Protective Orders
As mentioned, your child’s injury lawyer can obtain protective orders to protect your child during discovery, depositions, and trial. Briefly, here are some other examples of protective orders that can protect a child:
Temporary restraining orders (to prevent harassment such as threats of violence)
Against any workplace violence59 Domestic violence protective orders
Speedy Trial Setting for Injured Minor Children
California law has special priorities for minor children. Any minor child under the age of fourteen is entitled to preferential scheduling in the setting of a trial date. This procedure will allow the legal case to go to trial before a jury more quickly than other cases. In California counties with busy court calendars, the case of a minor under the age of fourteen must be given an available courtroom before all other cases on the court docket. This is granted on motion by the child’s attorney unless the court finds the party “does not have a substantial interest in the case as a whole.”
★INTERESTING POINT: An issue once arose in connection with speedy trial settings for injured minor children in California, questioning whether it was constitutional. The constitutionality of this right has been upheld against challenges based on the doctrines of “equal protection” and “separation of powers.” Still, one issue remains to be decided: whether the priority setting might violate a defendant’s due process rights by depriving him or her of adequate time to prepare for trial. It is argued that the entitlement of a child under age fourteen to priority trial setting might allow him or her to secure experts and prepare for a trial, then surprise the defense by springing a priority trial setting motion to force a trial date within 120 or, at most, 135 days. This would put pressure on the defense that could, it is argued, be adverse to the defense.
★INTERESTING POINT: Another group of individuals in California who get trial date priority are individuals over the age of seventy. In fact, they take precedent over priority cases involving children under age fourteen.62 Thus, the elderly have even greater preference in getting a trial date than minor children under age fourteen.
For Research Bugs - See: California Code of Civil Procedure Section 527.6. 59 California Code of Civil Procedure Section 527.8. 60 California Family Code Sections 6200 et seq.; 7710 and 7720; California Code of Civil Procedure Section 372(b)(1). 61 California Code of Civil Procedure Section 36(b); see Peters v. Super. Ct. (County of Los Angeles) (1989) 212 CA3d 218, 260 CR 426.
Mark C. Blane is a San Diego Child Injury/Accident Attorney and the managing lawyer of the Law Offices of Mark C. Blane, a San Diego, California Personal Injury Law Office dedicated to representing families of minor children injured due to the negligence of others. If you or a loved one, who is a minor child, has been injured or killed in a child accident in San Diego, please order your free copy of Mr. Blane's book, The 10 Secrets You Need To Know About Your Injury Case, BEFORE You Call A Lawyer. It is full of helpful information that will help you protect your legal rights and it normally sells for $16.95. However, it is free to all California residents, or those injured in a California accident. Also, you can check out Mr. Blane's book on California child injuries called Justice for the Injured Child available for sale; this book has become a California parent's legal survival guide to their child's California accident case.
