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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To take legal action against school?

194 replies

SingleNow · 14/05/2012 14:24

My 4yr old ds has had yet another accident at nursery. This time he has taken a chunk out of his thumb, it is quite bad and although it was bleeding a fair amount could not be stitched as there was nothing to stitch together.

He had just gone back to school last Monday after 2 weeks off after falling head first onto a wood flower bed and having a bump from his hair line to the bridge of his nose.

This accident/incident with his thumb I feel is one too many in a short space of time.
It was his fault partly as he put his thumb in the metal plate on the door frame and walked as he walked the plate sliced a chunk off his thumb. My point is that there shouldn't have been anything as sharp as that near 3 and 4 yr olds and also the fact that staff all say the same thing. " we don't know what happened" now whilst I agree that they cannot watch every child due to the amount of pupils (26) there are 3 members of staff and it is always the same they never know how DS gets hurt.

So I have decided to take legal action AIBU???

OP posts:
BehindLockNumberNine · 14/05/2012 16:25

But it is a metal door lock plate. Where metal meets metal. It may well become sharp over time. Which is why we teach our children NOT to stick their fingers in it!!

What do you want, for the school to waste valuable money having engineers file down locks and hinges just in case a child touches them? There is not the money for it. It is not feasible.

Look on the bright side - your ds will never stick his thumb in a lock plate again, will he?
And if that is what you want, or if you do sue, then your wish for nurseries and schools to have safe equipement will become even less feasible as more money will have to be spent on entertaining parents like you in court.

Suing them is not the answer. Teach your ds not to touch things he should not. Teach your ds to be a bit more careful when he plays - take him to balance beams etc to help his coordination which should make him a little less accident prone.
And help the nursery by volunteering to go in and help out.

But don't sue. It never achives anything (other than waste scarce money)

OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos · 14/05/2012 16:25

I was going to say YABU until I read that you have never signed an accident book or form.

Accident books are legal documents if they need to be, and recording and reporting incidents should be taken seriously. If there is no record of accidents, the nursery is never going to be able to identify and minimise risks. And that's without even considering what would happen if an accident was particularly serious, or appeared fine but became serious later.

This nursery is putting its staff and it's children in a very vulnerable position, and if they don't bother doing accident reports, I'd wonder what else they didn't bother doing.

I work in early years and am Shock that you have never had to fill in an accident report.

Original poster
SingleNow · 14/05/2012 16:26

2shoes as I said this is one too many incidents and he is not going back.

OP posts:
cantspel · 14/05/2012 16:27

sounds like he has taken a slice out of the fleshy part of his thumb pad. It might bleed a bit but no long term damage and might teach him not to go sticking his fingers in the door plates.

The nursery didn't leave a sharp object laying around for him to hurt himself on. He stuck his fingers somewhere fingers are not surposed to go.

Original poster
SingleNow · 14/05/2012 16:30

Behind, there Is nothing wrong with his balance/ coordination now if it had been ds1 I would have to say yes you are right but ds2 is a robust child who has great balance etc.

I will attend the meeting before I take any further action regarding my decision either way.

OP posts:
WorraLiberty · 14/05/2012 16:30

I don't understand why anyone apart from your child should know what happened Confused

When a four year old hurts himself, you ask what happened and then they tell you....no?

DPrince · 14/05/2012 16:31

So you don't want to know if yabu. You want everyone to yanbu and cheer you on.

miaowmix · 14/05/2012 16:31

My friend's kid has had 3 or 4 incidents like this, including slicing off part of a finger, knocking out his 2 front teeth and cracking his head open on a pavement. All in different settings - nursery, museum, street. She accepts that it's her madcap 4 year old's fault. Alternatively, should she be looking to sue every place he sets foot in? He's accident prone and your son obviously is too.

madmouse · 14/05/2012 16:34

Oh dear

I pity anyone else who might be in the vicinity when your ds has his next accident or who owns any type of property that your ds comes near.

YABVU

don't even think about legal action.

