It can happen in an instant. Your child falls on the playground; there’s a sports-related incident; there’s a car crash on the way to school; or maybe your child falls from the playground equipment. When your child is rushed to the ER, it can be the scariest moment in a parent’s life. Sometimes, your child suffers a superficial injury, and there’s nothing to worry about. But if your child suffers a traumatic brain injury (TBI), the effects aren’t always visible, immediate, or short-term.
The personal injury lawyers at Peterson Law Firm understand that brain injuries in children can disrupt every part of their future—from their cognitive development and education to their career potential and independence. And for parents, it can change everything: their finances, their emotional well-being, and their role as caregivers.
If your child has suffered a TBI in an accident, we want you to know you're not powerless. Our child brain injury lawyers can help you understand your rights, protect your child’s long-term future, and fight for the compensation your family truly needs.
TBIs: They’re Especially Serious for Children
A TBI can be devastating for anyone at any age. But for children, they can be especially damaging. Unlike adults, children’s brains are developing during critical growth phases. A TBI during infancy to adolescence can disrupt that development in significant and unforeseeable ways, including the following:
- There can be interruptions in developmental milestones. A TBI can delay or derail speech, motor, or emotional growth.
- There can be memory and learning challenges. Children may struggle with focus, impulse control, or academic progress.
- There can be social and behavioral changes. TBIs can lead to mood swings, anxiety, and difficulty forming relationships.
When your child suffers a brain injury, you may wonder about the short- and long-term health consequences and what kind of medical bills you’ll face. Parents of a child with a TBI often face years and possibly decades of dealing with ongoing financial challenges, as well as their child’s emotional and physical challenges. Depending on the severity of the injury, they can include the following:
- Their child may need in-home care or adaptive equipment to recover
- Their child may need physical, speech, and occupational therapy
- Their child may need psychological counseling and behavioral support
- Their child may lose future income and the potential to live independently
Initially, your child’s TBI might seem manageable and something they’ll recover from; however, as your child ages, there may be bigger deficits that weren’t apparent before. That’s why it’s important to pursue fair compensation when the injury happens—not just to cover current bills but to be prepared for a challenging future.
Proving Negligence: Many Child Brain Injuries Are Preventable
While some accidents are truly unavoidable, many child TBIs occur because an adult or institution failed to act with reasonable care. This legal concept is known as negligence—and it’s the foundation of most personal injury claims. To hold someone legally responsible for your child’s brain injury, you must typically prove:
- Duty of care. The person or entity had a legal responsibility to act safely or protect your child.
- Breach of duty. They failed to uphold that responsibility, whether through action or inaction.
- Causation. That failure directly led to your child’s injury.
- Damages. Your child suffered harm—physical, emotional, educational, or financial—as a result.
Examples of Negligence in Child Brain Injury Cases
- Unsafe premises. Property owners or school maintenance may not have fixed hazards like broken stairway handrails or rusty playground equipment, or maybe they didn’t place appropriate ground surfaces beneath play structures.
- Car accidents. A distracted or intoxicated driver could strike a vehicle carrying a child, a bus carrying a child, or a child leaving a bus.
- School or daycare injuries. Supervisors at schools and daycare facilities could fail to prevent an injury if they’re distracted or inattentive.
- Sports-related injuries. Coaches for a school sports team could ignore concussion protocols or allow unsafe play.
- Defective products. A daycare could use faulty car seats or cribs that fail to protect children from injury.
TBI Claims: How an Attorney Proves Negligence
Our child brain injury lawyer investigates every angle of the accident that caused your child’s TBI to uncover signs of negligence. This may include the following:
- Checking for equipment or property hazards that may have been ignored
- Reviewing surveillance footage or eyewitness testimony to better learn what happened when your child was injured
- Consulting safety standards and experts for their opinions about the equipment or property hazards
- Identifying if there were lapses in supervision or training that helped cause the accident
Establishing negligence in a child TBI claim isn’t just about assigning blame—it’s about making sure the party responsible contributes to the costs your family will bear for years to come.
A Parent’s Legal Rights: You Have One Chance to Seek a Fair Settlement
When your child is injured due to someone else’s negligence, you have the right to pursue a personal injury claim on their behalf. But many parents are pressured into an early settlement, before the long-term consequences of their child’s TBI are fully understood. Our skilled child brain injury lawyer can help ensure:
- All costs are calculated, not just immediate expenses
- Lost earning potential is factored in the settlement
- Emotional damages, such as loss of quality of life, are recognized
- Parents are compensated for their own losses, such as time off work or caregiving requirements
A Child’s Brain Injury Affects the Whole Family
If your child suffers a brain injury, everyone in your household can suffer with them. Not only is it difficult to watch your child struggle, but the situation can also be physically demanding and emotionally exhausting for parents. Here is how a child’s TBI can affect an entire family:
- Career sacrifices. One parent may have to quit work to provide full-time care for the injured child.
- Marital stress. There may be increased marital tension due to financial and emotional strain.
- Less time for other children. You may not have time to give full attention to other children in the family, due to the needs of the injured child.
- Mental health struggles. Anxiety, depression, and guilt are common in parents with a child who has a TBI.
- Legal conflicts. You may find much of your spare time is spent fighting with insurers, school districts, and service providers.
What to Do if Your Child Suffers a TBI in an Accident
If your child is involved in an accident and suffers a TBI due to negligence, there are important steps to take right away, including the following:
- Get thorough medical documentation. It’s important to ask for documentation about the imaging your child undergoes, their treatment plans, and all developmental evaluations and results.
- Keep a journal. Start a journal that cites all changes in your child—behavioral, academic, and emotional. Be as detailed as you can about what you believe is different from how they were before the accident.
- Contact our attorneys right away. Even if you’re unsure about pursuing a case, a consultation can clarify your rights and options.
- Avoid quick settlement offers. These often underestimate long-term costs—and once accepted, they’re final.
Peterson Law Firm: Your First Call After Your Child Suffers a TBI
TBI cases involving minors are often very complex personal injury claims. Insurers may claim the injury was minor or unrelated to the incident, may minimize your child’s future losses, or may delay your claim in hopes you’ll settle under pressure. Hiring one of our personal injury lawyers will give you a better chance at a fair recovery. We work with pediatric neurologists and economic planners who can project your child’s future needs across their lifespan. We also shield you from aggressive insurance tactics.
Your child deserves more than a payout. They deserve every opportunity to grow, learn, and live with dignity and independence—whatever that may look like after a brain injury. And you deserve support, relief, and a path forward as a parent. Call us for legal representation, and read our case results from clients we’ve helped with their personal injury cases.