April 27, 2010

Parents responsible for their kids?

What happens if your child intentionally injures someone? Are you responsible civilly for your child's actions? The answer is sometimes. Most often parents are not held responsible for their child's criminal, reckless or negligent behavior. As with any general rule, there are however, exceptions. For instance if your child negligently injures another child with a BB gun given to the child by you,the parent, you can be held liable under the theory of negligent entrustment. Additionally if your child commits an intentional assault, you could be held liable if your child had "prior vicious propensities" and you did nothing about it. The good news for parents is that but for very limited circumstances, you will most often not be responsible for your child's negligent and/or criminal actions.

April 21, 2010

Sidewalk trip and fall cases

We are often consulted by clients regarding pursuing a claim in connection with a trip and fall on a sidewalk. People commonly wish to purse these claims because significant injuries are generally involved and insurance companies do not offer an appropriate sum of money to settle. The first step in evaluating the claim is to examine the defect that caused the fall. The Courts have repeatedly found that small (a.k.a diminimis) defects are not enough of a hazard to warrant a successful claim. Therefore the defect must be large enough to clear that initial hurdle. The second step would be to examine the local laws regarding sidewalk defects. If the sidewalk is owned by a municipality (and most are) the municipality must receive "prior written notice" of the defect in order to be successful in a claim against the municipality. Since this rarely exists, the final step is to determine if there are any local laws wherein the municipality transfers liability for the care and upkeep of the sidewalk to the adjacent property owner. Assuming there is a transfer of responsibility and liability, a successful claim against the property owner is possible.