Minnesota Child Injury Lawyer
When your child gets hurt, everything else stops. The medical questions come first. Then come the harder ones: who let this happen, and what do you do now?
If your child was injured because someone was careless, a Minnesota child injury lawyer can help you get answers and hold the right people accountable. We’ve represented injured children and their families across Minnesota since 1981, recovering more than $250 million for our clients.
Your consultation is free, and you pay nothing unless we win. Call (651) 454-3600 to talk with an attorney today.
Why you need a Child Injury Attorney
A child’s injury claim isn’t a smaller version of an adult’s. It follows different rules, runs on different deadlines, and ends with a judge reviewing the settlement before your child receives anything. Handling it well takes a child injury attorney who knows where those differences hide.
The insurance company knows you’re exhausted. Adjusters often call early, sound sympathetic, and offer a quick settlement so the file closes before you learn what your child’s claim is worth. Once you accept, the case can’t be reopened, even if your child needs more treatment years from now.
Minnesota law also sets a trap that catches many families. Your child’s own claim is protected while they’re a minor, so it can feel like there’s no hurry. But the claim for your child’s medical bills usually belongs to you as the parent, and it runs on the standard two-year clock under Minn. Stat. § 541.05. Wait too long and part of the case disappears.
Evidence fades faster than deadlines arrive. Daycare incident reports get misplaced. Surveillance footage gets recorded over. Witnesses move away. We move quickly to preserve what proves your child’s case before it’s gone.
There’s one more difference worth knowing up front. Minnesota courts must approve settlements for minors, and most are structured so the money stays protected until your child turns 18. We prepare the petition, walk you through the approval hearing, and build the settlement around your child’s future needs, not the insurer’s convenience.
You won’t pay us by the hour. We handle child injury cases on a contingency fee basis: the consultation is free, and we only get paid if we recover compensation for your family.
Meet Swor & Gatto
Three attorneys. More than four decades of results for Minnesota families. Get to know the people who’ll be standing up for your child.
Types of Child Injury Cases We Handle
Kids get hurt in the places built for them: schools, daycares, playgrounds, pools, backyards. When an injury traces back to an adult’s carelessness, Minnesota law gives your family a path to compensation. These are the child injury cases we handle most often.
Daycare Injuries & Negligence
When you leave your child at a licensed daycare, Minnesota law expects that facility to meet strict staffing ratios, supervision standards, and safety rules. Injuries caused by understaffing, untrained workers, unsafe equipment, or abuse are grounds for a negligence claim against the facility. We dig into licensing records, incident reports, and Department of Human Services complaint histories to show what the daycare knew and ignored.
School & School District Negligence
Minnesota schools can be held liable when negligent supervision, unsafe facilities, or ignored bullying leads to injury. Claims against public school districts follow special rules, though, including a written notice requirement that can be as short as 180 days. If your child was hurt at school, don’t assume the district is untouchable. It isn’t. It just requires moving faster than most families realize.
School Bus Accidents
School bus crashes raise questions most car accident cases don’t. Was the driver properly screened? Did the district contract with a private bus company? Whose insurance applies? Those answers determine where your child’s compensation comes from. We sort out liability among drivers, bus companies, school districts, and other motorists so the claim doesn’t stall while the adults point fingers.
Playground Accidents
Falls from playground equipment send thousands of children to emergency rooms every year. Cities, schools, property owners, and equipment manufacturers all have duties: safe surfacing, maintained equipment, age-appropriate design, and real supervision. When an injury comes from a broken duty rather than ordinary play, it becomes a premises liability case, and we know how to prove the difference.
Car Accidents Involving Children
A child hurt in a crash has a claim of their own, separate from their parents’. A car accident settlement for a child has to account for growth-plate fractures that affect development, future surgeries, and the way an injury follows a child into adulthood. Our car accident claims experience also covers defective car seats and booster failures, which can add a product claim against the manufacturer.
Dog Bites & Animal Attacks
Children are the most common dog bite victims, and their injuries tend to involve the face, head, and hands. Minnesota’s dog bite statute (Minn. Stat. § 347.22) holds owners strictly liable, so you don’t have to prove the owner was careless. We handle child dog bite cases with attention to scarring, reconstructive surgery, and the fear that can follow a child for years.
