A friends son in high school falls down a flight of stairs and fractures his hand requiring surgery and the insertion of pins to enable the ...

Question

A friends son in high school falls down a flight of stairs and fractures his hand requiring surgery and the insertion of pins to enable the healing process.The stairs were immediately made unusable by the school using do not cross yellow tape. Later on the school completely removed the stairs from future use. There were no hand rails. The stairs were a boxed in cinder covered design with lips that encouraged a fall..Is this limited by TORT? Brian Egan 845-343-7745

Answer

If the fall occurred at a public entity in NJ, the torts claims act applies. There are exceptions to this act, but more importantly, there is a notice requirement to the State of an intended claim. It is important that you contact an attorney to advise your friend of his rights. Call me for a free consultation. 215-240-7565

Answer

Since the school is a public entity, there is a 90 day notice of tort claim requirement that must be filed to preserve your right to file a later lawsuit. There are some exceptions to this deadline, but you don't want to have your friend put himself in position he needs to rely upon an exception, so your friend needs to see an attorney ASAP.

Also, a public school has numerous immunities to a lawsuit, where even if they arguably did something negligent, your friend cannot bring a lawsuit against the school - so again, an experienced attorney would have to carefully review each and every fact to make sure there is not an immunity, and if there is a potential one, whether there is a way to get around it, so as to allow a recovery for the pain and suffering, medical bills and more.