dealing with accidents involving
children
The Healthcare Commission and Audit Commission’s recent report
“Better Safe Than Sorry” has once again thrown the social focus
upon preventing, wherever possible, the occurrence of accidents
involving children. Just last year, 2 million children were
taken to Accident and Emergency hospital departments in the UK
following an accident in which they were involved.
Suzy Smith, solicitor, recalls one such case
that she has dealt with:
“I acted for a school girl who was fourteen at
the time of her accident. She was stabbed in the eye with a
fountain pen thrown, during horseplay, by another pupil during a
lesson. A learning assistant was supervising our client at
the time. Our case was that she was entitled to be safe
within the school environment and the last thing her parents
expected was to find their perfectly healthy daughter seriously
injured by another pupil whilst in the school’s care and
control.
Our client lost the sight in her eye.
She had difficulty in pursuing her intended career as a hairdresser
as a result and became very depressed as the injury left her with a
divergent squint that was obvious at a conversational
distance. We succeeded in establishing that her school was
negligent in failing to have separated our client from the known
troublemaker who caused this accident and in failing to
appropriately supervise the children whilst in class. We
recovered £30,000 in compensation for this girl both for the
physical injury and resultant psychological trauma”.
Eve Debenham also recounts one of her
cases:
“I acted for a nine year old girl who
was a rear seat passenger in her mother’s vehicle. The
defendant’s vehicle pulled out from a side road and collided into
the side of them, causing injury to them both. Liability was
not disputed.
Following the accident the child complained of
abdominal pains, accompanied by vomiting and difficulty in keeping
fluids down. She underwent a hospital examination and x-rays
of the abdomen. Blood tests were also carried out, all of which
were fine. She returned home and was advised to rest.
In the early weeks following the accident, she also suffered with
travel anxiety and was extremely anxious about travelling in a
motor vehicle.
We arranged for the child to have a medical
examination, in order that a prognosis period for her injuries
could be given. Given her age, we arranged for her and her
injured mother, to be assessed together. Fortunately,
the child made a full and complete recovery within three
months. The defendant’s insurers made an offer of £1,200 and
counsel's advice was obtained in respect of the offer that
concluded it was reasonable. It was therefore accepted.
Due to our client being under the age of 18,
it was necessary for her and her 'litigation friend' (who in this
case was her mother) to attend an informal court hearing where the
Judge was asked to approve the amount of damages agreed with the
defendant’s insurers. The judge was satisfied that the sum of
damages was appropriate for the injuries sustained and the award
was approved. The monies have been paid into court and will
be released to our client when she attains eighteen”.
At Blake Lapthorn we understand the physical
and psychological difficulties both children and parents face where
an accident involving a child has occurred. We deal with each
case sensitively and positively and can assist, where appropriate,
in pursuing compensation for injury.
If you would like to discuss any of the issues
raised in this article please do contact Claire Howard on 023 8085
7313 or Lisa Wheeler on 023 8085
7304, who are both senior solicitors in Blake Lapthorn’s
Personal Injury team.
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