Personal injury lawsuits can be a result of a multitude of things such as: a car accident, an accident at work, a slip and fall, being assaulted, or even via a defective product.

The primary question when determining whether or not you have a personal injury claim is whether there was negligence or recklessness by another that ultimately led you to being injured; it does not necessarily have to be intentional though. If the answer is yes, and the accident was the fault of someone else, then the injured party may very well be entitled to some form of monetary compensation in order to cover medical costs, lost wages and pain suffering.

An interesting aspect of personal injury lawsuits is when the claim is brought against a child. Personal injury law in this country has many critics who call for some sort of reform within the system: when a child is at the receiving end of such a claim even more critics seem to appear from the woodwork.

A 60-year-old Pennsylvanian man was skiing in Colorado when a 7-year-old boy collided with him, causing the man injury to his collarbone and shoulder. The elder man decided to sue the boy and his family for more than $75,000 to cover his medical bills, lost vacation time, and other expenses incurred. The plaintiff asserts that the young boy, the defendant, came down the mountain ‘negligently’, ‘recklessly’ and at a ‘high rate of speed’.

Though this lawsuit is very unpopular with those who have heard of it, it is completely justifiable in legal terms. Personal injury lawsuits against children are rare but not unheard of. After all, Colorado and Pennsylvania ski rules and regulations state that children are just as responsible on the ski slopes as their adult counterparts.  All skiers are held to the same standards.

Looking at this issue from the legal perspective the pivotal issue is whether the child was engaged in an age appropriate activity. If they were, they do have a lower standard of responsibility than that of an adult, in acknowledgment of their age. However, children under the age of 7 are often deemed to be too young to appreciate any harm they can cause to others, but the boy in question could be held to a higher standard of responsibility due to that fact that he has been skiing since the age of 3.

Though this lawsuit is being deemed as a clear example of what is wrong with our highly litigious society, the probability of the plaintiff proving the boy was reckless seem slim because in such cases the only real way to succeed is if the plaintiff can offer some sort of evidence (such as an eyewitness account) that shows that the defendant was acting recklessly.

Perhaps one thing we can bring away from this scenario is that the law does not discriminate against age.

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