Swimming Pool & Drowning Accidents
Drowning is one of the leading causes of accidental death for young children, and a near-drowning can cause lasting brain injury within minutes. Minnesota pool owners have a duty to fence, gate, and supervise. That includes homeowners, hotels, apartment complexes, and city pools. When those safeguards fail, we hold the owner accountable through a premises liability claim.
Trampoline & Recreation Injuries
Trampoline parks, bounce houses, and rec centers ask parents to sign waivers, then argue those waivers erase all responsibility. They don’t. Minnesota courts read waivers narrowly, and no waiver covers gross negligence. If an operator told you a signature ended the conversation, it’s worth getting a second opinion before you accept that answer.
Defective Toys & Children’s Products
Recalled toys, defective cribs, flammable sleepwear, and choking hazards injure children even when parents do everything right. Manufacturers are strictly liable for dangerous defects in their products. These cases connect to our product liability practice, and they matter beyond your own family: a successful claim often forces a dangerous product off the shelves.
Child Injuries We Represent
Children’s bodies are still growing, and that changes both the medicine and the math of an injury claim. An injury an adult would recover from in months can shape a child’s development for decades.
We represent children who’ve suffered traumatic brain injuries, where symptoms may not fully surface until years later as the brain develops. Burn injuries often mean repeated surgeries as a child grows, because scar tissue doesn’t grow with them. Our cases also include growth-plate fractures, spinal cord damage, drowning-related brain injuries, facial scarring from dog bites, and the emotional trauma that follows a serious accident.
The type and severity of your child’s injury shape everything about the case: which experts we bring in, how we project lifetime costs, and what a fair settlement looks like. Catastrophic injuries demand life-care planners and economists who can put honest numbers on decades of future needs. We’ve built those cases for more than 40 years.
What Your Child’s Injury Case Is Worth
The value of a child injury case depends on how the injury changes your child’s life: the cost of care, the length of recovery, and whether the effects follow them into adulthood. Every parent asks this question, and any honest answer starts there.
Medical Expenses
Every past and future medical cost: ER care, surgeries, therapy, medication, and equipment.
Future Earning Capacity
When an injury limits the work your child will be able to do as an adult, that lost potential is compensable.
Pain & Suffering
Compensation for physical pain, emotional trauma, disfigurement, and lost childhood experiences.
Future Care
Long-term treatment needs: additional surgeries as your child grows, counseling, and in-home care.
Several factors move the number: how severe and permanent the injury is, how it affects your child’s schooling and development, how clear the other side’s fault is, and how much insurance coverage exists. We work with medical experts, economists, and life-care planners to make sure future costs aren’t left out of the demand.
Child settlements also work differently after the number is agreed. A Minnesota judge must approve the settlement, and the money is typically placed in a restricted account or a structured settlement for minors that pays out when your child turns 18. We’ve recovered more than $250 million across 10,000+ cases, and we put that experience behind every number in your child’s demand.
How Minnesota Child Injury Laws Protect Your Family
Minnesota law treats injured children differently than injured adults, mostly in ways that protect them. Knowing these rules early keeps your family from giving up rights you didn’t know you had.
Extended Deadlines for Minors
Minnesota’s two-year personal injury deadline is paused while an injured person is under 18 (Minn. Stat. § 541.15). In most cases, that means your child’s claim stays alive until their 19th birthday. But the parents’ claim for medical expenses runs on the standard two-year clock, and evidence doesn’t wait for anyone. The extended deadline is a safety net, not a schedule.
Court Approval of Minor Settlements
A parent can’t simply accept a settlement on a child’s behalf. Minnesota courts review and approve minor settlements (Minn. Stat. § 540.08 and Rule 145 of the Minnesota General Rules of Practice), and the funds are typically protected in a restricted account or structured settlement until the child turns 18. It’s an extra step, and it exists to protect your child’s money.
Children and Comparative Fault
Minnesota’s modified comparative fault rule (Minn. Stat. § 604.01) reduces compensation by a victim’s share of fault. But children aren’t judged by adult standards. Courts measure a child’s conduct against what’s reasonable for a child of the same age, intelligence, and experience, and very young children are generally presumed incapable of negligence. When an insurer blames your child for their own injury, that argument usually says more about the insurer’s case than your child’s.
