Lake Mary is a family-friendly place, with its single-family homes and plenty to do, including picnics and hikes with the kids in Big Tree Park, or a day of fun at Planet Obstacle.
But despite the idyllic location, your children can still be hurt in accidents. If they are supervised by adults at the time, those adults may be responsible for the cost of medical attention and follow-up care, and emotional distress, disfigurement, and pain. Our well-versed personal injury attorney helps you take your case to the next level. If your little one is injured in an accident someone else causes, a Lake Mary child injury lawyer could advocate for your family.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that children between age one and four die most often by drowning, and Florida is the number one state for these fatalities. Homeowners with backyard pools can be liable for a minor’s injuries if the minor can enter the yard and access the pool, under the Attractive Nuisance Doctrine. Child trespassers are owed a duty from the homeowner to safeguard the area with fencing and locks, or else be held negligent for any injuries. Homeowners do not owe adult trespassers the same duty because children do not appreciate danger until their immature brains develop into adult brains.
Other negligent acts that cause child injuries include:
Adults responsible for child injuries are generally negligent and must reimburse families for their losses. A child injury attorney could fight to get adequate compensation for a family in Lake Mary to avoid financial instability.
A negligence claim is a civil action for damages after someone breaches a duty to act responsibly. Civil actions are torts, which are brought to court by those harmed, unlike a criminal action brought by the state. In addition to duty and breach, the subpar acts of the at-fault person must be the foreseeable cause of an accident in which you are injured.
The law recognizes that situations are nuanced and sometimes the person injured is partly responsible for an accident. This theory is known as comparative negligence.
On March 24, 2023, Florida Statute § 768.81, memorialized the state’s shift to modified comparative negligence from its former pure state. Previously, injured plaintiffs could cause up to 99 percent of an accident and still be awarded the percentage of fault assigned to the defendant. With the revised law, other than for medical malpractice, plaintiffs cannot be more than 50 percent responsible for the accident if they wish to recover compensation.
For instance, if a child is not secure in a car seat or with a seat belt and the parent is speeding along International Drive when a drunk driver smashes into them, the jury might determine the parent is 30 percent to blame. A $1 million damages award will be reduced to $700,000. Our Lake Mary child injury attorneys stand by your family to get the best resolution.
The state’s 2023 tort reform also included a revision to the amount of time a plaintiff has to file a lawsuit against the at-fault party.
The Statute of Limitations, Fla. Stat. § 95.11(4)(a), cuts off the ability to file an injury claim at two years with some exceptions for mental capacity, when the plaintiff is a minor, and if the defendant leaves the state. Talk to a Lake Mary child injury attorney to ensure all filing deadlines are met for your claim – which, for injuries that happen to a minor, is set at seven years after the incident.
No family challenge is quite as traumatic as seeing your child in pain because of another’s negligence. You cannot turn the clock back and correct the situation, but you can call The Umansky Law Firm to get some relief.
Your family deserves justice. We pursue settlements with insurance companies and sue at-fault parties for the largest damages award possible. Call a Lake Mary child injury lawyer to learn how we can help your family.
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