Dear Augusta parents: please watch out for these Halloween hazards! Learn what to look for this season to protect your children.
Halloween is a fun time of the year for kids, but everything can turn terrible in an instant if you need to go to the hospital because your child gets injured due to someone else’s negligence.
Top Things to Look Out for on Halloween This Year
- Drivers Who Aren’t Paying Attention or Driving Too Fast
The biggest hazard you need to watch out for during Halloween has to do with drivers who are distracted or driving too fast. Every year many children are seriously injured because of careless drivers. Make sure you talk to your children about slowing down and looking both ways before they cross the road on Halloween.
- Long Hanging Wires
Some lawn Halloween displays require the use of wires to hold them in place. This is a big hazard for children. Unfortunately, these wires often cause children to chip their teeth or cut their face. Please make sure you look out for any dangerous wire hazards so your children don’t get injured.
- Tripping Hazards
Another major Halloween danger for children is tripping hazards. Many Halloween nights end with a horrifying drive to the emergency room because property owners forgot to put away items that could cause tripping hazards on their property. Keep an eye out so this doesn’t happen to you and your kids.
- Properties with Poor Lighting
Halloween trick or treating happens at night and some property owners fail to light their property sufficiently. This causes kids to fall and get injured. This is a big problem every year. Please take a second to look for any hazards these property owners cause because of low lighting.
If your child gets injured on Halloween, you need to protect your child injury claim rights.
First Steps to Take If Your Child Gets Injured on Halloween
#1 Take photos of what caused the injury
#2 Get witness information
#3 Seek medical attention
#4 Seek attorney help right away
Halloween Injury Questions and Answers
What are the most common mistakes that could hurt your child’s personal injury claim?
You may be wondering if there are any mistakes people make when they have a child injury claim.
There are some mistakes you want to avoid. Here are some of the biggest ones.
- Not gathering witness information and photos
- Not seeking medical attention right away
- Waiting too long to get a lawyer
Sometimes when parents learn about the statute of limitations for their child’s personal injury claim, they think they have a lot of time.
Delaying in seeking legal advice is a huge mistake. When you don’t contact a lawyer right away, critical evidence and witnesses for your child’s case will begin to disappear. Make sure you contact a lawyer to work on your child’s case right away. There are no out-of-pocket expenses for you to get this done.
- Giving a statement to the insurance company without a lawyer’s help
After an injury, you will probably start getting calls from the homeowner’s insurance company. You may think that answering the insurance company’s questions or giving a recorded statement is a good idea. This is actually a huge mistake.
The main reason the homeowner’s insurance company is contacting you is because they are trying to get you to say something that will hurt your child’s case. These insurance companies want to pay the smallest possible amount or nothing at all.
These homeowner insurance company claims adjusters are highly trained to ask you questions in a specific way so they can gather information from you that will help them later limit the amount of money they pay you. Don’t take a call from an insurance company without a lawyer present. Better yet, let an attorney talk to the insurance company on your behalf.
- Picking the wrong lawyer
When selecting a lawyer for your child, you need to understand that not all lawyers are created equal, and picking the wrong lawyer is the biggest mistake to avoid.
Some lawyers practice in many different areas of law. They may do a will on Monday, a divorce on Tuesday, a DWI on Friday. Then, every once in a while, these general practicing attorneys try to manage a personal injury case. You don’t want a general practicing lawyer like this for your child because they won’t have the necessary level of experience and past success to ensure your child gets the very best result possible.
You need to find an attorney that focuses 100% of their legal practice on personal injury cases. This type of attorney is going to have more experience and success than a general practicing attorney.
You also want to make sure the attorney you are selecting is a trial lawyer. The reason for this is the insurance companies know who the trial lawyers are, and they tend to come to the table quicker with more reasonable offers when dealing with a trial lawyer.
If the insurance company isn’t acting fair and reasonably, a trial lawyer will take your child’s case all the way to a jury verdict and ask a jury to tell the insurance company what they think is fair and reasonable. The insurance company doesn’t want that to happen.
You will always get the very best result possible for your injury claim if you hire a personal injury trial lawyer from day one, and the best part is it doesn’t cost a dime more to get the highest quality trial lawyer.
How should I choose a personal injury attorney for my child’s claim?
The biggest decision for you to make when you have a personal injury claim is which attorney is going to handle your legal case for you.
There are a few things you should look for.
#1 Find an attorney that has a core focus of personal injury.
#2 Make sure the attorney has a lot of experience with your child’s injury.
#3 Make sure the attorney has a lot of past success with similar cases.
#4 Make sure your get a trial lawyer. Trial lawyers get better results because the insurance companies know who the trial lawyers are, and they tend to come to the table quicker with reasonable offers. And if they don’t, a trial lawyer will take your case all the way to a jury verdict so the jury can tell the insurance company what is fair and reasonable.
#5 Lastly, find an attorney that you like and you trust will fight hard to get the very best result possible for your child’s case.
How much does it cost to hire a personal injury lawyer?
A lot of people think lawyers cost a lot of money. You may be worried about the same thing. This may cause you to put off contacting an attorney for your personal injury case.
If that’s the case, please don’t let this happen. We offer free legal consultations. During our free consultation, we will answer all your questions, and we will give you a rock-solid plan for your injury case.
If you choose our law firm, we will also cover all the expenses needed to gather and prepare your child’s case. You will never have any out-of-pocket expenses. We only get paid when we win. If we don’t win, you don’t owe us a dime.
How long does it take to settle a child’s personal injury claim?
This is a really good question, but it is an impossible question to answer accurately early on. We will need your child to treat their injuries until they are healed or they get to maximum medical improvement. Once that happens, we will know what your child’s case is actually worth. Then, we will issue a demand to the insurance company. If the insurance company is fair and reasonable, we will be able to resolve your child’s claim quickly. The problem is insurance companies are often not fair and reasonable. When this happens, these insurance companies force us to take your child’s case to trial. If the insurance company isn’t fair and reasonable, it will take us longer. We will be able to give you a better time estimate as we move forward with your child’s claim.
How much is my child’s injury claim worth?
This is a great question, but it is impossible to answer accurately early on. The value of your child’s claim depends largely on the extent of your child’s injuries, their required medical treatment, and how the quality of your child’s life has been negatively impacted. We will be able to give you an accurate estimate of the value of their case once we better understand these things.