When I began as a guardian ad-Litem, a very young child in my caseload had been horribly burned when she was placed in a tub of scalding water by her 6 year old niece (the baby had very poopy diapers and was stinky).
The cold water pipe had frozen solid in the Minnesota winter & the landlord had turned the hot water heater to “scalding” to compensate for the absence of cold water.
My legally minded friend Bob Olson pointed out that if she were my child, an insurance claim would be made against the property owner & at least some justice might be served.
Bob gave me a name of a top attorney who I engaged to represent this girl. Within a year the attorney argued successfully in a mediation with the insurance company and awarded this child the top limit of the landlords insurance policy (the landlord had after all, allowed the cold water pipes to remain frozen solid that winter and caused burns that would leave the girl terribly scarred her whole life).
Today, this young lady has a college fund and is a little compensated for the burns that made her legs look like scales when she grew up in a crack house.
I expect that other very young children in child protection systems have been terribly injured with insurable claims that will never see the light of day because the crack mom don’t know & the caseworkers are not trained to see this as a solution.
It does not seem right to me that the only children to be compensated for their insurable childhood injuries should be those that come from healthy families. In fact, those that need it the most, don’t come from healthy families.
Bob can be helpful and reached at 651-690-3494
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