Daycare Injuries

If your child is injured at daycare, it is important to collect as much information as possible. Here are some things you or your daycare injury attorney can do to help right away:

• Seek medical treatment: the most important thing after your child has been injured at daycare is to make sure your child is treated. All concerns about negligence can be addressed after your child is medically stable.
• Request video: many daycares have video of the rooms the children are in. Often insurance companies recommend this and even offer a rate reduction for it. When your child has been injured, inquire as to whether there is video and make a demand of the daycare provider to preserve the video. Make this demand in writing so there is no confusion about the daycare provider’s obligations. If the video later goes missing, the daycare’s failure to preserve the video may be able to be used against them later.
• Photograph the injuries: while it may seem awkward, you do want to photograph the progression of any visible injuries your child may have. Insurance companies have argued that the injury was not that a future scar did not appear to be caused by the original daycare injury. Taking photographs of the injuries can help prevent these arguments.
• Contact the Minnesota Department of Human Services: the Minnesota DHS regulates licensed daycares. If you have concerns about a daycare related to a Minnesota daycare injury, you should contact DHS. Here is information and contact information.
• Request the incident report: licensed daycares are required to create incident reports when your child is injured at daycare. Request a copy of this incident report after an injury.

Whether you have Minnesota daycare injury depends on being able to prove fault and injuries. To prove that the daycare was negligent, you must prove that the daycare or its employee did something that a reasonable daycare or employee would not have done, or failed to do something that a reasonable daycare or employee would have done. Some examples include failing to supervise and allowing a child to get outside the daycare unwatched or the daycare understaffing which leads to injury.

Second, you must prove injuries, or damages. Damages are something that a person lost as the result of their injuries. This can be:

• Past and future medical bills
• Pain and suffering
• Lost wages for the parents having to take the child to doctors or stay home or in the hospital with the child because of injuries
• Any other non-economic losses

If you have questions regarding a Minnesota daycare injury, you should seek guidance from an experienced Minnesota daycare injury attorney.

As noted above, the daycare will owe medical bills if they are determined to be at fault for the daycare injury because of their negligence. Even then, those medical bills will only be paid as part of a lump sum payment at the end of a case or after a verdict at trial.

Some property insurance policies have “med pay,” coverage that will immediately cover bills up the limits of coverage. These policies pay medical bills regardless of who is determined to be at fault so long as the person was injured on the property. Often there are exclusions for children who are students of the facility. These policies range from $1,000-$25,000, although most are on the lower end. Med pay is not required, and some properties will not have this coverage.

If there is no med pay coverage, health insurance will cover medical bills even if someone else is ultimately determined to be at fault. Health insurance may seek money back from any settlement, but that depends on the policy and settlement.

Unfortunately, Minnesota daycares do not have to be licensed or carry insurance. If a Minnesota daycare does not carry insurance, they must have the parent sign a waiver indicating that the parents understands there is no insurance. If a daycare does not carry insurance and is negligent in causing an injury, a claim still exists against the daycare, but there may be no money to compensate your child even if you obtain a judgment.

We would strongly recommend not taking your child to any daycare that refuses to have insurance coverage to provide benefits if the daycare provider is negligent and cause harm to your child.

At Tyroler Injury Law, we work entirely on contingency fees, meaning you will not pay any fees unless we are able to recover money for you. Consultations are entirely free, and we are happy to give advice to help you in any way we can.

You have until your child’s 19th birthday to start a lawsuit. If your child is killed, the wrongful death trustee has three years from the date of the negligence to start a lawsuit.