To claim compensation against a farm?

[Cat1984]

My 5 year old dd broke her arm badly at a school trip to the farm over a week ago and had to be operated on and now has wires holding her bones in place at the elbow, she has no movement in her index finger on her right arm and me and her school are trying to decide whether or not to let her go back to school. She's really traumatised by it all and keeps having flashbacks and getting upset, she even told me she never wants to go on another school trip. I've been told by a few people that I should sue the school or farm or claim compensation but I'm not sure about it because I'm so drained and exhausted my brain is barely working atm. WIBU to put in a claim?

Why pursue a claim before you even know who is at fault Princess ?

If her dd was at fault then should the school/farm sue mum for the distress, time and extra provisions school has needed to provide for her dd?
You can change risk assessments and improve safety without suing. To sue just for the cash is money grabbing and very distasteful.

For those saying to wait and you have years to make a claim....that may be technically correct but you would be best served putting a claim in now so the incident can be investigated promptly and thoroughly. The best person to do this would be a loss adjustor.

Now due to the severity of the accident the school should have already reported this to their insurers (as should the farm) as whether a claim is formally made or not this definitely falls into the category of 'incident likely to give rise to a claim.

This does not always happen. I'm aware of a case (not one of mine and i'm not a solicitor btw) where there was an accident at a school last year...a child suffered severe burns. We didn't hear about it for 6 months. This massively impacts and prejudices an investigation.

It may be OP's daughter just fell awkwardly on properly maintained soft play equipment while teachers were nearby and supervising. Or she could have fallen off a rusty old tractor labelled 'playground' while the teachers were round the corner having a crafty fag. Or somewhere in between.

The OP's daughter long term prognosis is not clear yet and she may need additional equipment and help to recover. That is what PL insurance is for.

"long term prognosis???" She fell and broke her arm. It happens. I fractured my arm at school when I was 13- I was messing about, lead to a accident. Didn't think to sue the school for something I caused.

Bones reheal in most cases, she'll be alright.

OhSoggyBiscuit and she has no feeling in her index finger on her right hand. No-one knows if it will return or not or what problems this may cause. If she's right handed it could be a problem.

This is for the medical experts to determine.

But even if she recovers completely (which i'm sure we all hope she will) if the accident is caused by negligence then the OP has a genuine claim.

I work in insurance and would never advocate persuing a 'try-on' claim but this is not the case here.

Please think about the impact on others if you sue.

I work at a swimming pool. It's 2m deep at one end, thus deep enough to dive. But the pool bans diving and thus there are no children in our area who know how to dive in. This is because they were sued successfully a few years ago because some idiot kid did a bomb somersault and broke his front teeth. So, yes the family have received cash for his teeth, and thousands of kids now can't dive.

Does it matter if children can't dive? They can learn elsewhere if they want to.

Not really the point I was making Augusta. If the op sues the farm, the farm way well think, fuck this, we're not having a soft play anymore, not worth the risk. Thousands of children miss out on fun.

She would be compensated for her injury, if someone was in fact negligent. Pretty much any injury has a 'value' attached to it for claim purposes. You have three years from the accident to issue court proceedings so you don't need to rush into anything. There is a culture of compensation seeping into this country, from the States - where there's blame there's a claim type thinking. If the accident could have been avoided then yes it might be worth pursuing and your daughter will have some money she will be able to access when she is older. Have a chat with a solicitor, but remember there is no rush.

And remember the farm/school will have insurance for precisely this type of thing.

I would hang fire. Wait and see how it heals.
Sueing the school is an awful idea. Go and see the soft play at the farm - I bet any parent would struggle to chase around a 5 year old.
Try and ensure your child is able to get over this and manage if feeling is lost. This is most likely to be temporary hopefully!

Arkwright because she is only 5 and there should've been someone supervising and ready to catch any child that couldn't hold on to whatever it was

My 7 year old fell off something in a play area at tourist attraction. The tourist attraction is used for school trips but on this occasion she was there with me. I was probably 10 feet away.

I disagree that someone should be there ready to catch any falling child. By that logic any parent of more than 1 child would never go anywhere as you can't be right by all of them ready to catch them simultaneously. I would expect the supervising adult (whether school or parent) to be close enough to tell the child to stop if they were doing something dangerous, but that's it.

Children fall from playground equipment. It's sad but a fact of life. Most times they get up with nothing more than a fright, sometimes they land badly and break a bone. As I said, I was 10 feet away and watched my DC fall and break her arm and there is nothing I could really have done differently.

It would never have occurred to me to complain or sue the tourist attraction. In fact I emailed to thank them for the help their first aider (and other staff) gave.

And parents wonder why schools/teachers are sometimes reluctant to do school trips etc. I broke my foot by simply rolling on it - accidents happen sadly.
I hope your daughter is feeling better soon.

Cat, your poor daughter, what a horrible thing to happen.

As others have said, bones heal well, and hopefully the movement will come back in her fingers. It will all take time, and it may be that the hospital will support her recovery with physio.. Her arm will be weak when she comes out of plaster, but they regain strength very quickly.

I think people on here are reacting to your friends shouting 'sue' , rather than you. As you say, you are simply asking an opinion of your friends' advice.

As you now know suing is something that happens IF there has been wrongdoing/ negligence.

I am worried about your little girl's phrase 'she wasn't holding on properly ' and whether she is getting upset because the questioning makes her think she is to blame. She needs to know that 'accidents just happen ' too.

It may be that the equipment was too high, not aimed at 5 year olds, or too many kids were using it at once, or it may be that she just fell in an awkward way: you do need to look into the accident report.

I hope she regains her confidence very soon.

Just realised I didn't say in my last post that when my daughter fell she also broke her arm. We also had to go late to a pre-booked holiday/event because of the broken arm and resulting treatment meaning we lost half of our holiday/missed half the event.

And remember the farm/school will have insurance for precisely this type of thing

And have to pay extortionate prices for it due to people claiming for these kinds of accidents

Just to add, I have a child who had had many bone surgeries. There is always numbness and loss of feeling somewhere in the limb for a while, which lingers long after the bone has healed. The hospital will never say for definite that any kind of recovery is certain, but the feeling has always come back.

I don't think making a claim against the farm will get anywhere, it was an accident.

Your dd landed awkwardly and that's what caused the injury, not anyone's negligence.

Ds3 broke his wrist badly and required surgery to correct it; he was playing football in our garden and fell over the ball, badly!

The problem here is that the OP's friends are saying 'sue ' without knowing whether there was any negligence or not.

Establish that first.

And even then people need to know that it can be a drawn out stressful process , writing statements, repeat medical exams and interviews about the physical effects, and the sums of money would not be all that high for a broken arm that heals with no long term effects.

People get carried away.

But of course if there was negligence of any kind it needs identifying.

If the op sues the farm, the farm way well think, fuck this, we're not having a soft play anymore, not worth the risk. Thousands of children miss out on fun.

Or they may think: you know what, we should stop doing the negligent thing we did that caused the accident and do a further risk assessment whilst we're about it. Thousands of children continue having fun without having avoidable accidents.

How do you know no-one was negligent, StillStaying? Were you there?

Thank you Augusta, I hadn't realised about extended limitation for children. Useful to know!

Unless the farm has faulty equipment then I would not sue.

I hate the culture. My children's school has been sued at least twice for children with broken bones that have happen while playing on schools outdoor play equipment. With a teacher there and two ta's at least present - they couldn't do anymore to ensure safety. But kids fall off stuff - accidents happen. Yes school has insurance but the premiums double each time and guess where the money comes to pay for it, yep out of the school budget that supposed to be used for our children - so there's less resources to go around