Child Improperly Touched at a Corpus Daycare? Legal Options for Parents

When parents choose to send their child to a daycare program in Corpus Christi TX, they’re trusting that its staff will care for their child’s physical, social, and emotional needs in their absence. And yet, as Corpus Christi child abuse lawyers know, the state of Texas reports that as many as 67,000 children will fall victim to abuse each year. When this abuse involves a daycare worker improperly touching a child or engaging in other forms of sexual misconduct, the consequences for a child are devastating.

Because sexual abuse often results in a child experiencing long-term emotional distress and psychological trauma, many parents will wonder how they can help their child heal when an incident at a daycare occurs. Parents will also want to ensure that those responsible for the abuse are prosecuted and never given the opportunity to mistreat a child again. Texas’s personal injury laws allow parents to sue daycare workers and the companies that hire them through civil court proceedings. With the guidance of the Texas child sexual abuse attorneys at Carabin Shaw, parents can secure the comprehensive financial settlements they need in order to help their child recover.

Attorneys working with sexual abuse cases recommend that the first step parents take after recognizing signs of abuse is to seek medical attention for their child right away. Caregivers should also promptly report the incident to the police or other designated state authorities. Once a report is filed and an investigation complete, perpetrators can be prosecuted by the state through criminal court proceedings.

Depending on a criminal trial's findings, perpetrators may face years in prison or other sharp penalties. It is generally after a criminal case has been completed that victims and their families will have the option of working with a lawyer to pursue a civil lawsuit that allows them to recover monetary compensation for their child’s losses.

Personal injury lawyers serving Corpus Christi receive many questions from caregivers regarding who can be held liable for incidents of daycare abuse and what sorts of damages they may be eligible to recover through a civil case. Beyond the individual workers responsible for committing the abuse, the companies that hire them may also share legal liability. For instance, civil cases involving a child improperly touched at a Corpus daycare often result in the companies that run the daycare facilities being charged for negligent hiring or supervision practices.

While the settlements resulting from civil lawsuits will vary from case to case, they will generally include compensation for both economic and non-economic damages. This includes compensation for medical treatments, therapy, alternative child care, and lost income, as well as ongoing emotional distress and pain and suffering.

Because choosing to pursue legal action following an incident of child sexual abuse is a highly personal matter, many states, including Texas, have expanded the statute of limitations that govern these cases. In Texas, sex crimes, including sexual assault against a child and indecency with a child, have no statute of limitations. This means that victims and their families will never lose the option to pursue legal action, no matter how many years have passed since the abuse occurred.

If your child has been the victim of sexual abuse within a Corpus Christi daycare facility, don’t delay speaking with the Texas child sexual abuse attorneys at Carabin Shaw about your legal options.

To ensure that our clients get the assistance they need as quickly as possible, our English and Spanish-speaking staff are available 24/7. Call us at 800-862-1260 to get started with a free case review.