Houston Injury to a Child Attorney

Representation for Child Injury Cases

If you are responsible, directly or indirectly, for bodily harm or death to a child, seek legal help right away. Child injury cases are serious, complex issues. A defendant may be charged for directly causing injury, but failure to prevent serious injury or the death of a child can also place you in court.

Corporeal punishments are increasingly landing parents in court, sometimes even for mild spankings or corrective actions that are blown out of proportion by the victim or a third party. Judges take child injury cases extremely seriously. Child abuse is one of the few scenarios where attorneys are required by law to break lawyer-client privilege if the lawyer is aware of preventable child abuse at the hands of their client.

Samuel M. Gardner is a criminal defense attorney in Houston who knows how the state and government prosecute these cases. These cases may force parents to lose custody of their child, Mr. Gardner fights aggressively to ensure that does not happen.

What You Need to Know About Child Abuse Charges

Law enforcement investigating child abuse will voraciously pursue information on the home life and parental treatment of the child. If a police officer contacts you for an interview and you are suspected of injury to a child, call a Houston domestic violence lawyer. The police could be trying to coerce a confession when you have your guard down.

A child is considered any person under the age of 15. Harm brought on by reckless parental behavior will result in a state jail felony. Intentionally harming a child that results in broken bones, permanent impairment, or death will likely be charged as a first-degree felony.

When charging negligent or potentially abusive parents of child abuse, intent needs to be proven by the prosecution. Prosecuting attorneys are looking to provide insight into the mental state of the defendant at the time of the crime. The more active the defendant’s role in the crime, the harsher the penalties. Mental states are split into four categories:

• Negligence. Negligence is charged against defendants who witnesses injury to a child but did nothing to curb the violence. A wife failing to adequately provide the right nourishment or medical treatment can be charged with negligence.
• Recklessness. Accidentally causing a child harm through reckless behavior is a third-degree felony. Driving while intoxicated with a child in the car can be considered reckless behavior.
• Knowingly. The defendant must have been a more active participant (or knew of abuse and failed to report it to authorities) in the child’s injuries.
• Intentionally. This is the most aggressive method of employing injury on a child. Intentionally causing harm will result in first-degree felony charges for the defendant.

Child Abuse Penalties

The court has limitless options to deal with the complex circumstances involved in child injury cases. Less severe instances of child injury can be negotiated to a misdemeanor and result in parent counseling and home inspections.

If the charges are severe enough that the felony charges cannot be negotiated, the defendant could be facing serious prison time. The court will usually place heavy restrictions on the offending parent or guardian, restricting visitation or removing the child from home entirely.

Begin Building a Defense with a Houston Child Injury Lawyer

Affirmative defenses can be used to prove the parent used reasonable force in cases where corporeal punishments were taken to court. Affirmative defenses mean the defendant is admitting guilt but their actions either used a reasonable amount of force or were necessary given the circumstances. The defense may also argue over the seriousness of the child’s injuries. It is sometimes possible to argue that the injuries were too minor to constitute a crime.

Finally, the defense may argue the root cause of the injury. Children injure themselves at recess, on playgrounds, at home. Child injuries from the parents/guardians or recess are difficult to distinguish. This type of defense won’t hold up in court if the child’s injuries were severe, permanent, or well documented. Samuel M. Gardner Attorney performs thorough investigations to ensure his clients are accurately represented in court.