Los Angeles Child Injury Lawyer
Watching your child go through pain, surgery, or months of recovery is one of the hardest things a parent can face. A Los Angeles child injury lawyer at M&Y Personal Injury Lawyers can handle the insurance companies and the legal process so your family can focus on your child’s healing.
We represent children and families after car crashes, pedestrian and bicycle accidents, school bus collisions, and injuries on unsafe property. The filing deadline for a child’s injury claim doesn’t start until the child turns 18. Most children have until their 20th birthday to sue, though claims against public agencies move much faster.
If an adult in your family was also hurt, a Los Angeles personal injury lawyer on our team can handle that claim too. Call 866-864-5477 any time to talk with us, and there’s no attorney fee unless we recover compensation.
Table of Contents
How Long Do You Have to File an Injury Claim for Your Child in California?
A child has two years after turning 18 to file a personal injury lawsuit in California. The standard two-year deadline in Code of Civil Procedure 335.1 is paused during the child’s minority under Code of Civil Procedure 352. The clock starts on the 18th birthday.
Our guide to California’s statute of limitations explains the general rule. These are the deadlines that matter most for children:
|
Who caused the injury |
First deadline |
Source |
|---|---|---|
|
A private driver, business, or property owner |
Two years after the child turns 18 |
CCP 335.1 and CCP 352 |
|
A city, county, school district, or transit agency |
Six months to present a written government claim |
|
|
A public agency, if the six-month claim was missed |
Application for a late claim within one year |
The minority pause doesn’t apply to claims against public agencies. A child hit by a city bus or hurt on a school playground needs a government claim on the six-month schedule.
Late Government Claims for Children
If the six-month claim deadline passes, Government Code 911.6 requires the agency to grant a late-claim application when the injured person was a minor for the entire six-month period. That application still has its own one-year limit, so families shouldn’t count on it.
Why Waiting Is Still Risky
A deadline that is years away doesn’t protect the evidence. Video gets recorded over, witnesses move, and insurers argue that injuries came from something else when treatment starts late.
Accidents That Injure Children in Los Angeles
Children get hurt in many of the same accidents as adults, but their size and judgment put them at higher risk. The cases we handle for families include:
- Car crashes, including those where a child was riding in a booster or car seat.
- Children struck while walking to school, crossing a street, or playing near a driveway.
- Bicycle, scooter, and skateboard collisions with vehicles.
- School bus crashes and injuries while boarding or leaving a bus.
- Falls and pool injuries at unsafe pools, playgrounds, and apartment complexes.
- Rideshare crashes with a child passenger.
Children struck while walking raise the same right-of-way questions that a Los Angeles pedestrian accident lawyer handles in other cases, with added protections for young people. Each accident type points to different evidence and different insurance coverage.
What Should You Do If Your Child Was Hurt?
Get your child medical care first, even if the injury seems minor. Children don’t always describe pain clearly, and a doctor’s exam creates the record that a claim depends on.
After that, a few steps protect your child’s claim:
- Photograph the scene, the vehicles or hazard involved, and your child’s injuries over time.
- Get the names and contact information of the other driver, property owner, and any witnesses.
- Keep every medical bill, prescription receipt, and record of missed school.
- Write down changes you notice in your child’s sleep, mood, schoolwork, or play.
- Let a lawyer handle calls from the other side’s insurance company.
Teachers and coaches notice changes, too. Asking them to note missed activities, trouble concentrating, or new behavior adds outside observations to your own.
Our article on what to do if your child was hurt in a crash covers the first hours after a car accident in more detail.
How Fault Works When a Child Is Injured
Fault rules for children differ from the rules for adults in a few important ways. Insurers sometimes ignore those differences, hoping parents won’t know them.
Children Are Judged by a Child’s Standard
A child isn’t held to an adult’s standard of care. California’s jury instructions ask what a reasonably careful child of the same age, intelligence, knowledge, and experience would have done, which makes it much harder to blame a young child for darting into a street.
Car Seats and Booster Seats
California child car seat laws require children under 8 to ride in a rear seat in an appropriate restraint. Under Vehicle Code 27360, children under 2 must ride rear-facing unless they weigh at least 40 pounds or are at least 40 inches tall.
Insurers sometimes argue that a child wasn’t properly restrained. Those arguments go to how badly the child was hurt, not to whether the other driver caused the crash.
Drivers Near Schools
Drivers must slow to 25 mph near posted school zones while children are arriving, leaving, or using the grounds, under Vehicle Code 22352. A driver who speeds through a school zone and hits a child faces a strong case of negligence. Crossing guards and painted crosswalks don’t lessen a driver’s duty to watch for children who act unpredictably.
Who Can Be Responsible for a Child’s Injury?
Anyone whose carelessness caused the injury can be held responsible, and many child injury cases involve more than one party. Identifying all of them early protects your child’s recovery.
