It’s every parent’s worst nightmare: someone else acts irresponsibly, they cause an accident that your child gets caught up in, and there’s nothing you can do to prevent your kid from getting seriously hurt. Unfortunately, that exact scenario plays out every day across Connecticut. If you recently lived through it yourself, you may have limited time to enforce your family’s legal rights and seek justice on your child’s behalf.
From beginning to end of your legal proceedings, a Watertown child injury lawyer can give you the custom-tailored legal guidance you need to get the best possible result from your unique case. At D’Amico & Pettinicchi, LLC, we don’t take cases unless we’re confident we can get you a fair amount of money. Once hired, our personal injury attorneys will work tirelessly to ensure the person responsible for your child’s harm is held accountable and that you’re paid fairly for the harm your family has unfairly suffered.
Just like in other states, minors in Connecticut can’t legally represent themselves in court, which means they can’t file a lawsuit the way an adult could after getting hurt in an accident caused by someone else’s “negligence.” Instead, it usually falls to an injured child’s parent(s) or legal guardian(s) to file a civil suit for them, generally no later than two years after the child got hurt in the first place.
As a parent or guardian pursuing this type of claim for your child, you can demand compensation for every form of harm they’ve already experienced from their accident and are likely to experience in the future because of it, including but not limited to:
A Watertown child accident attorney can explain in detail what kinds of losses you might be able to recover on your child’s behalf, as well as what evidence you’ll need to establish a fair financial value for them.
A parent or guardian suing on their child’s behalf is legally required to keep their child’s best interests as their top priority at all times. To ensure this happens, Connecticut state law puts several unique restrictions on child injury claims that don’t apply to other types of personal injury cases.
No one can negotiate and accept a private settlement on a child’s behalf without getting approval from a probate court. Any money recovered by a parent or guardian on their child’s behalf must be kept in a special bank account until the child turns 18, with strict rules in place for how that money can be used before the child is old enough to take over the account. Once again, a child injury lawyer in Watertown can answer questions about how all this works and ensure these regulations don’t cause issues with your claim.
Any person who causes a child to get hurt through their own actions can be held legally responsible for the consequences of that injury—regardless of whether they meant to do harm or not. Without a legal representative by your side, though, you may have serious trouble getting through this sort of claim efficiently and achieving a positive result by the end.
A Watertown child injury lawyer at D’Amico & Pettinicchi, LLC, is prepared to assist with your case. We are ready to help you pursue justice on your child’s behalf and can discuss all of your legal options in further detail in-person or over the phone. Consultations are always free and no-obligation. Call today.
