The Law Office of Brett J. Nomberg, PLLC are top rated New York School accident lawyers who have been successfully helping injured students for over 30 years. We treat clients like family. Right from the start you will feel at ease working with caring and compassionate School accident attorneys who are on your side. Check out our five star google reviews by actual former clients.

Our 5 star google rating is a testament to our hard work and commitment to client satisfaction. You can always easily reach your attorney to ask questions about the case at any time. Our compassion and aggressiveness in court is why we continue to obtain maximum awards for our clients.

If your child was injured as a result of being assaulted, bullied, or injured at a School in New York, call us for a free consultation to speak with a top rated New York School Accident lawyer.

“I knew from the first time I met Brett we were in great hands….I have never met a lawyer who puts his clients first like him…so respectful, responsible, and dedicated to their clients who they treat more like family.”
– Preeta L., Former Client

There are generally five (5) ways in New York that a school may be legally responsible for the injuries suffered by a student in their care and custody. If your child was caused to suffer injuries for any of these reasons, you should immediately contact us to help protect the rights of your family.

1) FAILURE TO MAINTAIN PROPERTY AGAINST DANGEROUS CONDITIONS

Like any property owner, a school has a duty to maintain its property in a reasonably safe condition. If a child is injured because of some dangerous condition, whether inside the classroom, the hallway, or the playground, the school may be legally responsible for any subsequent injuries.

It must be proven that the school either created the dangerous condition, knew about the dangerous condition early enough to have fixed it, or should have known about the unsafe condition had they conducted reasonable inspections. Snow and ice can also be dangerous conditions. A failure to clear snow and ice on the school grounds can subject a school to legal responsibility if a child slips and falls sustaining physical injuries.

2) NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION OF STUDENTS

A school also has a separate duty to properly supervise the students under its care. One example could be if students were permitted to run around in the hallways without any teachers or administrators stopping this conduct, it could be reasonably foreseeable that a child may sustain an injury under these circumstances.

A school may be responsible for lack of proper supervision by its staff if one student assaulted another or was repeatedly subjected to bullying by another student. To be legally responsible, the school will need to have some reason to have known about the propensity of this student to cause harm to another student, with opportunity to have prevented this occurrence.

The standard of care for negligent supervision is that of a reasonably prudent parent. In other words, if the average reasonable parent under the same circumstances would have known that the supervision was inadequate, the staff at the school should have known this as well.

3) NEGLIGENT DRIVING

A school as the owner of the school buses and employer of bus drivers, will legally responsible if one of their bus drivers is involved in a motor vehicle accident. If a bus driver fails to obey the traffic laws, or fails to drive with reasonable care resulting in an accident and injuries to a student, the school may be held legally responsible. A school also has a duty to make sure that students when they are being dropped off the bus are not placed in an unsafe circumstance.

4) NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION OF STAFF

If the school had reason to believe one of their teachers was causing harm to another student and failed to stop that action, a school may also be responsible for negligent supervision of their own staff. This can involve for example a gym teacher who the School knew or should have known had a history of inappropriately touching students. The School is responsible for not only making sure their students are properly supervised, but that their staff are properly supervised.

5) NEGLIGENT HIRING OF STAFF

If the school negligently hired a teacher, knowing they were not qualified to properly supervise the students, a student injured from that teacher’s misconduct or negligence may result in responsibility against the school. Normally, if a teacher struck a student, that will not be considered conduct within the scope of the teacher’s job duties, and the School may not be legally responsible for that assault. However, if the School knew or should have known when they first hired this teacher that there was a history of physical violence, then this may demonstrate negligent hiring and foreseeable conduct to support a claim against the school.

Further, since a school is considered a municipality, they must be given timely written notice about the incident in a special document called a Notice of Claim. That document has special requirements for the content, how it is served, who must be served, and when it must be served.

Generally, a Notice of Claim must be served upon the School District within 90 days of the incident, so legal advice and representation should be obtained immediately after an accident or incident at a school occurs. This Notice of Claim is a mandatory document that must be served before a lawsuit may even be commenced.