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Contrary to some beliefs, children can sustain a whiplash injury. Generally they may not be as badly affected as adults, but a car accident can easily leave your child suffering with the same symptoms in the neck, back, and shoulder area.

Whiplash is caused by the ligaments and tendons in the neck, back, and shoulder areas being stretched beyond their normal range of movement. So this can happen whether you are an adult or a child.

Children have the right to make a claim in exactly the same way an adult is entitled to. There are a couple of differences to the claims process – for one, the child will need a litigation friend to act on their behalf, given that the law doesn’t commonly allow them to bring a claim themselves (rather obviously). This is normally a parent or guardian / family member, and can even be you if you were in the same accident.

The other major difference is that an Infant Approval Hearing will normally take place at the end of the claim. This is a simple hearing for a Judge to confirm that they are happy with the amount that has been accepted between us and the other insurers. As the child is under the age of 18, the Court should always intervene to make sure that any offers that are agreed are fair to make sure the best interests of the child are looked after.
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Accidents in schools are quite common and that is not really a surprise with children running around in the playground, play fighting, playing football and other things that children get up to these days. However there is a need to distinguish between genuine accidents and accidents giving rise to a personal injury claim.

You may be able to bring a compensation claim on behalf of your child if the accident was not his or her fault. For example if your child tripped over a raised paving slab on school premises or tripped in a pot hole. If the area was not adequately maintained and the defect caused injury, then a claim may be possible. It would also be possible to bring a claim if the child was injured as a result of faulty or defective equipment. For example a chair that broke causing injury.
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Now, sending your child out on a bicycle can be pretty daunting and scary for parents. Most of the time, a little consolation is that they are well kitted up with their reflective clothing, lights and of course a helmet to help keep them safe on the roads.

However, children do not always like to do as they are told or advised and will often remove the things that are keeping them safe as cyclists; especially the helmet. I remember getting to the end of the path, away from the house and removing the awful and un-cool helmet my mum made me wear when I was a kid!

As an adult now, I do see the significance and the benefit of wearing a helmet, but as a child, it is often a case of image over safety, even in the very young. So what does the law state about children who have been injured in an accident as a cyclist and were not wearing a helmet???
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In law, if a claim is made on behalf of a minor, then such a claim is normally made through a litigation friend which would often be a parent or carer. Obviously a minor cannot bring a claim themselves and therefore a litigation friend acts for them in their best interests. Obviously you would expect parents to act in their child’s best interests but if, for whatever reason, this was not the case then a professional person could be appointed as the litigation friend.

When a case is brought on behalf of a minor, when it comes to settlement, normally the settlement is made subject to approval by the Court. This is because the Court has to make sure that the settlement figure is reasonable and fair in respect of the Claimant’s (the child’s) injuries. This is known as Infant Approval Hearing.
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This is something that we will all be familiar with due to this sort of topic being highlighted on TV. Reckless driving incidents are unfortunately becoming a daily occurrence with the most common victims being children and the outcome is often devastating.

I am sure you all remember the horrid accident in Leeds involving 10 year old Sabah Saleem who was crossing a road with her 3 year old brother Rayhan Saleem when they were run over in the middle of the road by a speeding vehicle, which, unbelievably, did not stop at the scene and sped away leaving both children for dead in the middle of the road.

Brave Sabah actually took the brunt of the impact in order to protect her little brother and therefore was in a more serious condition that her brother – however luckily they both recovered well.
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We, The Injury Lawyers, deal only with claims for personal injury. We do not deal with any other types of law – so day in day out, our hard working teams are fighting for the maximum compensation for accident victims across the country.  So we can easily say, with confidence, that we are the specialist in our field.

As such, we deal with many injury claims for children. Naturally there is a need for more care to be taken when it comes to our little ones being injured, especially as they can be more vulnerable to serious injury.

It’s sad to hear when a child has been injured, but where it is not their fault, we will step in and make sure your child is compensated for the maximum amount they are entitled to recover, and we’ll make sure that the whole process is as easy as possible.
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Although, particularly smaller children, are usually well protected in a vehicle with car seats and booster seats, whiplash can still be a factor if a child is involved in a road traffic accident.

If your child has suffered from whiplash, can they make a claim for compensation?

The simple answer is: not by themselves; the child themselves cannot start a claim as they are under the age of 18 and therefore cannot enter into legal proceedings – however an appropriate adult can act on their behalf for a whiplash claim and it will run in pretty much the same way an adult claim would.
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At The Injury Lawyers we deal with all types of personal injury claims. We deal with children’s personal injury claims too. In law a child is often referred to as a minor. In this blog I will attempt to explain the difference between a child’s personal injury claim and a standard personal injury claim brought by an adult. The first thing to note is that a minor is someone under the age of 18 years.

A child’s claim must commonly be brought through a litigation friend. The litigation friend must be an adult and is often a parent or guardian. The litigation friend must act in the best interests of the child at all times. The litigation friend must not have an interest in the claim. For example if a child is injured in a road traffic accident and a parent was the driver of the vehicle, that parent may not be able to act as litigation friend for the child, as they clearly have an interest in the claim. In certain situations a professional litigation friend can be appointed by the solicitor or the Courts.

The limitation period also differs in respect of children’s claims. The limitation period applies to all personal injury claims. After an accident or injury you have a window in which you can pursue a claim for injury and loss. This window is the limitation period. If the limitation period expires and you have not issued Court Proceedings on your claim, then you may lose your right to claim compensation.
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Bouncy castle accident claims may be more common than you think. Unfortunately many accidents on bouncy castles can and do cause severe injuries – and these injuries are often to children or minors. Of course, bouncy castles can be a good source of entertainment for children but they are not as safe as we may suspect them to be.

One major issue seems to be with the variety of age groups that use bouncy castles. The danger here is that young children (such as at the ages of 2 to 10) are using the same bouncy castle at the same time as young teenagers (aged 13 to 16) for example. This is a recipe for disaster.

As we are all aware, children grow up at different speeds and some children aged 13 to 16 can be as heavy and as big as adults. This in turn causes a big danger to the younger more vulnerable children as they could be crushed or injured quite easily. Despite this danger being very clear and obvious, some children are still put into this dangerous situation.
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Accidents at school can be complex cases, mainly because it is inevitable that children will sustain small injuries whilst playing in the school yard. However, some accidents do happen that could have been prevented and therefore in some circumstances there is the option to pursue a personal injury claim.

Most accidents at school are claimed to be because of a ‘lack of supervision’- but this is very difficult to prove.

Sometimes no matter how much supervision there is, children’s game play can often lead to tears and therefore negligence is not automatically presumed.
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