Accidents in schools: Claiming compensation for a child

Accidents in schools, while often unforeseen, are an unfortunate reality that can have significant impacts on the lives of students and their families. From playground mishaps and classroom incidents to more serious events like sports injuries or laboratory accidents, the range of potential hazards is broad.

Schools have a duty of care to ensure the safety and well-being of their students. This responsibility includes maintaining safe facilities, providing adequate supervision, and implementing effective safety protocols. Schools must also report serious accidents to the Health and Safety Executive. When this duty of care is breached, resulting in an accident, affected parties may have grounds for a claim.

If your child has been injured in an accident at school, you may be eligible to claim compensation. Our personal injury experts at Beacon Law are able to advise and oversee the process of making a claim for caregivers on behalf of their injured child.

Common accidents in schools

Common accidents in schools that often lead to claims include a variety of scenarios where students may suffer injuries. These accidents can result from a range of causes. Here are some of the most frequent types of accidents that lead to school-related claims:

Falls from Equipment: Children can fall from swings, slides, climbing frames, or other playground structures.

Faulty Equipment: Poorly maintained or defective playground equipment can lead to accidents.

Science and Lab Accidents: Mishandling of chemicals, lack of proper health and safety gear, or equipment malfunctions during experiments.

Improper Training or Supervision: Lack of proper guidance or dangerous occurrences during physical education classes.

Bus Accidents: Injuries sustained while entering, exiting, or riding on school buses. This can include to and from school or on school trips.

Medical Conditions: Schools failing to properly manage or respond to students’ medical conditions (e.g., asthma attacks, diabetes management).

Physical Altercations: Injuries resulting from fights or assaults by other students.

Making a claim on behalf of a child

When an accident occurs at school, an adult can make a claim for compensation on behalf of a child if they have suffered an injury at school. The usual rule of making a claim within 3 years following the accident does not apply if the injured person is under the age of 18.

An adult can make a claim on behalf of a child at any point up until the child turns 18, or the child themselves can bring a claim once they turn 18. However, we would still recommend starting a claim as soon as possible.

The compensation won on a case regarding a child will be put into a trust for them to access when they turn 18 or can be managed and accessed by trustees in some cases, for example, if the child was injured so severely that they need on-going care which requires medical bills to be paid.

The claims process

During your initial consultation, our team of personal injury solicitors will provide you with comprehensive advice regarding your accident at school claim and inform you about the relevant limitation rules that apply.

Our experienced lawyers will request detailed information about the accident and the injuries your child sustained as a result. This information will enable our personal injury lawyers to assess the likelihood of a successful claim on your behalf.

Examples of the information our lawyers may require include the location, date, and time of the accident, a description of the nature of the injuries, details of any witnesses to the incident, information about the defendant involved, and a thorough understanding of the circumstances surrounding the accident.

During the initial stages of your case for accident at school accident injuries, it is crucial to gather relevant evidence to support your claim. This evidence may consist of CCTV footage of the incident, medical records documenting the injuries, photographic evidence of the harm suffered, and statements from witnesses.

If we determine that your injury claim is likely to succeed, we will offer to proceed with your case on a no win no fee basis. This means that if your claim is unsuccessful, you will not be required to pay any legal fees.

How can Beacon Law assist with school accident claims?

Beacon Law is a specialist personal injury solicitor with years of experience dealing with school accident claims. Our expertise in this area of law means we can provide an exceptional standard of service to our clients, and we work tirelessly to ensure we achieve the best possible outcome.

Beacon Law is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. To find out more about our no win, no fee claims funding and legal fees, please have a look at the funding section on our website.

If you or your child have suffered an injury as a result of an accident at school, then please contact us today on 0330 1332 857 to start your claim or complete our contact form at the top of the page to request a call back from a member of staff.