Parents trust that their kids will be safe at their daycare facility. They need to have faith their kids are safe at daycare to focus on work and other daily responsibilities. Parents rely on the support and care of their daycare providers to protect their children while they do everything they can to provide for their children, which is why it’s so disheartening and difficult when a child is injured in daycare.
Depending on the circumstances and the severity of the injury, an act of negligence in childcare can significantly impact the child’s and parent’s quality of life. Therefore, if a daycare’s negligent actions harm a child, the parents have the right to file for compensation on behalf of the child.
Understanding Your Child’s Right to Compensation
Many childcare facilities in California require the parents to sign liability waivers that release the caregivers from liability should the child be injured. However, even though this document is legally valid, it does not protect the daycare from liability for injuries caused by their negligence.
Daycare agreements often have sections that say parents give up their right to sue should anything happen to their child. This section is called the liability clause or indemnity clause, and they do not hold up in court. In almost every case, the court determines that it’s against public policy to relieve daycare providers of liability for children hurt in their care. Allowing such a liability waiver to stand would open the door for daycare centers to act negligently without concern of being held accountable. The court believes that it’s inappropriate for a parent to sign away the child’s right to compensation for an injury before it occurs. Additionally, the court takes the position since it’s the child who is injured, not the parent; the child should have an independent right to file a claim against the daycare.
Many daycares are aware that the liability waiver won’t protect them. However, they hope that its presence will discourage parents from filing claims on behalf of their children.
Proving the Daycare is Liable
For your child’s injury claim to succeed, their attorney needs to prove the following:
- The daycare center had a duty of reasonable care to protect your child from foreseeable harm
- The daycare violated or failed to adhere to their duty of reasonable care
- The violation was the direct or proximate cause of the child’s injury
- The injury must have been foreseeable by the daycare staff or management
- Proof of the nature and value of the child’s damages
Daycares are legally required to provide reasonable care for your child. Failure to do so constitutes a breach of their duty of care. For an injury to be proven negligent, the event or circumstances that led to the injury had to be foreseeable. A daycare center isn’t liable for an unforeseeable event, meaning that a reasonable person could not have foreseen the event or accident in reasonably safe conditions.
Setareh Law Can Fight for Your Child’s Right to Compensation
Protecting their child’s safety and wellbeing is a parent’s first priority. Parents leave their children at daycare expecting the staff and management to care for their children as if they were their own. When daycare negligence harms a child, it breaches not only their legal duty of care, but also parents’ trust.
At Setareh Law, we understand how terrifying it can be to see your child harmed, which is why we work tirelessly to protect our client’s right to compensation. Your child and your family deserve compensation for any pain and suffering the daycare’s negligence caused. Our personal injury attorneys at Setareh Law are here to help. You can schedule a consultation with us by calling (310) 659-1826 or filling out our contact form.