Child Injury Lawyer Blog
By David A. Wolf, Child Injury Lawyer Blog
In California and other States, children are supervised or placed in a child care setting at a gym, fitness facility, and other “non-traditional” location. In California, licensing is not required for many of these so called child care programs. As such, there is limited to no oversight of the child care program, facilities, and training. This, in turn, may put a child at risk for personal injuries while being supervised, placed, or merely just physically present in the “child care” part of the gym, fitness facility, and other “non-traditional” location. Even without the imposition of the state mandated and controlled day care center regulations, gyms, fitness facilities, and other locations still have duties of reasonable care when such locations take on the responsibility for watching or supervision children.
A Bay Club fitness facility in San Francisco, California, currently awaits trial for this very issue. Two years ago, a young boy suffered a head injury when his mother dropped him off at a childcare center in this health club. The childcare worker at the facility did not see the injury occur, but the children who witnessed it said, “Roman ran into the window and fell down.” As a result of the injury, the young boy is now undergoing speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, as well as post-traumatic stress disorder therapy. See Exclusive: Bay Club in San Francisco Faces Trial After Child Injured.
When a child is injured or dies at a day care center, a parent is often faced with a number of issues and challenges. Many questions come to mind. How could this happen? Did I leave my child in the wrong facility? What exactly happened? What am I going to do next? What should I do next? As a Child Injury Lawyer, I am often contacted after a child is injured or when a child dies while under the care of a day care center. Here are the key factors that are evaluated when a child is injured or dies at a day care center:
In California and other States, parents rely on day care centers, schools, after school programs, camps, and gyms for child care. In most instances, the children are supervised in a caring environment. Depending on the State, size, and location of the child care facility or program, the child care center may or may not be required to have a day care license by the applicable licensing authority.
In California and other States, parents enroll their children in athletic and youth sports programs. Most volunteers and coaches truly have the best interest of the children in mind when coaching, teaching, and mentoring the children enrolled in the sports program. Children enrolled in youth sports programs often learn valuable life and social lessons in team work, problem solving, strategy, and sportsmanship. Unfortunately, some coaches (especially ones in competitive athletic programs) go “over the line” when attempting to build winning teams.
As parents, we do our best to protect our children. We may sure that they go to school, look both ways before crossing a street, wear bicycle helmets, stay away from strangers, and otherwise keep safe at all times possible. Unfortunately, despite all of the work and good efforts of parents, there is one danger (among others) that seems to be present in virtually every community that we as parents cannot fully prevent or avoid. This danger is that of the drunk driver.
In California and other States, children are enrolled in day care and child care programs. It is vital that the day care center conduct thorough interviews and background checks of the staff members hired at the day care center. There should also be thorough interviews and background checks of volunteers as well. In addition to staff members and volunteers, family members of staff members and owners also come into contact with the children enrolled in the day care center / child care center.
With dog ownership comes responsibility and in some instances liabilty for dog bite related injuries to children. Every year thousands of children are the unfortunate victims of serious personal injuries resulting from dog bites and dog attacks. Whether the dog is a large, aggressive bred dog or now, a dog bite incident can have devastating and life altering effects on a small child. In some instances, the child even tragically dies as a result of a dog bite, attack, or mauling. Some dog bite incidents involve a family dog while others involve stray dogs. Either way, the aftermath of serious dog bite attack can be quite difficult for the child and the parents.