Do You Need A Child Injury Lawyer?

A growing percentage of children suffer significant injuries at the hands of their favorite toys, according to the Center for Injury Research and Policy.

Based on a study by the CIRP, several emergency room-related mishaps involving children have jumped a noteworthy 40 percent in the U.S since 1990. Kids under the age of 15 accounted for nearly nine out of ten injuries.  This eye-popping rate has some people analyzing the impact of such a dramatic rise.

An estimated 3 billion toys are sold annually in the U.S., most of which prove to be harmless. Some toys, however, pose higher risks than others, a fact that the CIRP was quick to point out with foot-pedal and high-powered motor scooters, a long-time popular commodity for kids.

The report pointed out that scooters helped make categories like “falls” and “collisions” the most common type of injury. The total percentages: 46 percent for falls; 22 percent for collisions. Accidents involving scooters tended to be more severe than any other, which has proven to be the case ever since toys like the Razor scooter became one of the most popular toys on the market at the turn of the Millennium.

In 2000, Razor sold an estimated 5 million scooters in six months. A report in the journal of Clinical Pediatrics reported that nearly 110,000 kids were admitted to the hospital because of scooter-related injuries in 2001, up from 25,000 in 1999. That’s more than 4 times the amount of injuries! Despite these staggering statistics, the popularity of scooters continues to extend all over the world, even as similar injury numbers are reported. Israel banned children from bringing scooters to school earlier in the fall due to a serious scooter-related head injury.

When a child is injured, as a parent your first instinct is to wonder what went wrong. That could mean any number of things: carelessness, negligence, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If it happens to be the result of a defective product, then your next feeling is likely anger, frustrations and a vigilant pledge to get even with the company that  allowed a defective product to go unchecked, ultimately inflicting harm upon your child.

What’s important to know is that every child injury case is different. Dealing with a defective product, especially, can be tricky a battle to wage; if the defective toy is the merchandise of a big company, your odds of litigating in a timely, cordial way are almost slim to none. That’s because big companies prepare for – and save money for – cases like this, working with seemingly unlimited legal resources at their disposal. You’ll want to ask yourself some questions:

• Can you determine whether the accident was the result of defective equipment?
• What were the circumstances of the accident (i.e. who was involved, how did it happen, where did it happen)?
• Do state laws protect me in matters like this?
• How do I objectively evaluate the situation?

But one of the most important questions you should ask yourself is, “Do I need a lawyer”?  Getting answers to the above questions, and any other questions you may have, can help save you time and money, and a lawyer can help you sort out the situation.  Our firm offers free consultations for families of child injury victims, and we’re happy to give you the guidance you may need.