Miami Resort Injury Lawyer Blog

We often leave our little bundles of joy at day cares and pre-schools.

What duty do those day cares and schools have to look after our children?

Florida Law provides that teachers and schools have an obligation to supervise the activity of children when the child is entrusted to their care. Benton v. The School Board of Broward County, 386 So. 2d 831 (Fla. 4th DCA 1980); Barrera v. Dade County School Board, 366 So. 2d 531 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979); Rupp v. Dade County School Board, 417 So. 2d 658, 666 (Fla. 1982); Concepcion v. Archdiocese of Miami, 693 So. 2d 1103 (Fla. 3d DCA 1997).

A private day-care center owes its children in attendance a high degree of care, and the relationship between a child and his or her day-care center includes both an implied agreement and a duty to render reasonable care to a child in its custody who becomes imperiled. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 314.

Put simply, day-care centers have a duty to render aid to children in their custody.

A day care, for instance, is operated for profit and they typically holds themselves out as a professional provider of day-care services. This service is the primary and basic service for which that day care charges parents and it is also undeniably its main function.

In fact, Florida Law also provides that all persons or entities chargeable with a duty of care to children are chargeable with a higher degree of care for the safety of the children than of adults. Bagdad Land & Lumber Co., 140 So. 798 (Fla. 1932) (Children are expected to act upon childish instincts and impulses. Accordingly, it must be presumed that children have less ability to take care of themselves than adults have. Therefore, in cases where a child's safety is involved, more care is demanded than towards adults.); Burdine's Inc. v. McConnel, 1 So. 2d 462 (Fla. 1941) (Those who invite children who have not arrived at the age of discretion, to go upon their premises are required to exercise a relatively higher degree of care for their safety than for the safety of adult invitees).

Therefore, day cares in particular are required to exercise the highest degree of care toward children.

Continue reading "Duty of Care Toward Children in Day Cares" »

Texting and driving has become all too familiar in South Florida, and around the country. Indeed, the National Transportation Safety Board recently voted to recommend a ban on the use of all mobile devices by drivers while driving. It did so because of the risk of too many distracted drivers on the road. The proposed ban applies to hands free devices, and is a recommendation that goes further than any state or federal law issued to date.

The dangers of a distracted driver doing too much texting while driving was highlighted in a recent jury trial in Miami-Dade County. In that case, a jury awarded $8.8 million dollars to the family of a mother killed in a collision with a teenage driver back in 2008. The teenage driver is believed to have been texting while speeding.

The deceased mother was a passenger in a car driven by her husband, traveling eastbound on Bird Road. The teenage driver, age 17 at the time of the car accident, was speeding and weaving in and out of traffic in his father's car. He was traveling at rates of speed as high as 69 MPH in a 40 MPH zone.

There was also marijuana and cocaine in the vehicle being driven by the teenager, and a partially consumed bottle of Delsym cough syrup.

The teenage slammed into the Mother's vehicle. She died on the scene. Her husband, who was driving, suffered internal injuries - including substantial abdominal bleeding, and a large cut from his chest to his stomach from the impact. The couple had two young children, who were not in the car at the time. But they lost their mother in the car accident.

This case coupled with the National Transportation Safety Board's proposed recent ban on texting and driving highlight the dangers of being distracted while driving.

Continue reading "Jury Awards $8.8 Million to the Family of a Mother killed in a Car Accident Caused by a Distracted Teenage Driver - The Time has Come to Ban Texting and Driving" »