Under North Carolina law, children and their parents have the right to receive compensation for injuries caused by the mistake, negligence, recklessness, or intentional actions of a teacher or daycare.
At Counsel Carolina Injury Law, we understand how traumatic childhood abuse, neglect, and maltreatment can be for the victim and victim’s family. Not only does abuse sometimes cause lasting or permanent physical injuries, but the emotional trauma is also common and significant.
Our child injury attorneys offer compassionate, expert legal guidance at every step. With offices in Raleigh and Hickory, Counsel Carolina Injury Law serves all of North Carolina.
Free legal consultations play a vital role in ensuring access to justice as well as promoting fairness, justice, and the well-being of accident victims. That’s why our award-winning Raleigh daycare injury lawyers always provide free consultations for potential clients.
With more than 70 years of combined experience, our North Carolina child injury lawyers deliver more.
The abuse of children in daycares and schools is an unfortunate reality in North Carolina. For many, deciding to leave and entrust your child in the care of another person or organization is already difficult and fraught with emotion. It is even more devastating to learn that your child has been the victim of abuse or maltreatment by a teacher, administrator, or staff member.
It is important to keep in mind that daycare abuse can come in many forms, including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and psychological abuse of the child. The maltreatment of children occurs more than you might believe. It’s almost never an isolated or single incident, and it’s rarely caught or reported the first time it happens.
Daycare abuse cases most commonly take the form (or some combination of):
The general process of proving liability is as follows:
1. Identifying the abuser: One of the initial steps in abuse claims is identifying the alleged abuser. This can be straightforward in some cases but may require investigation in others. Many daycares and schools have surveillance systems, but video evidence of the abuse has a suspicious way of disappearing in many cases unless or until a lawyer gets involved.
2. Gathering evidence of abuse: Building a strong case relies heavily on collecting compelling evidence to support the claim. Evidence may include:
3. Establishing liability of abuse: Daycare liability in North Carolina is determined by the state’s laws and regulations, which outline the rules and guidelines for determining who is responsible for damages and injuries resulting from abuse or neglect. That includes the North Carolina Child Care Laws. To prove liability in abuse claims, it is generally necessary to demonstrate the following elements:
4. Filing the lawsuit against the daycare or school: Once the evidence is gathered, and the legal basis for the claim is established, a lawsuit can be filed in the appropriate North Carolina court. The complaint should outline the allegations, the legal theories, and the requested remedies (usually monetary damages).
Proving liability in child abuse claims in North Carolina can be a complex process that involves gathering evidence, presenting a compelling case, and navigating the legal system. That’s why it’s so beneficial to have an experienced child abuse lawyer to assist with the investigation, prosecution, and settlement of these claims. The child injury attorneys at Counsel Carolina Injury Law want you to have as much clear information as possible. Here are some questions we commonly hear from our clients.
To address daycare abuse liability, it is crucial to recognize the signs of abuse or neglect. Keep in mind that most young children cannot verbalize or explain what kind of abuse they’re suffering. They also might not be aware that they’re the victims of abuse or that the behavior is unwanted and inappropriate. These signs can vary but may include:
For young children, many signs of abuse and maltreatment may seem like ordinary developmental changes. For example, sleep regression is common in children, but it can also be a sign of abuse by a child care worker. For all of these reasons, as a parent, if you suspect something is wrong, it is critical that you confront the teacher, school, or organization and explain your concerns. A parent’s intuition is rarely wrong, so you do have to trust your gut.
If you suspect that a child is being abused or neglected in a daycare setting, it is essential to take immediate action. The most important steps to take after the incident are:
If you suspect that a child is being abused or neglected, you should contact the proper authorities to make sure the abuse doesn’t continue. Anyone can call the Division of Child Development at 919-662-4499 or 1-800-859-0829 and make a report of suspected child abuse or neglect in a child care operation. Reports can be made anonymously. In addition, North Carolina law requires any person who suspects child abuse or neglect to report the case to the county department of social services.
There is a limited amount of time you have to file a claim, also known as the statute of limitation. However, for claims brought on behalf of children (the child’s own pain and suffering and future medical needs), the timeline to file a claim is actually very long. The child has until three years after the child turns 18. Claims on behalf of the child can be brought sooner, but they require the parties to seek court approval of the minor settlement.
However, the parents of a child abused at a daycare might have their own claims, particularly for the cost of medical care and expenses incurred as a result of the child’s injuries. In North Carolina, parents have three years from the accident or injury to bring a claim for a minor’s medical expenses. For accidents that resulted in death, you have two years from the date of the death. However, for cases involving children, the statute does not begin until the children reach age 18. There is no wiggle room or do-overs when it comes to deadlines to file a daycare abuse claim, so it is in your best interest to get a Raleigh child abuse attorney involved as early as possible after your accident.
There’s no way to precisely value your claim, but an experienced child injury lawyer may be able to give you an approximate value based on their experiences and prior case results. The value of your claim includes your economic damages like costs for medical treatment, lost wages, and future medical care.
To approximate a total case value, you can add up your total economic damages and then multiply that figure by 1.5 or 2 (for moderate injuries) to account for pain and suffering, which will give you a rough range of what a jury might award might be or how an insurance company could value your claim. For serious injuries with significant permanent injury, you might multiply your total economic damages by 4 or 5 for those severe cases. Incidents that “shock the conscience” could result in an even larger settlement. For example, our team of Raleigh daycare abuse lawyers were able to recover $262,5000 on behalf of a toddler.
No child should ever experience or suffer abuse by a caregiver, and parents are limited in what they can do to prevent abuse at a daycare or school. However, studies have shown that the risk of daycare abuse can be reduced when parents take these preventative measures:
