Brien Roche
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has published a handbook that is an excellent guide as to the standard of care for construction and maintenance of playgrounds. Likewise, the Consumer Federation of America has published a report dealing with the same subject matter and establishing similar standards. Most localities and school districts are aware of these standards and comply with them. Where non-compliance is most often found is on older playgrounds and privately maintained playgrounds. The age or ownership of the playground does not excuse or insulate the owner from liability.
In any playground negligence case, a playground safety expert may have to be retained who is familiar with these standards.
The liability of the property owner or overseer of the playground may be established on several conceivable theories:
If a child of yours had been injured as a result of playground negligence, contact us, Brien Roche is a trusted premises liability litigator. For more information about premises liability see the other pages on this site.
For more information about playgrounds see the pages on Wikipedia.