We expect our schools to be safe for everyone. If you or your child’s been injured while on school premises, we can help you claim compensation.
Children can’t be wrapped in cotton wool and accidents do happen. However, you’ve a right to expect your child to be kept safe on school grounds or elsewhere under staff supervision – on a school trip, for example. When safety procedures aren’t followed, it can lead to harm.
Filing a personal injury claim can help you get compensation for your child. It can also prevent similar mistakes from happening again in the future. Contact us today to make a claim for compensation.
Most of our school injury and illness claims are made using no win no fee agreements. This means you don’t have to pay an upfront cost, and you won’t pay anything if your claim is unsuccessful.
Who can make a claim against a school for an injury?
Our team have been involved in several different claims against schools. This includes:
- Children injured in school or during school activities
- Parents injured while on school premises
- Teachers and other staff members injured while on school premises.
For teachers and other staff who’ve sustained an injury at school, you can make a claim for workplace accidents.
Who can I make a claim against?
If your, or your child's injury is the result of someone else's negligence, we could help you make a claim. Examples of those you could make a claim against include:
- Schools and academies
- Teaching staff and others employed by the school
- Trusts in charge of the school or academy.
Why choose Irwin Mitchell to handle your school injury claim?
Our team of school injury claims solicitors have vast experience helping pupils, parents, and teachers claim compensation for injuries in school. We’re dedicated to getting the best outcome for our clients, to help them make the best recovery.
Your injury can have an impact on your entire family, so we work closely with other departments at the firm so we can give you detailed advice on issues such as:
- Educational problems
- Accommodation
- Ongoing care
- Family matters
- Financial matters.
Our offices are around the UK, so your lawyer can meet you at your nearest office. If it’s easier, we can meet you at an appropriate location, or we can arrange phone or video calls.
As well as our expert lawyers, you’ll receive help from our Support and Rehabilitation Co-ordinators, who are trained clinical specialists. They’ll identify the support you need and help you find experts local to you.
If you’re claiming on behalf of your child, we’ll help them get the medical treatment they need, as well as therapy and rehabilitative care. Because children's bodies are still growing, the full effect of their injuries may not become fully apparent until they get older. We’ll make sure their compensation considers this.
You can also work with our Asset Management team, who are financial experts. They can offer advice on managing and investing the compensation you receive, making sure it’s there whenever you need it.
We can also help you set up a personal injury trust for your child. Personal injury trusts can make sure that any compensation awarded doesn’t adversely affect any other benefits that your child may be entitled to receive when they turn 18.
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School Injury Claims - More Information
When you first contact us, we’ll arrange a free initial consultation with one of our experts. There’s no obligation for you to continue with us after this talk. We’ll advise you if you can claim and what the best course of action would be.
If you decide you’d like to use our team, we’ll begin by gathering evidence. Depending on the situation, we might gather different evidence. Often, we’ll gather evidence such as:
- Medical reports
- Witness statements
- CCTV.
We also use independent medical experts to assess how your or your child’s accident has impacted their future health. They’ll also recommend the care needs that must be in place.
If your claim is on behalf of your child, the case will have to go before a judge for an infant approval hearing. This hearing happens even when a compensation sum has been agreed with your opponent and is in place to make sure that your child gets a fair settlement.
If your claim relates to injuries to yourself, we’ll work to settle your claim out of court. However, if the other party doesn’t accept the blame, or we can’t agree on a settlement amount, we may need to take your claim to court to be settled. It may still be possible to settle your claim without going to court, even if trial dates have already been set.
If you're making a claim on behalf of a child, you'll normally be able to make a claim up until their 18th birthday. Despite this, we urge you to contact us as soon as possible if your child has been injured in an accident because we could help them access rehabilitation and support to help with their recovery.
We could also help you make a claim if you were in an accident before you turned 18. If you want to claim compensation for an accident that happened while you were a child, you will have three years from your 18th birthday to make a claim.
If you’re claiming for yourself, you usually have three years from the date of the accident to make a claim. By getting in touch with us shortly after your accident, it can make collecting evidence a little easier, as there are often fewer problems finding witnesses whose statements we need to support your case.
When you make a claim for compensation, either for yourself or your child, you can use the money to pay for specialist medical treatment and rehabilitation. Our Support and Rehabilitation team can help you find the right support.
The amount of compensation you or your child will receive will consider:
- Private medical treatment - to help speed up and maximise recovery
- Home tutors - if your child has to take a lot of time off school, compensation can pay for tutoring to help them keep up with their work
- Loss of earnings - for any time off work you have
- Expenses - such as travelling to medical appointments
- Rehabilitation - to make sure you or your child makes the best recovery they can, compensation can pay for rehabilitation and support both now and in the future
- Household adaptations - these can help you or your child live more independently.
Most of our school injury compensation claims are made using no win no fee claims. We’ll let you know during your initial consultation if we believe you’ll be able to use a no win no fee arrangement.
If we think you’re suitable for a no win no fee agreement, you’ll need to set up an insurance policy at no extra cost.
If you’ve legal expenses insurance (LEI), through house insurance for example, or are covered by a trade union policy, these may be better options to fund your claim.
If your child's injury is the result of someone else's negligence, we could help you make a claim. Examples of those you could make a claim against include:
- Schools and academies
- Teaching staff and others employed by the school
- Trusts in charge of the school or academy
To find out more about how we could help you, contact us.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to children’s compensation?
Compensation for children is usually kept in a protected account until they turn 18. The amount of compensation has first to be agreed upon in an infant approval hearing before any funds can be paid out.
In an infant approval hearing, the judge will consider all the evidence to decide whether they agree with the proposed amount of compensation.
They’ll consider things like the extent of the child’s injuries and the cost of ongoing care they’ll need. As the litigation friend, you could be asked to provide information about this to support the claim.
Your child might need to attend these hearings, but this can depend on their age and the severity of their injuries.
The court will keep the compensation until your child turns 18; at this point, they’ll receive their settlement as well as any interest accrued. If there’s a need to access some of the compensation earlier to cover care and education costs, for example, we can help you make an application to the court. The judge will decide whether this early payment is in the child’s best interests.
A personal injury trust can make sure your child has protection for the future and can only be accessed by trustees. You can make yourself a trustee and the other trustee must be a solicitor. In order to get money out of the personal injury trust, all trustees must agree to its release.
What school-related injuries can you help with?
While the odd bump or scrape in the playground might be expected, oversights can lead to more serious injury. Where injury or illness could have been prevented, this can constitute negligence.
Examples of this could include:
- Faulty equipment, such as desks, chairs, or toys
- Slippery floors or loose carpets
- Contaminated or underprepared food in the canteen
- Lack of adequate supervision.
Can you sue school for a broken leg?
You could sue the school if your child sustained a broken leg, or another bone, and it was caused by someone’s negligence.
You can’t sue if your child’s bone is broken while playing in the playground and no negligence caused the injury.
Contact our team and tell us more about what’s happened, and we can advise if you can make a claim.
Related Information - School Injury Claims
All Scottish cases will be handled by the Scottish law firm with which we are associated, Irwin Mitchell Scotland LLP. The law relating to funding is different in Scotland and you will receive separate advice about what that means as well as a separate funding agreement.
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