Watching your child get hurt because of someone else’s carelessness can leave you feeling helpless, especially in the first few hours when you’re not sure what happens next. Whether it happened on a playground, in someone’s home, or on the road, your first instinct is to take care of your child, not to think about legal deadlines, insurance forms, or who’s responsible for what. But once the immediate crisis passes, parents are left with the same question: what now?
The answer depends on who caused the injury, how old they are, and where it happened. In some situations, you may be able to pursue compensation through the other party’s insurance. In others, the path is less obvious, and a Connecticut personal injury lawyer can help you sort out which options actually apply to your child’s situation. Below, we’ll walk through some of the most common questions parents in this position ask.
Who Can Bring a Claim on Your Child’s Behalf?
Because minors can’t legally represent themselves in court or sign off on a settlement, Connecticut has long required that a minor’s lawsuit be brought “by the minor by next friend,” typically a parent or guardian acting on the child’s behalf. This person makes decisions, communicates with the insurance company or opposing party, and ultimately decides whether to accept a settlement or move forward with a lawsuit.
In most cases, this is simply whichever parent has custody or is otherwise responsible for the child. If both parents are involved in the child’s life, they may act together. In situations where neither parent is available or appropriate to serve in this role, such as when the injury involved a parent’s own conduct, Connecticut courts have the discretion to appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the child’s interests in the case instead.
This step comes early in the process, since insurance companies and courts generally won’t engage directly with a minor. Establishing who’s authorized to act on your child’s behalf is usually one of the first things to sort out before a claim can move forward.
Does the Type of Accident Change the Process?
Not every child injury claim follows the same path. Some cases resolve through a simple insurance claim, others require determining whether a family’s homeowners policy applies, and others involve legal protections that come into play only when a certain relationship, like parent and child, is part of the picture. Knowing where your situation fits can help you understand what to expect early on, rather than being caught off guard by a rule that applies only to certain kinds of cases.
Another Child Caused the Injury
When one child injures another, Connecticut generally doesn’t hold the other child’s parents financially responsible unless the child’s conduct rises to the level of willful or malicious behavior, not ordinary carelessness or an accident. Even then, that liability is capped, and it typically goes through the family’s homeowners insurance rather than out of pocket. Cases involving a child’s ordinary negligence follow a different and more limited path toward recovery.
An Adult Caused the Injury
When an adult is responsible, the claim tends to function much like a standard personal injury case. The main procedural difference is that a parent or guardian handles the claim on the child’s behalf, since a minor can’t sign a settlement or pursue a lawsuit independently. Depending on how the injury happened, whether in a car accident, at a store, or somewhere else, the type of insurance involved and the legal theory behind the claim may shift, but the overall process looks familiar.
Injuries on Someone Else’s Property
If your child was hurt at a friend’s house, a public space, or a business, premises liability principles come into play. Property owners have a responsibility to keep their premises reasonably safe, and a claim often depends on showing that a hazard existed and that the owner knew, or should have known, about it. Homeowners insurance frequently plays a role here too, sometimes offering a faster path to compensation for medical costs regardless of who was ultimately at fault.
Can You Sue the Other Parent?
If your child’s other parent caused the injury, Connecticut generally protects that parent from being sued directly for an everyday parenting mistake. This doctrine, known as parental immunity, exists to keep ordinary parenting decisions out of the courtroom. It isn’t absolute, though; certain situations, such as a car accident caused by a parent’s negligent driving, fall outside that protection.
This same doctrine can also work in your child’s favor. If another party is being sued over your child’s injury and tries to shift some of the blame onto you as the supervising parent, parental immunity generally prevents that kind of allegation from being raised against you in the same case.
Because these rules have real exceptions and limits, it’s worth talking through your specific situation with someone who can tell you where your case actually falls.
What Happens to a Settlement or Court Award?
Once a case involving a minor is ready to resolve, either through a settlement or a court judgment, there’s an added layer of oversight that doesn’t apply to adult claims. Connecticut law is designed to ensure any money recovered on a child’s behalf is protected for that child’s future, not just handed over and spent.
If the settlement or award reaches $10,000 or more, a parent generally can’t simply accept a check and deposit it. Instead, the probate court gets involved, reviews the settlement to confirm it’s fair and in the child’s best interest, and then finalizes it. Once approved, those funds are typically placed into a restricted account that the child cannot access until turning 18.
This process can feel like an extra step when you just want the case behind you, but it exists to protect your child, not make things harder. Amounts below that threshold generally don’t require this same court involvement, though it’s still worth confirming how a specific settlement should be handled.
Does My Child’s Age Affect the Filing Deadline?
Many parents assume that because the injured person is a minor, there’s more flexibility with legal deadlines. In Connecticut, that assumption can be costly. Unlike many other states, Connecticut does not pause the statute of limitations because the injured person is a child in most negligence and malpractice cases. The deadline that would apply to an adult’s claim generally applies to your child’s claim as well, running from the date of the injury regardless of age.
This comes as a surprise to a lot of families, and understandably so. Many states allow the clock to pause until a child turns 18, but Connecticut courts have specifically held that the state’s negligence statute provides no such exception for minors. That said, the exact deadline can vary depending on how your child was injured. Claims involving a defective product, a dog bite, or a wrongful death, for example, may fall under different statutes with different timeframes. Waiting to see how an injury develops, or assuming there will be time to sort out legal options once things settle down, can end up costing your child the ability to pursue compensation.
Speaking with a personal injury attorney soon after the accident gives your family the best chance to preserve evidence and understand exactly which deadline applies to your child’s case before time runs out.
Are There Different Deadlines for Claims Involving a School or Municipality?
Yes. If your child was hurt on public property, such as at a public school, a municipal building, or because of a dangerous condition on a town-owned road or sidewalk, additional notice requirements often apply on top of the standard filing deadline. These notice periods can be short, depending on what caused the injury and which public entity was involved.
Missing notice deadlines can prevent a claim from moving forward at all, even if your child’s injury and the school or municipality’s responsibility for it are clear. If your child was hurt at school or on public property, it’s worth having a legal team confirm which notice requirement applies as soon as possible, rather than waiting to see how the injury resolves.
Let Us Help You Understand Your Child’s Options
No two situations are exactly alike, and the right path for your child’s case depends on details only you know. That’s exactly why it helps to talk things through with someone who handles these cases regularly.
Trantolo & Trantolo has spent more than 85 years fighting for injury victims throughout Connecticut, and we understand how personal these cases feel when the injured party is your own child. If someone else’s negligence hurt your child, our team can walk you through what happened, explain the options available under Connecticut law, and help you decide on next steps, all at no cost to you during a free consultation.
Contact Trantolo & Trantolo today to talk with our team about your child’s case.
