Daycare Injury Claims

Warning SignsWhen a Daycare Injury Suggests Negligence

Children get bumped, bruised, and scraped at childcare — that's a normal part of childhood. But some injuries point to something that shouldn't have happened, and the difference usually comes down to whether the facility met its duty of care. The patterns that most often signal a legitimate claim include:

• Unexplained injuries — bruises, bites, or marks with no witnessed explanation and no corresponding incident report.
• Delayed or absent notification — parents learn about a significant injury hours later, or not at all until pickup.
• An incomplete or vague incident report that doesn't describe how the injury actually occurred. Washington requires licensed childcare facilities to file incident reports for injuries requiring medical attention — a report that leaves the cause blank is a problem in itself.
• Staff-to-child ratio violations, where too few staff were supervising too many children when the incident occurred.
• Staff-caused injury from rough handling or physical discipline.
• Unsafe conditions — broken playground equipment, exposed hazards, inadequate fencing.

Be HonestWhen an Injury Is Not a Legal Claim

Most daycare injuries aren't negligence — and we'll tell you so, plainly, at no charge. A child who trips on the playground, bumps into another child, or falls from a low piece of equipment during normal supervised play has experienced an ordinary childhood accident. A daycare that follows proper supervision protocols and responds appropriately with first aid and notification has done its job, even when an injury occurs.

The dividing line is this: was there a failure — in supervision, in staffing ratios, in the condition of the facility, or in the response to the injury — that a reasonable childcare provider would not have made? If the answer is no, a legal claim is unlikely to be viable. A free consultation helps you make that determination without guesswork, and without any cost or obligation.

Act QuicklyPreserving Evidence Before the Trail Goes Cold

Evidence in daycare cases is fragile. Incident reports get filed and forgotten, surveillance footage is overwritten, and staff memories fade. Here's what to do right away:

1. Get medical care immediately. Many injured children in the Puyallup area are treated at MultiCare Good Samaritan — go there rather than waiting. The medical record is often the most important document in a daycare injury claim.
2. Request the daycare's written incident report in writing, the same day if possible. Ask specifically for the report and any video related to the incident.
3. Photograph visible injuries with a timestamp, and photograph them again over the following days as bruising develops.
4. Save every communication — texts, emails, and voicemails from daycare staff about the incident.
5. Don't sign anything from the daycare's insurer without speaking with an attorney first.

The ProcessHow a Daycare Injury Claim Moves Forward

Once you contact us, a typical claim moves through these stages:

• Free consultation to review the facts and give you an honest assessment of whether negligence is present.
• Records request — the incident report, medical records, the facility's DCYF licensing history, and any prior complaints.
• Investigation — witness statements from staff and other parents, review of staffing records, and inspection of the site if appropriate.
• Demand letter to the daycare's insurer, documenting the negligence and your child's injuries and needs.
• Negotiation, and litigation if the insurer won't resolve it fairly.

Because your child's ongoing medical needs are central to valuing the claim — especially in head injury cases — we generally don't push toward a final resolution until the medical picture is stable. Settling too early can leave a family without the resources needed for follow-on treatment.

Serious InjuriesWhen a Head or Brain Injury Is Involved

Falls and rough handling at daycare can cause traumatic brain injuries — and TBI is the injury category where the difference between adequate representation and generic intake matters most. Symptoms in young children can be subtle and delayed, emerging days after the incident as headaches, changes in behavior, or developmental shifts. A claim that undervalues a TBI because it was settled before the full picture became clear can leave a family permanently short of what they'll need.

Greene & Lloyd's focus on traumatic brain injury litigation means we approach daycare head injury cases with the seriousness they demand. You work directly with Rob Lloyd and Tim Greene — not a case manager — from the first consultation through resolution, on a no-fee-unless-we-win basis.

This page provides general information about Washington law and is not legal advice. Whether a viable claim exists depends on the specific facts of your situation; contact us for a free, confidential case review. Note: claims on behalf of minors may be subject to tolling rules that affect the filing deadline — confirm with an attorney rather than relying on the general three-year deadline.