Clearly the answer is yes. Of course, the child cannot sign a personal injury contract. Thus, the parent would be the client on behalf of the child. There are a couple of considerations for this and I will go over them briefly.
First, particularly in small or medium sized accident, children are oftentimes not hurt. And the insurance industry clearly struggle with awarding large settlement to children in small or moderate accidents. Children tend to heal quicker from whip lash type injuries and tend to heal quicker in general from all injuries. I see cases all the time where the kids are basically okay after a few weeks of treatment but the parents are still in a lot of pain many months later.
Second, with children there are certain rules depending upon the amount of the settlement. Generally, if the settlement is less than $15,000, then the parent basically get the money and no court approval or court involvement is needed. However if it is more than $15,000 and particularly if it is more then $50,000, then the court has to be involved and there are more stringent rules for the court. Sometimes, for example, a guardianship is needed to be set up to protect the child’s money until they reach majority. The specifics on these rules are not within the scope of this blog entry.