Claims Against Schools and Government
When the responsible party is a school district, city, or county, Minnesota’s municipal liability law applies (Minn. Stat. ch. 466). The most important rule is the deadline: written notice of the claim within 180 days (Minn. Stat. § 466.05). Miss it and a valid claim can die before it starts.
Attractive Nuisance
Property owners owe children a higher duty when something on their land is likely to draw kids in: pools, construction equipment, trampolines. Even a trespassing child may have a claim when an owner fails to secure an obvious hazard.
We’ve practiced in Hennepin, Ramsey, Dakota, Washington, Anoka, and Scott County courts for more than 40 years, including the settlement-approval hearings these cases end with.
Child Injury Lawyer Serving Minneapolis, St. Paul & Surrounding Areas
Minneapolis Coverage
Minneapolis families bring us cases from every corner of the city: daycare injuries in Uptown, playground accidents in North Minneapolis parks, school bus crashes on busy routes like Lake Street and Broadway. Child injury claims in Minneapolis run through Hennepin County District Court, where we’ve handled injury cases and minor settlement approvals for decades.
St. Paul Coverage
St. Paul is home. Our office sits minutes from the Ramsey County courthouse, and we’ve spent more than 40 years representing east metro families, from Como Park to the West Side. When your child’s case needs court approval, you’ll have attorneys who appear in that courthouse all the time.
Also serving: Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Eagan, Woodbury, Plymouth, Maple Grove, Brooklyn Park, Burnsville, Lakeville, and surrounding communities.
What to Do After Your Child Is Injured in Minnesota
Every potential client wants to know the same thing: how much is my case worth? While no attorney can guarantee a specific dollar amount, understanding the types of damages available helps you evaluate whether a settlement offer is fair.
Step 1: Get Medical Care. Have your child examined even if they seem fine. Children often minimize symptoms, and some injuries, especially head injuries, take time to show.
Step 2: Report It in Writing. Notify the daycare, school, or property owner in writing and ask for a copy of their incident report. Verbal reports have a way of never being written down.
Step 3: Document Everything. Photograph the scene, the equipment involved, and your child’s injuries. Keep photographing as the injuries heal. Scars and bruising fade, and juries need to see what your child went through.
Step 4: Preserve Evidence. Keep the car seat, the toy, the clothing, whatever was involved. Don’t repair it, don’t return it, don’t throw it away.
Step 5: No Statements. Don’t give a recorded statement to the other side’s insurance company, and don’t sign anything from the daycare, school, or insurer without having an attorney read it first.
Step 6: Call an Attorney. The earlier we start, the more evidence we can preserve. Call (651) 454-3600 for a free consultation.One more thing: stay off social media about the accident. Insurance companies monitor claimants’ accounts, and a single hopeful post about your child’s recovery can be twisted into an argument that they weren’t really hurt.
Frequently Asked Questions About Child Injury Claims
How long do I have to file a child injury claim in Minnesota?
Can you sue a school district in Minnesota if your child is injured?
Can I sue a daycare for negligence?
Who receives the settlement money in a child injury case?
How much is a child injury case worth?
Can my child recover pain and suffering damages after a car accident?
What does a child injury lawyer cost?
What if my child was partly at fault?
What happens if a child dies from their injuries?
Why Choose Swor & Gatto
Since 1981, Minnesota families have trusted us with the cases that matter most. Nothing matters more than your child.
Years of Personal Injury Experience
We’ve been fighting for injured Minnesotans since 1981. That’s four decades of courtroom experience, insurance company negotiations, and results. We apply that depth of knowledge to every child injury case we take on.
$250 Million+ Recovered for Clients
The results back it up: more than $250 million recovered and over 10,000 cases handled. We know how insurers value child injury claims, and we know what those claims are actually worth.
No Fee Unless We Win
And because we work on contingency, our interests line up with yours. Free consultation, no hourly bills, no fee unless we win.
HABLA
Bilingual Legal Services
We serve Minnesota’s diverse communities. Our team provides legal services in both English and Spanish so language is never a barrier to getting the help you need. Se habla español.
Talk to a Minnesota Child Injury Lawyer Today
You’re carrying enough right now. Let us carry the legal side. Call (651) 454-3600 or request a free consultation online, and we’ll tell you honestly whether you have a case and what it’s worth. You pay nothing unless we win.
40+
years of experience
$250M+
Recovered
10,000+
Cases Handled
Se Habla
Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Each case is different and must be judged on its own merits.