A playground is supposed to be a safe space for your children to play, run around, and meet up with their friends. But when kids are running around and climbing on equipment that can be several meters high, injuries are likely to occur. As a parent, you might be thinking: who’s liable for my child’s injuries on a playground? When it comes to liability in playground accidents, what matters is what caused the injury.
If the injury is the result of faulty or poorly maintained playground equipment, liability could fall on the party responsible for keeping the equipment in safe and usable condition. Playground owners have a responsibility to keep the equipment in safe condition to protect children from harm, known as the theory of premises liability. If you want to file a premises liability case, the following must be proven:
- The defendant is responsible for the property
- The injured child could reasonably be expected to be on the property
- The defendant neglected to show an adequate amount of care for the property
- The child was injured and the defendant’s neglect was largely responsible for the injury
Under premises liability, a school could also be responsible for a student’s injuries. For example, if the child is injured after the chain of a swing on the school’s playground breaks and the injury could have been prevented, the school may be liable. However, they wouldn’t be liable if a child falls down on accident and breaks their arm during recess.
In many cases, playground injuries are caused by a simple lack of adult supervision. Parents aren’t the only people who can be responsible for a child’s supervision: this responsibility can also fall on teachers, coaches, camp counselors, day care providers, babysitters, nannies, or anyone else who agrees to undertake the responsibility of watching a child. Since playgrounds are an environment where accidents can happen even with the best supervision, for the adult to be liable, the injury has to be something that could have been avoided with better supervision.
If your child has been injured in a playground accident that could have been avoided, please contact our Orange County child injury lawyers at Law Office of Marshall Silberberg. We take all cases on a contingency fee basis, meaning you don’t owe any legal fees unless we recover compensation for you!
Call (949) 565-4281 or contact us onlinetoday for a free consultation.