A child's serious injury affects an entire family.
Parents may be managing emergency care, specialist appointments, school absences, transportation, work disruption, and uncertainty about the child's recovery. At the same time, questions can arise about what happened at the park and what documents were signed.
Focus on medical care
Keep a record of the hospitals, physicians, therapists, and other providers involved in the child's care.
Follow-up treatment can be especially important when the long-term effects of an injury are not immediately clear.
Preserve the family's records
Save the reservation, receipt, wristband, emails, photographs, videos, incident paperwork, and any electronic agreement associated with the visit.
If a parent or another adult completed the check-in, make a note of who did so and how the process occurred.
Waivers and arbitration clauses
Laws vary from state to state. Generally speaking, when a child is injured, courts do not enforce a liability waiver signed by a parent or guardian on the child's behalf. Some states, however, do enforce arbitration clauses signed by a parent or guardian in cases involving a child's injury.
Write down what family members remember
A short factual chronology can be helpful while memories are fresh.
Include who attended, the approximate time of the incident, the attraction involved, what happened immediately before and after the injury, who spoke with park employees, whether an ambulance was called, and whether any witnesses were identified.
Do not coach a child or repeatedly ask the child to reconstruct an event. Preserve what the child naturally remembers.
Serious child-injury claims can involve additional legal procedures
The legal process for a minor can differ from the process for an adult. Questions about who may bring a claim, how a recovery is handled, and whether additional approval procedures apply depend on the governing law.
Those questions should be addressed based on the child's circumstances rather than through a generic online answer.
If your child suffered a serious injury, we can review what happened and explain what information would be useful for an initial evaluation.