Has anyone sued their childs school?

xxdeebeexx

My 12 year old son had an accident at school during a PE lesson last October. The accident resulted in a snapped front tooth which was too short to repair and needed specialist treatment that wasn’t readily available on the NHS. Originally we were facing bills in excess of £7,500 in order to get him sorted. With the fantastic help and advice from people on MSE we were able to go to a LondonDentalHospital for the on going treatment on the NHS.

When the accident first happened the school said that they would foot the bills. All I had to do was to submit the bills to the school office and they would settle them as he was covered by the school insurance. We have no bills except travel costs which we are happy to pay.

Unfortunately the main expense will be when he is much older 20-21 yrs when he no longer qualifies for free dental care. I have asked the school if we could claim from their insurance, to cover the cost of this future work. I have now been sent a letter from their insurance company saying that I have to prove negligence!

I believe the school was negligent, but how will this affect my son at school if I sue or attempt to sue?

We live on a shoestring and can’t see how we could ever afford the cost of the dental work!

How do I go about finding a good Solicitor?

TIA

Dx

V_tricky

Hi,

How do you think the school been negligent? How could you prove that they have been?
If you are successful in getting the school to accept liability (and under this instruction the insurer will then arrange settlement of the claim), then they should be able to make a provision for future work.

Normally if you make a claim you have 3 years from the date of the incident to issue court proceedings. In the case of children though, this time is extended to until they are 18 years old, plus three years, so IF they made a payout now, you could ask for it to be set aside against future losses, rather than in full & final settlement.

I would be surprised if making a claim would affect your child adversely - the teachers would have to be pretty unprofessional.

Regards finding a good solicitor, if you have house insurance, or union membership it will probably cover you for solicitors expenses. If you don't you could try taking it to any one of the hundreds of nowinnofee solicitors and see whether they would be prepared to take your case on.



Edited to add: I've just read your original post, and here's some more thoughts...

* What was the staff/child ratio? Was there sufficient supervision?

* How new were the treadmills? Were the teachers trained in their operation? Did the teachers give the children sufficient training in their operation to know how they operate, what the risks are, and what to do in an emergency situation?

* Was there a malfunction? When was the machine last serviced? Was a safety check performed prior to their use?

* What's the make & model of the machine? Can you look online at their instruction booklet to see whether there is any minimum suggested age limit? If he is below the minimum suggested limit, either the school would be obliged to either ensure that there was sufficient supervision to keep him off it (he's under the age of legal responsibility) or to provide very very close supervision

xxdeebeexx

V_tricky wrote: »

Hi,


Regards finding a good solicitor, if you have house insurance, or union membership it will probably cover you for solicitors expenses.



Edited to add: I've just read your original post, and here's some more thoughts...

* What was the staff/child ratio? Was there sufficient supervision?

* How new were the treadmills? Were the teachers trained in their operation? Did the teachers give the children sufficient training in their operation to know how they operate, what the risks are, and what to do in an emergency situation?

* Was there a malfunction? When was the machine last serviced? Was a safety check performed prior to their use?

* What's the make & model of the machine? Can you look online at their instruction booklet to see whether there is any minimum suggested age limit? If he is below the minimum suggested limit, either the school would be obliged to either ensure that there was sufficient supervision to keep him off it (he's under the age of legal responsibility) or to provide very very close supervision

Thank you so much, for such a detailed reply.
I have approached the Home contents solicitors and they will not take on the case as there is only a 50% chance of being successful because he had used the threadmill before.
I have asked the school twice for the risk assessment as it should stipulate the suitable age groups to use the equipment. They have ignored my request.
Your point about make and model is fab... thank you.

The awful thing is that there has been 2 further accidents using the same type of equipment since my son fell. The other 2 boys had friction burns to the face an hands.

I will take a look at the make and model of the equipment and see whaT the hand book might say.
The thing is, if he wanted to join the same gym out of school hours he would have to be 16 years old!

Thanks again

Dx

V_tricky

One other thing, I'm sure you would have mentioned it before, but were there any other accidents prior to your sons? As awful as it may seem, this could strengthen your case as it would moreorless prove that there was reasonable forseeability that such an accident could occur.

Of course the other factors above would also have quite a lot of bearing, and I'm pretty sure that any manual for any treadmill would detail the risks, and it would be upto the responsible adult/s to ensure that the children in their care were using the equipment safely. These manuals are often quite explicit about their warnings, and it would be my opinion it would be upto the people responsible for the children to read, digest, and adhere to them to the letter.

An 11 or 12 year old cannot be expected to read a manual before they get on a piece of equipment like this (which are normally designed for adult useage) but they can expect to receive sufficient information about such equipment, safety, risks and what should happen when emergencies occur.

Good luck!