DollysDrawers · 14/05/2012 16:35

No win no fee eh? Hmm

Original poster
SingleNow · 14/05/2012 16:37

Worra, you are correct but should it be left until I arrive at the school for that to happen? Or should the staff ask him and then fill out an accident report???

OP posts:
Original poster
SingleNow · 14/05/2012 16:38

Dollys no if I were to take legal action I would go to my usual solicitor.

OP posts:
ItsAPublicForumWhine · 14/05/2012 16:40

YABU.

OutragedAtThePriceOfFreddos · 14/05/2012 16:41

The staff should fill out an accident form any time they have had to give any treatment. If they haven't done that, they are not fulfilling their responsibilities. It's that simple.

TandB · 14/05/2012 16:42

Hello, OP, one of MN's friendly resident not-remotely-experienced-in-personal-injury lawyers here to tell you that YABU.

  1. You have nothing to sue for. You don't just get given money because something non-ideal happened, even if it was someone else's fault. There has to be damage for their to be compensation. We don't have punitive damages in the UK so the only thing you would be claiming for would be "pain, suffering and loss of amenity." In this situation the quantum of such a minor injury would be so miniscule as to make legal action a complete nonsense.

  2. There has to be negligence. The head bump is a complete non-starter as "falling over and hitting your head on something" isn't exactly someone else's fault. In relation to the thumb, you might, at a huge stretch, be able to make a case for the door plate being too sharp, but you would struggle to show that someone was negligent in not forseeing this incident.

  3. Suing costs money. You won't get a solicitor in the country to take this on with a conditional fee agreement so you would be paying privately and liable for other side's costs if you lost.

  4. Not completing the accident form is bad practice but does not in itself amount to something you can sue for.

  5. It's really, really not going to happen.

That will be £80 plus VAT please.

IndridCold · 14/05/2012 16:43

Unless you have £5-600 sitting around in your bank account and you can't think of anything else to do with it then I would forget any idea of legal action. That's how much I ended up paying for a couple of solicitors letters and it did me no good whatsoever. Money down the drain.

BehindLockNumberNine · 14/05/2012 16:43

But there is no legal action to take

No one to sue. No one. Not the nursery, not the wooden planter, not the door lock, not the door lock fitters, not the frayed rope, no one.
You could of course sue your ds for being a typical tot and making you all anxious?

You will look a loon, stop it!

McHappyPants2012 · 14/05/2012 16:44

The amount of accidents ds has had in school I would be a millionaire in claims.

Fell of scooters more times than I can remember, bumped his head god knows how many times split his eye open when he tripped over an object and fell against a book shelf.

Not be asked to sign anything but a phone call each time

BehindLockNumberNine · 14/05/2012 16:44

(hugs kungfu)

Woman, you speak sense Grin

WorraLiberty · 14/05/2012 16:45

Worra, you are correct but should it be left until I arrive at the school for that to happen? Or should the staff ask him and then fill out an accident report???

Yes it should be left until you arrive if it's not serious enough to tell you sooner

Yes the staff should ask you to sign the accident book.

Inform the Head that you haven't been invited to sign the book and make sure he tells the staff.

No need to try it on and see if you can 'win' a bit of money.

TandB · 14/05/2012 16:47

[contemplates charging per hug]

[decides on fixed-fee for all hugs on thread]

Original poster
SingleNow · 14/05/2012 16:49

If I had been after money I would have sued last year when I DID lose part of a digit in the school!!!

OP posts:
LIZS · 14/05/2012 16:49

I get a feeling of deja vue about such threads. This is such a knee jerk overreaction. What damages or "loss" are you proposing to put forward ? Hmm If you were to follow up the incident with a formal complaint re. the recording and notification of accidents on site or simply to query whether the door was appropriate then you'd get a more sympathetic hearing and a productive outcome. However I fear your next school may be similarly held responsible.

BehindLockNumberNine · 14/05/2012 16:51

Blimey, now I can see where you ds gets it from!!

BehindLockNumberNine · 14/05/2012 16:51

r