It’s any parent’s worst nightmare: a child walks away for one brief moment and gets injured on another person’s property. Now, your child is in pain. You’re upset, and you need to focus on your little one’s physical and mental health before any sort of legal case. However, you know that your financial circumstances must improve to ensure that your child receives the best medical care possible. That’s why, when it comes to the New Mexico attractive nuisance doctrine and child injuries, you’ll want a knowledgeable legal team on your side.
At Lerner and Rowe Injury Attorneys, our New Mexico injury lawyers can help investigate, build, and defend your child’s injury case while you work on what’s most important–helping your child heal and feel better. With that in mind, the following information was put together so that you can learn more about your legal options.
What Is Attractive Nuisance?
What is considered an attractive nuisance? An attractive nuisance is anything on someone’s property that may lure a young child’s interest thus putting them at risk of injury.
If the property owner does not exercise ordinary care, meaning that they fail to take steps to ensure that children cannot access their property, the owner may be held liable for any injuries.
New Mexico Attractive Nuisance Examples
Examples of a New Mexico attractive nuisance include:
- A swimming pool left unattended with no gate or an unlocked gate. The child may jump or slip into the pool, hitting their head or drowning.
- Appliances, like a refrigerator, left on the curb for dumpster pickup can lead to a child climbing into the fridge, getting stuck, and suffocating.
- Construction materials and machines. Often, construction areas are full of dangerous objects that look very enticing to small children (who probably love learning about construction). These areas must be sealed off from any wandering child.
- Playgrounds, again left attended or without a gate or fence. Children can easily climb onto playgrounds and fall, sustaining broken bones, traumatic brain injuries, and more.
- Trampolines in someone’s backyard with no fence or locked gate. A child could enter uninvited, climb onto the trampoline and fall, hitting their head or injuring themselves in other ways.
Of course, these are just a few examples of some attractive nuisances in New Mexico. When a child is injured in this way, it’s not only heart-breaking, but often infuriating for the parents.
New Mexico Attractive Nuisance Doctrine: A Complicated Legal Area
The attractive nuisance doctrine–and premises liability in general–is a complicated legal area best handled by experienced attorneys. Why? We know the right places to look and the best courses of action to maximize the financial compensation that may be awarded to your family.
Here are a few ways that a New Mexico attractive nuisance attorney may be able to strengthen your case:
- After conducting their own investigation, our attorneys may find that the property owner did exercise ordinary care when it came to protecting an area from danger for children. So, there is no attractive nuisance case. However, our attorneys may find that the owner did not maintain the area adequately, and therefore are still liable for the accident. Negligent maintenance like this is one of the most common premises liability issues.
- Your attorney may discover that there is more than one party at fault. This means that you may be able to sue multiple parties, therefore maximizing the amount of compensation. For instance, say your child was injured on a playground set that was not gated from the sidewalk. The property owners or managers may be liable when it comes to the attractive nuisance doctrine, but the manufacturer of the handlebar that broke when your child fell may also be liable for their injury.
As you can see, the nuances of premises liability are diverse. So, don’t try to tackle this type of injury claim on your own. Instead, call the experienced legal professionals at Lerner and Rowe injury Attorneys.
Contact Premises Liability Attorneys in New Mexico 24/7
The premises liability and attractive nuisance attorneys at Lerner and Rowe ask for no upfront monies. Rather, we take all the risk because we believe in your case. We’re also committed to helping your family carry the emotional burden of an injury so that you can prioritize recovery.
Call us today at 575-544-4444, fill out this FREE online form, or use our convenient LiveChat feature to set up your free case evaluation and consultation. There are no fees until you win. So, you have nothing to lose, with financial compensation and peace of mind to gain.
The information on this blog is for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as legal advice for an individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship nor does viewing this material constitute an attorney-client relationship.