When I tell people I work in personal injury law, I sometimes get a side-eye as though I’m some opportunistic leech tracking down injured people and billing people for their injury. This is certainly how my career started out, but as time went on and I felt less and less contributive to society, I pivoted. It turns out that children – including those being represented by the state – can sustain injuries at the fault of others and they deserve representation and advocacy as much as anyone else.

Some interesting information to consider:

• In many states, children cannot file their own personal injury lawsuits meaning it usually becomes the responsibility of the parent. If the child, however, is parentless or in the custody of a non-parent legal guardian, it becomes a little more challenging. This is not to say that there aren’t great legal guardians out there protecting the interest of the children in their care. But for every one of these lucky kids, there are many who have a legal guardian who is trying as hard as they can but cannot possibly take on a legal case.
• The laws regarding trespassing and property responsibility is different with children – and differs by state – insomuch that if a child is injured on property that they did not have permission to be on, they are probably considered trespassing. This means the owner of that property is likely not considered responsible for the injury.
• However, child negligence (including those negligent to the notion of trespassing) is determined by the age of the child and how this represents their ability to reasonably behave. This is a state-by-state designation.
• Because children are still being molded and influenced, there many factors to consider in a child’s injury case including disfigurement, pain/suffering and mental stress/trauma. These are all important considerations when requesting injury compensation.
• In most states, the court will appoint a guardian to represent the child’s best interest depending on the amount of compensation. This is where I come in. While children’s have the same rights as adults to receive injury compensation when the injury is caused by the action/lack of action of others, the age of the child, circumstances of the injury, and legal standing of the child may complicate things.  I have experience with children’s cases and injury law to fight for each child “in the system” to get full compensation owed to him.