Child Injuries
A child’s body responds to trauma differently than an adult’s. Growth plates can be damaged in ways that do not show up on an X-ray for years, and an injury that looks minor at first can affect how a bone or joint develops long after the initial treatment ends. Because children cannot always describe what hurts or when something feels wrong, injuries can also go unnoticed longer than they would in an adult. Even when there is confusion about your child’s actual losses, it is important to call our Idaho Falls child injury lawyers to examine your situation.
At Parke Gordon Law, we represent families across eastern Idaho whose children were hurt because of someone else’s carelessness or negligence. Our skilled personal injury attorneys have handled cases where a child’s injury shaped years of their development, and we build claims with that full timeline in mind, rather than settling based on how the situation looks right after the accident.
Common Child Injury Scenarios Attributable to Negligence
Children face many of the same risks adults do, but lawsuits regarding their injuries often involve unique aspects. Cases we regularly see involving injured children include:
- Car accidents where a child was riding as a passenger, often in a car seat or booster that failed to prevent injury
- Dog bites, which disproportionately affect young children due to their height and unfamiliarity with animal warning signs
- Bicycle accidents or pedestrian accidents involving a collision with a vehicle
- Slip and fall accidents on someone else’s property, including apartment complexes, stores, and rental homes
- Injuries connected to inadequate supervision at a school or daycare facility
A child’s recovery timeline can also complicate a claim in ways adult cases do not typically involve. Doctors may need to monitor a growth plate injury for years before anyone can say with confidence whether it healed correctly. That monitoring period often needs to factor into how a child injury claim in Idaho Falls gets valued and when it gets resolved. Rushing into an uninformed settlement can leave a family without enough to cover future necessary treatments.
How Long Do Parents Have to File a Child Injury Claim in Idaho?
Idaho law recognizes that children cannot be expected to protect their own legal rights, so the standard two-year filing deadline works differently for a minor. Under Idaho Code § 5-230, the clock on the statute of limitations is paused while a child is under eighteen, but that pause cannot last more than six years. In practical terms, this means a claim must generally be filed within eight years of the injury, or within two years after the child turns eighteen, whichever deadline arrives first.
This distinction can be especially important in light of the child’s age when they were injured. A teenager injured at sixteen has a fairly short tolling period before turning eighteen. A toddler injured at age two, however, would hit the six-year cap well before reaching eighteen. Waiting too long, even with a young child’s case, can result in losing the ability to recover anything at all. Our attorneys can offer advice on your best option to secure necessary compensation.
