Children and Personal Injury Law: Special Considerations
Personal injury claims already seem overly complicated and time-consuming to the average person—but when the victim in question is a minor, it’s even more complex. There are specific laws that govern personal injury claims for minor children, and as a parent or guardian, it is crucial that you understand both your rights and your responsibilities.
If your child has been injured due to another person’s negligence, it’s time to find out if you have a valid claim. Get started now by contacting Reeves & Mestayer at 1-855-558-2977 to set up a consultation with our team of Biloxi personal injury lawyers.
Statute of Limitations for Injured Minors
In general, the statute of limitations for a personal injury claim in Mississippi is three years. However, there are exceptions to this. If the victim of the injury is a child, the three-year window does not start counting down until they reach adulthood.
Even within this exception, there is an exception. This applies to medical malpractice cases. If the child is six or older, you have two years to initiate a lawsuit on their behalf. If they are younger than six, you have two years from their sixth birthday to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.
All that being said, you likely don’t want to wait until the very end of the allowed timeframe to seek compensation. Doing so basically ensures that lots of important evidence will have degraded with time, suffered damage, or been lost entirely. The sooner you initiate a personal injury claim, the easier it is for your attorney to find and use relevant evidence.
Common Causes of Childhood Injuries
While children can be injured in many of the same ways that adults are, they are also uniquely prone to other types of injuries. Commonly reported accidents include:
- Car accidents
- Bike accidents
- Dog bites
- Playground injuries
- Amusement park and roller coaster accidents
- Fireworks burns
- Daycare or school accidents
- Indoor trampoline park injuries
- Swimming pool injuries
Legal Guardianship
While children can initiate their own personal injury claim in Mississippi when they become adults, that isn’t the only option. Their parent or guardian can also seek compensation on their behalf. Under Mississippi law, only parents or guardians entrusted with the care of a child can file a lawsuit on their behalf.
Preparing for Your Case
Your attorney will look into a wide range of evidence to build the strongest case possible on your child’s behalf. That means looking into medical records, accident reports, police reports, days spent away from school, loss of participation in extracurricular activities, adaptive upgrades that must be made to the home, and the child’s role in the accident. This is where a child’s age becomes relevant.
The younger a child is, the less likely they are to have a role in their own injury. No one expects a toddler to show any type of restraint or sound judgment, and the standards aren’t much higher for young school-age children. But once you get into the teenage years, the law does expect children to take reasonable steps to avoid injury.
Planning for Your Child’s Future and the Role of Chancery Courts
Mississippi state law strives to protect children in a variety of ways. Chancery courts handle issues related to equity and family law. They also aim to protect a child’s best interests in a variety of legal issues, including accepting a personal injury settlement.
Upon reaching an agreement for a personal injury settlement, the chancery court will step in and ensure that the settlement is fair and in the child’s best interest. If it is, they will approve it. Once the funds are cleared, the court generally requires that they be placed in a restrictive guardianship account. This type of account protects a child from blowing all of their money the moment they reach adulthood, a choice that would almost certainly cause them distress as they grow, and it protects children from their parents using the money in a way that does not benefit the child.
Start Your Case with Reeves & Mestayer
If your child has been injured through no fault of their own, find out if they have a strong personal injury claim. Take the first step now by setting up a free consultation with Reeves & Mestayer—just call us at 1-855-558-2977 or send us a message online.