Unfortunately, pregnant woman are involved in automobile accidents. When they are involved in accidents, there can be injuries to their unborn children.
Like in other contexts, an unborn child has rights in utero. For instance, a claim can be maintained against the at-fault driver for the injury suffered during the accident. This is true even if the accident was caused by the mother or father of the unborn child.
In these situations, there is a natural inclination to take no action–the parents are oftentimes embarrassed or too upset that they caused injury to their child. But taking no action hurts the child twice. It is important to retain a personal injury attorney.
The lawyer can represent the child who was injured in-utero, by making a claim against the parents (which will be satisfied by their auto insurance policy).
These auto insurance policies are purchased not only to protect policyholders from liability claims, but also to ensure that persons injured by the policyholders are able to receive monetary damages for their injuries.
Failing to ensure that a personal injury attorney was hired to protect the child injured in-utero would potentially be creating a benefit for the insurance company–by not bringing a claim–at the expense of the injured child. It would also basically be surrendering the benefit for which the policyholder paid premiums for years, perhaps even decades.
If you have questions about injuries or whether there was a standby child in-utero, make sure to contact a personal injury attorney.
An interesting case dealing with this issue was decided by the Florida Court of Appeals. The name of it was National Casualty Company v. Northern Trust Bank of Florida. It was decided in 2001.
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