Parents should advocate for any child or teenager that was the occupant of a car that has been involved in an automobile accident.

A child might not do an adequate job of sharing information about his/her injury.

A child’s limited vocabulary might make it difficult for that young victim to describe the exact nature of any pain. That could allow for entrance of an unwanted issue—the inability to distinguish new pains from any old ones. For instance, a teen or child with an earache might be sitting in an auto when it was rear-ended. As a result, that young occupant might have experienced great pain. A doctor could use the victim’s help, during an effort to distinguish any new pains from the old ones.

Changes in the child’s learning skills could arise at a time when the same young student was experiencing the challenges associated with a new institution. The child’s family might have moved, so that the family’s children had to attend a new school, or the injured child/teen might have begun classes at a Middle or High School.

—That could make it harder for parents to detect problems with learning materials in the classroom.
—It might also cloud the serious nature of a child or teen’s failure to understand and follow presented directions.
—Parents of injured teenagers should not shrug off changes in their behavior, and assume that it reflects the erratic behavior of all teenagers.

One issue that is really a benefit

A court will usually allow extension of the timeline for filing a personal injury lawsuit, if the injured person happens to be less than 18 years of age. Parents that have retained a lawyer should be able to take advantage of the court’s willingness to grant such an extension. That aspect of the law could prove especially beneficial, if the injured young person has sustained a condition with slow-to-emerge symptoms.

A warning for parents

If parents do not undertake the proper actions, the issue that could become a benefit might escape the parent’s notice. A parent might believe that a young person has failed to show any symptoms, and should not be in need of a visit to a doctor’s office, or to a hospital or clinic, as per personal injury lawyer in Ottawa.

If that were to be the case, then there would be no proof of a link between the accident and any possible, slow-to-emerge symptoms. In fact, the child/teen might even develop a symptom that the pediatrician or family doctor could not explain. Thus, there would be no medical record on which to build a sound personal injury case, once the younger person had finally reached the magic age of 18.