My Personal Injury Lawsuit Involves a Minor– What Should I Do?

Oct 12, 2020

Injury Lawsuits Involving A Minor Have Longer Statute of Limitations in Colorado

Injury Lawsuit Involving a Minor: A Parent’s Worst Nightmare

When a Colorado injury lawsuit involves a minor, it usually means that a child and their parents have endured a scary and difficult experience. If you’re a parent, a serious injury to your child is one of your worst nightmares. You spend so much time trying to protect your children and keep them safe, but tragic accidents still can happen.

When an accident involving a child does happen, you want to make sure you and your child have the resources you need to help them recover and get back on track for the bright future that lay ahead of them.

Child Injury Lawsuits Involving a Minor Are Unique

The unique situation of a child injury case may include filing a personal injury lawsuit to recover compensation from the party that caused your child’s injury. But just as minors don’t have the legal capacity to sign contracts, get married, or do so many other things adults can do, minors can’t file lawsuits in Colorado. Their parents or guardians must do so on their behalf.

Minors also can’t be in charge of any proceeds from a judgment or settlement in a personal injury lawsuit. This and the above are two ways that personal injury lawsuits involving a minor are different from suits brought by adults.

If your child suffered injuries in a car accident or any other incident involving another person’s negligence, you will want to retain an experienced Colorado Springs personal injury attorney who can navigate the unique issues and concerns involved in these claims.

Failing to follow the specific rules involved in such personal injury lawsuits, as well as the rules that apply upon settlement and the recovery of compensation, can delay or interfere with your receipt of the funds you and your child need and deserve.

Contacting a personal injury attorney should be the first thing you do when it comes to a lawsuit for your child’s injuries. Read on to learn what else you need to know and what you should do.

Does your injury lawsuit involve a minor?

File a Lawsuit on Behalf of Your Child (and Maybe for Yourself)

As noted, the responsibility in on the injured child’s parents to retain a lawyer and file a personal injury lawsuit on their behalf. Parents can seek to recover compensation on behalf of the child for such damages as the child’s pain and suffering, their loss of earning capacity as an adult, and any permanent disability.

Additionally, under Colorado law, parents can maintain what’s called a “derivative action” for certain types of damages they incur as a result of their child’s injury. Damages can include such items as past and future medical expenses and rehabilitation needs, as well as the loss of any services or wages their child would have earned before reaching age 18. Both the claim on behalf of the child and the parents’ derivative claims can be part of the same lawsuit.

Obtain Court Approval of Any Settlement

When parents file a personal injury lawsuit on their child’s behalf, they also must act at all times in the best interest of the child when making decisions, including whether to settle the case and for how much. A parent must make the best decision for the child because Colorado law considers the money recovered in the lawsuit to be the child’s property.

Accordingly, Colorado law requires judges to ensure that any settlement reached on the child’s behalf proves fair and that those put in charge of the funds properly handle them for the child’s benefit.

The process of obtaining a judge’s required approval for the settlement of an injury lawsuit involving a minor is called “Compromise Of A Minor’s Claim.”

The parents or guardians of the injured child must file a petition with the court to approve the settlement and provide notice of their petition to all interested parties. The judge will then hold a hearing to reach a decision as to whether the proposed settlement is in the best interests of the child under the circumstances. If the judge determines that the amount of the settlement, as well as its structure, meets that standard, they will approve it.

Form of Settlement

The proceeds from an approved settlement can take different forms, but the settlement won’t simply be a check written to the parents with no strings attached.

Since any recovered proceeds are technically the child’s, the law places limits on what parents can do with the money and how and when the funds can be accessed prior to the child turning 18. Sometimes, the court establishes a guardianship or a conservatorship for the proceeds, or the court may appoint a professional third party to manage the funds. The funds can be held in a restricted account, a trust, or an annuity.

Time to File a Claim When an Injury lawsuit Involves a Minor

Colorado law considers minors to be “persons under disability,” and therefore they cannot file lawsuits on their own behalf. But being a person under disability also means that the statute of limitations within which their parents or guardians must file a lawsuit does not begin to run until the child’s 18th birthday.

Except for car accident injury lawsuits, the statute of limitations for most personal injury lawsuits in Colorado, such as those arising from slip and fall accidents, medical malpractice, premises liability, and product liability, is two years. The limitations period for car accident lawsuits is three years. Instead of starting from the time of the accident as they would for injuries involving adults, this statute of limitations starts from the time the child turns 18.

Contact King & Beaty Today to Discuss Your Child’s Injury Claims

But parents do not need to nor should they wait until their child is 18 before pursuing a claim for compensation on behalf of their child. The sooner you reach out to a personal injury lawyer in a lawsuit that involves a minor, the sooner they can begin legal efforts, and the sooner you can obtain the money and resources you and your child need and deserve.

As experienced Colorado Springs personal injury attorneys, we understand the pain and suffering, struggles, and challenges that children and parents both share after a serious accident. We fight tirelessly to get our clients the maximum amount of compensation available for their injuries.

Please click to arrange for your free initial personal injury consultation.