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Do You Have A Negligent Supervision Claim?

25 April 2019

Jackson Robinson

When you place the health and well-being of your child in the care of another, you may have a course of action when things go wrong. Failure to supervise is the legal name for negligent actions that cause harm to your child. To find out more about this serious form of personal injury, read on.

Caregiver's Inattention

It can be heartbreaking to find out that someone you trusted with your child failed to do a proper job. Your first priority is to ensure that your child is well cared for when you are at work and most parents have done their due diligence in that regard. While daycare accidents can happen, failure to properly supervise a child is far more serious. This form of personal injury involves harm to a child that was the result of poor planning, poor organization, carelessness, and lack of monitoring. One unfortunately common form of negligent supervision that makes the news far too often is when a child is left behind in a daycare van in hot weather. Negligent supervision issues are not reserved for daycare centers, however. It can occur wherever you place your trust in a business, an organization, or a person to take care of your child. It can happen at:

1. Church youth groups
2. Sporting events and practices
3. Schools
4. At your home when using a babysitter or nanny
5. Camp
6. And more.

Negligent Supervision Elements

If you decide to take legal action against a caregiver due to an injury or death of a child, there are certain issues that must be present in the case, such as the following:

1. An entity (person, business, organization, etc.) was responsible for the well-being of the child at the time of the incident.
2. That entity failed to supervise the child properly.
3. As a result of that failure to supervise, an injury or death occurred.
4. The outcome of the incident was reasonably foreseeable. That means that most people would have known that actions or lack of action would have resulted in the outcome. For example, if your young child suffered a head injury while diving into a pool during summer camp, a reasonable person would have realized that children should not be diving into a shallow pool and supervised the children better.

Examples Are Endless

Here are but a few examples of cases of negligent supervision:

• A daycare center that fails to supervise a child on the playground
• A coach that fails to provide rest and water during football practice
• A babysitter that fails to properly secure toxic substances from your child
• A church that allows a youth worker who has previous abuse charges to work for them

Speak to a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible after any unfortunate event that harms your child. Evidence must be preserved and acting fast is vital. Reach out to a firm such as Maruca Law to learn more.

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