Drivers and Their Employers
A negligent driver answers for the injuries a crash causes. When the driver was working, such as making deliveries, the employer is also responsible, and commercial coverage usually carries higher limits. A rideshare driver carrying your child is covered by at least $1 million in liability insurance during the trip under Public Utilities Code 5433.
Property Owners and Attractive Hazards
Property owners must keep their premises reasonably safe. California courts also recognize that owners must guard against hazards that predictably attract children, such as unfenced pools or abandoned equipment, when a child is too young to appreciate the danger.
Schools and Public Agencies
Public school districts, cities, and transit agencies can be responsible for injuries on their property or caused by their employees. These claims start with the six-month government claim, which makes acting quickly especially important.
School Bus Injuries
School travel brings children close to traffic twice a day, and California law gives them extra protection. Drivers who ignore those rules create some of the clearest cases of negligence.
Stopping for School Buses
Vehicle Code 22454 requires drivers approaching from either direction to stop for a school bus with flashing red lights and its stop arm out while children load or unload. The only exception is a bus on the other side of a divided highway or a road with two or more lanes in each direction. A driver who passes a stopped bus and hits a child broke a clear safety rule.
Claims Involving School Districts
When a school bus driver or district employee causes an injury, the claim goes against the school district, a public entity. The six-month government claim deadline applies, even though the child’s own lawsuit deadline would otherwise wait until age 18.
How Is a Child’s Injury Claim Settled in California?
A child’s injury claim can’t be settled without a judge’s approval. Under Probate Code 3500, a parent can compromise a child’s claim only with court approval, and the judge reviews whether the settlement protects the child.
Who Represents the Child in Court
If a lawsuit is filed, a parent or other adult is appointed as the child’s guardian ad litem under Code of Civil Procedure 372. That person makes decisions in the case on the child’s behalf, subject to the court’s oversight.
Where the Money Goes
The court decides how the child’s share is held, often in a blocked bank account, an annuity, or a trust until the child turns 18. Structuring the settlement around the child’s future medical needs protects the money for its purpose.
What Parents Can Recover
Parents can seek reimbursement for the medical bills they paid for the child’s treatment. The child’s own claim covers pain, emotional harm, and any lasting effect on the child’s future.
What Is a Child’s Injury Claim Worth?
A child’s injury claim is worth the full value of the losses the injury caused, now and over the child’s lifetime. With decades ahead of them, children with lasting injuries can have claims of high value.
The factors that shape a child’s claim include:
- The type and severity of the injury and how fully the child recovers.
- Future medical care, therapy, and surgeries as the child grows.
- Effects on schooling, development, and future earning ability.
- Scarring, disfigurement, and emotional harm.
The first offer from an insurer is an opening offer and rarely accounts for growth-related care. Doctors’ opinions about how an injury will affect a growing body are often the key to a fair settlement.
Emotional Effects on Children
Children can develop a fear of riding in cars, nightmares, or anxiety after a crash. Counseling records and observations from parents and teachers help show that harm, which is a real part of the claim.
Why Families Choose M&Y Personal Injury Lawyers
M&Y Personal Injury Lawyers was founded to give injured people the resources to stand up to large insurance companies. For families, that means a team focused on your child’s recovery and future.
When you work with us, you can expect:
- A dedicated team, with more than one person who knows your child’s case.
- A concierge line you can text 24/7.
- Automated updates that keep you informed between appointments.
- Settlements structured so future medical care is covered.
We retain outside professionals when a case is prepared for trial, and we co-counsel with other firms when a case needs added resources. Call 866-864-5477 to talk with our team.
FAQs: Los Angeles Child Injury Cases
Yes. A homeowner, landlord, or child care provider who failed to keep the property safe or supervise reasonably can be held responsible. Homeowners’ and business liability policies usually cover these claims, which are paid by insurance rather than out of the pocket of a family you know.
Usually not. Most child injury cases settle without a trial, and many children never testify. An older child may be asked to give a deposition if a lawsuit is filed, and attorneys and courts work to keep that process as low-stress as possible.
Yes. A child who will have reduced earning ability because of a lasting injury can recover for that loss. Since a child has no work history, vocational and economic professionals estimate likely earnings based on education, family background, and the injury’s effects.
Your child can still recover compensation. California requires riders under 18 to wear a helmet under Vehicle Code 21212, and an insurer may argue that a helmet would have reduced a head injury. The driver who caused the crash still answers for it.
Your child can still have a claim against the family member’s auto insurance policy. Some policies exclude claims by members of the same household, and the exact policy language decides whether coverage applies.
Helping Your Child Move Forward
A child’s injury affects the whole family, from missed work to sleepless nights at the hospital. M&Y Personal Injury Lawyers can handle the claim, protect your child’s settlement, and plan for future care, with no attorney fee unless we recover compensation.
Call 866-864-5477 any time, day or night, to talk with our team about your child’s injury.
M&Y Personal Injury Lawyers — Sacramento
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