is not designed for children. What if a doctor uses too much medication or the wrong-sized equipment for the job, exposing your child to added risk?
Sometimes, the incident occurs due to poor medical care at the time of birth. You trusted a doctor to provide proper care, and they failed to do that. Talk to a child injury attorney in North Charleston today.
Vehicle Accidents
Because children are smaller and less easily able to be seen, it is not uncommon for a child to be struck by a car. They could be in their driveway or yard, and the driver does not see them. While there are many stories about children running into the road, others are less obvious, such as a truck driver delivering a package and not paying attention could cause harm to a child in their yard.
Other times, vehicle accidents occur because of the way a child is treated within that car. The driver, for example, is intoxicated and puts your child at risk while bringing them home from school on the bus. You trust the neighbor to pick your child up from school, and that child is not buckled in, leading to an accident that causes injury.
Other People’s Homes
It is not uncommon for a child to suffer an injury when visiting a friend’s home. This can happen innocently enough, but there are times when the other household is unsafe, and that creates a risk to the child. If your child visits a friend down the street and is welcomed into the home, the child can have reasonable expectations that they will be safe there.
If they fall down the steps due to a broken railing or tumble out of a trampoline because there is no protection around it, that is a liability risk for the homeowner. A pool is another example of this enhanced risk. A child may wander into another person’s yard and see the pool as a place to play.
In many areas, including North Charleston, pool owners have to take steps to minimize this risk, such as by placing a fence around the pool to protect children from wandering into the area. The same applies to dogs and other animals that pose a safety risk. The property owner is responsible for ensuring that children wandering into the area are safe.
What to Do After a Child Suffers an Injury
Assume that one of these situations occurred to your child. You have no idea what your next step should be after getting your child the necessary medical care. At this point, you may be concerned with medical bills or even the long-term implications of injuries, and there are several steps we suggest you take now.
Document Everything that Is Occurring
Be sure you keep accurate records of what is occurring, including photos of injuries, timestamps for when the child was in the area, and logs of doctor’s appointments. The more information you have on hand, the better off you will be when there are questions about what occurred. Oftentimes, we encourage our clients to document anything they think of early on so that later if they need to, they can pull up this information and piece together what went wrong.
Turn to a Child Injury Lawyer Now
A North Charleston child injury lawyer meets with clients early on, even if the client is not sure they have a case. That is okay – it is our job to help you find out if someone did this to your child in a negligent fashion and, therefore, should be held accountable for the losses. In every case, this revolves around a free consultation, as there is no cost to you for this type of support, but we can answer questions.
Avoid Speaking to Anyone or Using Social Media to Discuss Your Case
Let your personal injury attorney in North Charleston be your guide at this point. That means keeping all information about what is occurring to yourself. Often, insurance companies will try to use what you say and post online or in phone conversations as proof that the child may not be owed the compensation claimed.
We encourage you to avoid blaming anyone, talking to the responsible party, or otherwise engaging in conversation about the case. If anyone has questions for you, refer them to your attorney. It really is that simple to protect your case.
Help Us Gather Evidence in Your Case
Once you have your attorney working with you, the next step is to gather evidence. Often, in child injury cases, this is more complicated because, even in the best situations, children may not have all of the information about what occurred and why. They are not always able to remember all of the details, and we can do the following:
- Talk to the witnesses involved. Allow your attorney to gather statements from witnesses to prove what occurred and to get a better idea of what risk was present. A key part of our goal is to document all statements with accuracy.
- Provide photos. We will work to find any photos or video evidence of what occurred. This may be done through various sources. We are comprehensive in our search for available data.
- Expert statements. In some situations, the best way to determine what occurred and why, especially in medical cases, is to turn to medical experts.
- Accident recreation. There are some cases where we can use technology to help show what occurred, and in doing so, that can provide an exceptional level of insight into who is at fault.
- Your child. We will try to speak to your child and get more information about what occurred, especially if there is a lack of other data. We also want to be sure your child is able to communicate in the proper manner with anyone else who asks them questions later.
Gathering evidence is not something you should do on your own. We want to be sure to preserve any accuracy and details. Let our decades of experience work for you here as this allows us to ensure your child’s case gets the attention it deserves.
Do Not Wait to File a Child Injury Claim
Although the time following an accident involving your child can be stressful and confusing, you should not delay speaking with a child injury lawyer in North Charleston. Whether you are seeking an insurance settlement or wish to pursue a personal injury lawsuit, you must act quickly. South Carolina Code §15-3-530 requires that parents file a lawsuit on the child’s behalf within three years after the date of the injury.
Gathering evidence and building a solid case takes time, and an experienced lawyer can help you do this within the filing window. If you wait too long, you may lose your chance to secure compensation, although there are some instances in which the statute of limitations can be extended. Do not miss the deadline to file, as it can derail your case.
Missing the statute of limitations might prevent you from receiving compensation. Talk to a child injury lawyer from Shelly Leeke Law Firm about your case. We offer free consultations.
The Insurance Company Wants to Settle – Should You?
It seems like a fast solution. Just agree to what the insurance company is offering, and then you can move on with your life. In minor cases where there is no lasting impact, this can be an acceptable solution. However, we highly encourage you to work with a child injury lawyer in just about every other situation.
It is in these situations that our team can help ensure your child receives the maximum compensation they are owed. Insurance companies have the goal of paying out the least amount possible. If you agree to their first settlement offer, especially if it is offered quickly, that often means you have not received all you are owed.
Let us fight for additional compensation for you. Shelly Leeke Law Firm is here to help you recover compensation. Call us today for more information.
What to Expect When Working with Us
If an insurance company wants to settle your case, know your rights because you do not have to make a decision quickly. If they offer a settlement, it does not expire in a short period of time. When you allow our attorneys to work with you and the insurance company, you can expect several things:
- We will not let the insurance company trick you into making a statement that jeopardizes your child’s case.
- You will not have to provide information that is sensitive and personal beyond what is required by the law.
- Our team will pursue the maximum compensation allowable under the law. Hands down, we are aggressive in working to get our clients what they owe.
- You will not have to answer calls or deal with bullying tactics some insurance adjusters will deploy.
- We will negotiate for your child with the best possible intentions possible. You have a strong legal aide ready to support you.
You have the right to seek out more compensation if you believe their award is unfair or not accurate. A North Charleston child injury attorney is committed to fighting to help you through this matter. We help you avoid the long-term implications that such injuries can mean for your child.
Hire a Child Injury Attorney in North Charleston Today
At Shelly Leeke Law Firm, we understand the fear and distress you are feeling after your child has been hurt. We work on a contingency fee basis, so you do not pay us until we win your case for you. We want you to rest easy knowing we will work tirelessly to help you get the compensation and justice your child deserves.
We will evaluate your case in a no-risk, no-obligation meeting. We will give you our best advice on how to proceed and begin working as soon as you hire us. Contact a North Charleston child injury attorney from our team today by using our convenient online form.