Sometimes, people who file lawsuits end up filing them against entities rather than against individual people. Some of these cases are filed against school districts for various reasons. For instance, Dallas News recently ran a story about a woman who sued her former employer, which was a school district located in New York. Her lawsuit centered on an alleged violation of her civil rights, which the lawsuit holds occurred because she was discriminated against and retaliated against due to her African-American heritage.
There are many different reasons why people may choose to sue a school district. It may be a standardliability suit, involving a child who was injured because they were improperly supervised, for instance. The cases may also be more complex, such as the aforementioned one, alleging certain forms of discrimination, bullying, sexual harassment and so forth. These lawsuits are, in many regards, similar to any other type of personal injury claim in how they function.
Damages
In a lawsuit, the plaintiff has to quantify in dollars the harm that was done to them by the alleged negligence or other cause of injury. This is a process that a lawyer will help their client to work their way through. Without a dollar figure, there is no point in filing a lawsuit and, therefore, there’s no attorney that’s going to bother taking such a claim. The entire point of a civil lawsuit is to be compensated for damages done.
Suing a school district can be intimidating. For the parents of children who are in the school, it may make them feel like their child may be retaliated against, which may make it necessary to move the child to a different school. For people who are employees of the school, suing the school district carries with it the specter that they will be unable to find work at a different district.
An attorney can explain to you how the decision to file a lawsuit may or may not affect your life. No attorney, no matter how good they are, can predict the future, of course, but they should be able to give some insight based on past cases and other information that should give you an idea of what you can expect.
Never be intimidated out of taking action against a large entity such as a school district for a wrong. If you have been injured or discriminated against – or otherwise harmed – filing a lawsuit may be a good option.
If you have any questions, you can always call us for a free consultation.