North Carolina Guide to Laws for Personal Injury & Children

Common types of injuries to children

Many injuries to children are preventable. Taking a few basic safety precautions can go a long way toward keeping your kids safe.

1. Falls from heights or tip-over accidents

Typically, fall injuries involve playground equipment like jungle gyms but sometimes they are the result of climbing on furniture. This is the leading cause of childhood injuries that require medical treatment. 

If you have children living in or visiting your home, it’s important to anchor furniture like dressers, bookshelves, or TVs to the walls. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recommends this in order to prevent tip-over accidents. 

If you have a child in your home, consider the following:

• Is any furniture taller than 30 inches high? 
• Is the furniture stable (i.e. does it wobble or move when touched)?
• Does the furniture have drawers or protrusions that a child might use as climbing steps? 
• Is the furniture in an area that’s accessible to the child?

Even furniture that doesn’t meet these criteria could be dangerous, so it’s important to carefully evaluate risks in your home.

2. Burns

A burn can be from touching a hot object like the stove to a severe sunburn. Fireworks, sparklers and firecrackers are also responsible for injuries to children.

3. Cuts and lacerations

Cuts happen. But children lack common sense and impulse control, which means that they do things like the proverbial “running with scissors.” Or, they might use knives or other tools unsafely. It’s important to teach children about sharp edges and supervise them closely during activities that involve tools or equipment that could cut them.

4. Poisoning

Cleaning products or other chemicals, medicines, berries that aren’t meant to be eaten… kids are curious creatures and there are lots of ways they can become ill from ingesting something they shouldn’t.

If your child has ingested something and you’re not sure if it’s safe,
call the Poison Control hotline for 24/7 advice: 800-222-1222.

5. Choking

Most parents and caregivers are aware of not leaving small items within reach of a baby or toddler; that’s why toys are often marked for “children age 3+” because that’s the age when most children stop putting things in their mouths... but you know your child best and you have to always be on alert to make sure they don’t have access to something too small that could be a choking hazard.

The general rule of thumb is that if the toy or item could fit through the toilet paper roll, then it’s too small for a baby who might put it in their mouth.

Sometimes, though, it’s not about finding coins on the ground or playing with a sibling’s too-small Legos… it might be eating a food that isn’t encouraged for very young children. Foods that can present choking hazards include (but are not limited to) grapes, hot dogs, popcorn, raw vegetables like carrots or celery, peanut butter, marshmallows, nuts, or chunks of meat.

6. Suffocation

The American Academy of Pediatrics provides guidelines for safe sleep to protect babies from suffocation. If you have an older child, it’s important to be aware of cords or blinds in their sleeping areas that could cause them to become entangled.

7. Bites and stings

The CDC reports that bites and stings are the third most common reason why children ages 0-9 visit emergency departments. This could be because of tick bites, bee stings, or other types of animal interactions including snakes, bats, dogs, or others.

8. Drowning or swimming accidents

A child can drown in as little as a few inches of water. If the child’s nose and mouth can become submerged under the water, they need to be supervised at all times. This includes being left alone in your own bathtub—if your young child is in the water, a responsible adult needs to be watching. 

Swimming pools or other bodies of water are also a risk. Children should not have access to pools, ponds, etc. without close supervision.

9. Car accidents

Car accidents are the second leading cause of death for children from ages 2 to 14 years old. Aside from understanding how to properly use child safety seats and seat belts, driving safely and defensive driving can help to keep your family safe.

10. Gun violence and accidental gun-related deaths

For the first time in 2020, guns replaced car accidents as the leading cause of death for children ages 1-18. In 2021, firearms accounted for nearly 19% of childhood deaths, according to the CDC. During that year, nearly 3,600 children died in gun-related incidents, or five children for every 100,000 in the nation.

North Carolina laws for protection of minors

North Carolina law says a minor (i.e. someone under 18) is “incompetent” for the purpose of a contract. The effect of this is that if a lawsuit is filed, the child may not agree to a settlement for a personal injury claim because a settlement is a binding contract. Therefore, the court would appoint a guardian ad litem, which is someone who meets the court’s criteria to confirm that any settlement or lawsuit-related decisions are in the child’s best interests. 

In order for any settlement for a minor to be binding, it must be approved by court order. If the claim is worth less than $5,000, sometimes the insurance carrier will waive court approval and allow the parent or guardian to accept the settlement.

Statute of limitations for a North Carolina lawsuit for a minor

The statute of limitations is the amount of time a person has to file a lawsuit. If they miss the deadline, the court will likely refuse to consider their claim. Typically, a person has three years from the date of the injury in which to file a lawsuit. 

However, when the injured person is a child, the “clock” begins to run on the child’s 18th birthday. Therefore, a child who suffers an injury may file a lawsuit until the day they turn 21. The parent’s claim for medical expenses would be limited by the traditional three-year deadline, but any claim by the child would toll until their 21st birthday. 

If the parents choose to file a lawsuit on the child’s behalf before the child is 18, the court would approve any damage award. Typically, the money is not disbursed until the child turns 18 but the judge could allow the parents access to specific funds if necessary. When the child turns 18, they can have their funds held in an account managed by the court or they could withdraw the money as a lump sum.