If your child was injured in a daycare setting, you're likely wondering whether the injury was caused by negligence or was simply an accident that couldn't have been foreseen. Below is an outline of duty of care, how duty of care is breached, and how a personal injury attorney can help you to determine whether you have a negligence case or not.

What is Duty of Care?

When you bring your child to their daycare facility each morning, there's an unspoken rule that your child will be cared for and kept safe within the bounds of reason. This is duty of care, and it plays a large role in personal injury cases pertaining to daycare centers and schools.

Your child's daycare provider and their team are required to do everything possible to ensure safety and keep your child from harm. Certain injuries are bound to happen when a group of children are thrown together, but it depends on what the daycare center does to ensure your child's safety that will determine whether duty of care has been met or breached.

How is Duty of Care Breached?

Daycare providers aren't all-knowing which means it's unreasonable to assume that your child's care provider can foresee certain events and prevent them from happening. Certain events, however, can be prevented without foresight.

If your child's injury occurred because the daycare provider didn't do everything in their power to prevent the injury, the duty of care has been breached. For example, if a daycare teacher leaves a classroom of 2-year-olds unattended for a period of time and one of the children climbs atop a table, falls, and breaks their arm, it can be said to have been caused by the teacher's absence of supervision. It's reasonable to assume that your 2-year-old child will have supervision at all times, so any lack of supervision is a breach of duty.

How An Attorney Can Help You With Your Case

If your child's been injured in a daycare setting, it's important to seek compensation where it's due. A personal injury attorney, like Vaughan & Vaughan, can help you to determine whether an injury that occurred was due to breach of care, and whether you'll be able to be compensated for said injury.

Your attorney has to help you prove that not only was duty of care breached, but that the injury was a direct result of that breach. In the example above regarding unattended 2-year-olds, it's highly likely that with supervision, the child would not have had time to climb atop the table and fall without interception by the teacher. In this case, not only has breach of duty been shown, but causation as well. With the help of a personal injury attorney, you can piece together the accident and determine whether your child's case meets the required elements of a negligence case.

To learn more about breach of duty and how negligence can be proven, consult with a personal injury lawyer.