It depends. (And please start by taking a breath; no one likes the litigious person.) The specific laws surrounding playgrounds differ by state, and if your child is injured you should consult a local lawyer. But here’s a general rundown of how playground liability works in the United States: Who Might Be To Blame? Depending on your jurisdiction, pretty much everyone could be legally liable, from the guy who laid the mulch to the teacher who was texting when your kid tumbled off the monkey bars. The three most often liable parties are the owner of the playground (including the school district and the local government), the manufacturer of the equipment or the contractor who installed it, and individual employees responsible for watching your children (a nanny or a teacher). When Can I Blame The Owner, Operator, Or Manufacturer? The first step is to figure out who owns the playground. Most states grant immunity to public schools and local government entities unless you can demonstrate truly horrific negligence, so you’re frequently out of luck if your kid gets injured on government property. On the other hand, private playgrounds (at private schools or daycares, for instance) are not immune. The second step is to establish whether the danger your child encountered was “foreseeable”. If so, you can often bring a lawsuit based on “premises liability theory”, which states that operators have a responsibility to prevent foreseeable injuries on the equipment that they own. Courts determine whether a playground injury was foreseeable by asking whether the child was the type of person the defendant expected to be on the property, the child was injured in a foreseeable way, and the defendant’s carelessness was the major cause of the child’s injury. Manufacturers have more legal protection than owners and operators, and they are not liable for every foreseeable injury that can occur on their products. You’re unlikely to win a lawsuit against a manufacturer unless the company cut corners safety-wise, or produced defective equipment. When Can I Blame Those Paid To Watch My Kids? Generally speaking, you can only sue a caretaker for negligent supervision if the defendant agreed to supervise your child, the defendant did not properly monitor your child, and your child was injured as a direct result of the inattentiveness of the defendant. Which means it’s tricky to sue a teacher or nanny for a playground injury, especially when dealing with older children—it is rare that a 10-year-old is injured as a direct result of a caretaker’s inattentiveness. Florida, however, is one state that has more lax requirements to prove negligence. Under Florida law, school employees have an affirmative duty to supervise students at school. If plaintiffs can establish that a teacher did not adequately supervise the students or otherwise failed to take precautions (poor lighting, lack of security cameras), they can win in court. How Do I Keep My Kids Safe On Playgrounds? The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission has a handbook on playground safety, and The National Program for Playground Safety has its own list of hazards. Here are a few to look out for—not just as a way of proving liability, but also to help keep your kids safe:
