When your child suffers a serious injury on someone else's property, you may have grounds to bring a premises liability claim involving children against the person who owns, occupies, maintains, or controls said property.
Let's face it, children are playful, inquisitive, and not always particularly careful or aware of their surroundings. As a result, injuries are far from uncommon. However, children's headstrong nature doesn't relieve property owners or occupants of their legal responsibility to take 
reasonable steps to ensure the safety of their property.
A premises liability claim involving children is very complicated and civil lawsuits can help parents hold negligent property owners accountable and allow them to seek compensation for all the injuries sufferred by their children, including economic and non-economic damages.
Here's what you should know about premises liability cases involving children, including how our skilled and experienced Inland Empire injury attorney can help you fight for – and recover—fair damages.
Understanding a California Premises Liability Claim Involving Children
In the Golden State, property owners—and in some cases landlords, tenants, property managers, contractors, site managers, equipment owners, and other third parties – may be held liable for negligence-related injuries and losses sustained on their property.
While in a typical premises liability case involving adults, trespassers may have less legal recourse, California law gives a greater degree of care to children, who may not be fully able to comprehend the dangers of hazards encountered on a property. This degree of care is often proportional to the child's ability to understand dangers and foresee the consequences of hazardous situations.
Common Types of Premises Liability Cases
Though slips and falls are the most well-known types of premises liability cases, this area of law covers a wide range of situations in which someone is hurt on another person's property. Examples of common types of premises liability cases include:
- Slips and falls
- Trips and falls
- Stairway injuries
- Dog bites (and other animal attacks)
- Inadequate maintenance
- Negligent security
- Fires
- Swimming pool accidents
- Trampoline injuries
- Structural deficiencies
- Playground accidents
- Elevator and escalator injuries
- Amusement park accidents
What You Could Recover for Your Child and What You Have to Prove
Depending on the facts and evidence in your child's injury case, our Inland Empire injury attorney may be able to help you recover compensation for all related medical expenses (including the cost of future care), your lost wages and out-of-pocket costs, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and more. Not sure which types of damages may apply in your case? We can help.
However, before you can recover compensation, you and your Inland Empire injury attorney will have to prove:
- The defendant was aware (or should have been aware) of the hazardous condition
- The defendant had knowledge or reasons to believe that children were likely to enter the premises with or without permission
- The defendant knew or should have known that the hazardous condition posed an unreasonable risk to children on the premises
- The child (or children) in question was incapable of understanding the dangers and risks of the hazard due to their young age
- The risk the hazard posed to children was significant compared to the defendant's burden of eliminating it
- The defendant failed to exercise reasonable care to protect children on the premises
Helping Families Recover Fair Compensation for Damages
When your child sustains an injury on another person's property, you can find yourself missing work to care for them while a deluge of unexpected medical bills fills the mailbox. There's far too much at stake to go it alone. Fortunately, you don't have to. At the Inland Empire Law Group, our knowledgeable and experienced California injury attorney is with you each and every step of the way. We'll help you build a strong case for damages and fight for the recovery your family deserves.
Schedule a Free Initial Consultation With Our Inland Empire Injury Attorney
Contact us at (888) 694-3529 today to request a free initial consultation with aopur Inland Empire injury attonrey for your potential premises liability claim involving children in California.
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