When you take your child to daycare, you certainly may be worried that they could be injured. You want to keep your child safe, and you are trusting the daycare workers to do so.
In some cases, they may ask you to sign a waiver. But should this raise any red flags? Can you actually waive your right to seek compensation if your child is injured at the daycare? Does the mere presence of the waiver suggest that the staff thinks injuries are likely?
The daycare may still have been negligent
Typically, a waiver just means that there is some level of inherent risk and the possibility of an injury, even if the daycare doesn’t do anything wrong. For instance, two children could be running around in the yard when one of them trips and falls and breaks their wrist. The waiver is essentially saying that the parents won’t sue the daycare because they know that things like this happen.
However, a waiver cannot be used to get around negligence. For instance, if a coworker was supposed to be watching the children but decided to leave them alone for 10 minutes to take a personal phone call, and one of the children was hurt while they weren’t being supervised, then the daycare staff was negligent. They would still be responsible, even though you signed a waiver.
Your legal options
As you can see, these types of cases can be complicated, and there may be disputes over exactly what happened or who was responsible. When you find yourself in this position, take the time to carefully look into all of your legal options.