Another Child accident compensation

Debbie_S

My God son fell from a climbing frame at his brothers school on Tuesday and broke his arm. Several children have been injured falling from this frame. It is basically climbing logs that go very high with nothing to hold onto. Is it worth my friend trying one of these no win no fee sites? She is a single mother of two boys living in a council house and on benefit.

hankc35

Debbie_S wrote:

My God son fell from a climbing frame at his brothers school on Tuesday and broke his arm. Several children have been injured falling from this frame. It is basically climbing logs that go very high with nothing to hold onto. Is it worth my friend trying one of these no win no fee sites? She is a single mother of two boys living in a council house and on benefit.

The first bit suggests that your God son was *at* his brothers school, rather than *in* his brothers school, if by this you mean he was there not as a pupil but maybe with his mum to collect his brother or something then he would be his parents resposibility and should not have been on the climbing frame. Basically if a mum takes a younger child to school she cant let him go off to play on a climbing frame whilst she chats to her mates and then blame the school.

If he is a pupil and it happened in school time and the equipment was dangerous then you may have a case I would think.

Astaroth

There may be contributory negligence if he is not supposed to be there in the first place and whilst people/ companies/ schools have a duty of care to everyone (hence why you cant landmine your garden to stop people breaking in) the level of care required for people not entitled to be there in the first place is massively lower than those you have invited onto your property.

I think the other thing that will damage any case like this now is that the HSE report recently stated that childrens playgrounds are now too safe and that in reality they should be "safe enough" (it was as an explaination of why growing number of kids now play on trainlines etc instead of in parks)

The fact that she is poor makes no difference to the case. The money would be paid to and for the kid and not the mother... does the kid need £4k for anything in particular as you appear to be suggesting?

Accidents happen - the concept is of where their pain theres blame is fundanmentally flaud. For these cases you have to prove that someone is neligent and that neligence directly caused the injury sustained. As hankc35 suggests it may actually be that her son could sue her for his injury and have a greater chance of success than suing the school.

No win, No fee is not free remember - whilst you run no risk of paying for your own solicitors if you lose the case you will have to pay the costs of the school for defending it. There are after the incident insurance policies that you can take out to protect yourself from these costs but it is obviously money that you have to pay out.

If she has legal expenses cover on her home insurance she will have a free legal advice line which she can discuss... likewise if they feel there is a reasonable chance of success they will take on the case and provide the insurance on the other parties legal costs if they dont win.

Woby_Tide

maybe the school could sue for the damage caused by the boy falling onto the flooring near the climbing frame

Strike_Team

We are constantly being told by the media that anyone who has an accident is "entitled to compensation". But stop and think where the compensation will come from - in this case it'll be the school budget, so the school will have a lot less money to provide books, employ teachers etc. Bear in mind also where the money to pay a compensation claim will come from - the taxpayer. That's right, every single one of us pays for these claims through our income tax, VAT, council tax, etc. This whole "compensation culture" thing is driven by lawyers and claims management companies who are making wads of money out of it.

In any case, it seems as if no-one was really at fault from what you describe. There is some risk in living, and children do have accidents. If you remove risk you will take away the joy of living, and end up with unhappy, obese, socialy maladjusted children who will have little idea of how to look after themselve when they grow up and have to deal with life as adults.

You need to think about your godchild, rather than money-making compensation claims for his Mum. He has a painful injury and he needs some extra care and attention from his godmother and his family.

dunstonh

Ridiculous.

Let the children play and have fun. Compensation claims will result in all playgrounds being ripped up and children not being able to have anywhere to play because official bodies will be scared of lawsuits.

Accidents happen. It was only a broken arm.

Debbie_S

Thank you all for your advice. Perhaps a word to the school as regards the number of incidents would be sufficent. I will pass on your very helpful words.
Astaroth "does the kid need £4k for anything in particular as you appear to be suggesting?" That made me laugh. I'm sure he could spend it on Pokemon cards.

funkymonkey

disgusting to even contimplate.

i fell off of a climbing frame and broke my arm. i fell out of a tree and broke my leg! my parents could never sue - thats WHAT KIDS DO!

you and your friend should be ashamed of even contimplating this.

Because of course - when you're godsons brothers school cant afford new books and paper and pencils YOU will be the first to complain!

Bossyboots

I am most certainly not advocating a claim here, but it would actually be the school insurers that pay out, not the school. This will affect the school budget as the insurance the following year will be higher, but lower than the claim itself no doubt.

Why have we moved to culture where no-one understand that sometimes things are simply accidents. Why does someone else always have to be to blame?

If my parents had sued for every broken limb, black eye or other scrape my elder brother got into, we would be millionaires by now. Sometimes things just happen and when children are involved, they happen often. If you choose to let a child climb something you either supervise them or deal with the consequences if they fall. I would have thought knowing there had been other incidents with children falling off these logs was even more reason to make sure the child was supervised, particularly as it would seem he should not have been on there in the first place.

Many people see schools as easy targets (not suggesting this applies to the OP). I can recall three attempted claims when I worked at a school and ran the PTA and on each occasion the person injured was to blame but sought to blame someone else. These things are stressful for all involved, not to mention the valuable staff time wasted on unwarranted paperwork.

One other thing on the comments here, I assumed the OP mentioned the personal situation about the mother as an issue for advice on how she could seek advice, not as a justification for taking action itself so I thought some of the comments made were a bit harsh in that regard.

Older_but_not_wiser_2

The only way to ensure kids don't injure themselves like this is to tie them to a chair as soon as they wake up, and only let them loose when it's time for bed.(and even that's not foolproof)

I can't believe the compensation culture that is burgeoning in Britain.

(Monty Python bit now) - when I was a kid, if I fell off a climbing frame my Dad would say "Well you won't do that again in a hurry will you?"

Accidents happen, and nor every accident is someone elses fault - sometimes you have to take the blame yourself.

Jay-Jay_4

Debbie_S wrote:

My God son fell from a climbing frame at his brothers school on Tuesday and broke his arm. Several children have been injured falling from this frame. It is basically climbing logs that go very high with nothing to hold onto.

Who was looking after the child as he climbed the 'very high climbing frame with nothing to hold onto'?

Maybe you could sue his Mother for negligence