Birth Injury Compensation

If your child suffers a birth injury as a result of a doctor's negligence or wrongful action, it can be devastating. These injuries can require ongoing treatment and care. You'll be left with huge financial costs.

Additionally, a lot of birth injury cases are a complicated argument about medical errors versus malpractice. Our lawyers can help you understand the differences.

Costs of Treatment

Attorneys, insurance companies, and birth injury judges consider the severity of the birth injury as well as the impact it affects the child's quality of life when determining the amount of compensation to be paid. For instance in the event that a child requires an ongoing medical procedure which will raise the value of a claim.

Medical treatment for birth injuries can be extremely expensive. The compensation for a birth injury can help families pay for these expenses. Lawyers often collaborate with experts to develop an "Life Care Plan," which estimates the lifelong costs incurred by a child's injury. These include hospitalization, surgical intervention, specialized medical treatment prescriptions, home improvements and other equipment, and many more.

Your legal team will gather medical documents from your child's birth as well as pregnancy, as well as firsthand stories from family members. These will be used to prove that your child sustained an injury due to negligence by a medical professional, and to demonstrate the extent of the damage caused.

Many states have established medical indemnity funds which provide financial aid to families with children who have suffered birth injuries. These funds pay a portion of malpractice insurance premiums or require hospitals and doctors to contribute to the pool of resources. In addition to providing financial support, these programs can reduce the need for families to file a lawsuit. However, JLARC staff found that the programs don't always achieve their goals and need to be improved.

Life Care Planning

Children who suffer from conditions like cerebral palsy and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy will face permanent medical requirements. These include physical therapies as well as specialized equipment and home health care. The costs for these can be significant.

A life-care planning plan is a document which outlines the future medical, educational, home and other expenses that a child who has disabilities will incur throughout his or her lifetime. These plans are typically used to determine the economic portion of the damages awarded in a case of birth injury. They should be comprehensive and carefully drafted to satisfy the strict evidentiary requirements for the admissibility of the plan in the court.

Life-care planners can assist to create these documents using feedback and formal opinions from the child's doctors as well as therapists and other caregivers. The plans also include an extensive description of the injury's initial diagnosis. They describe the underlying causes of the disability and their long-term consequences.

A medical malpractice attorney should collaborate with a planner for life to come up with the best strategy for their client's particular situation. The aim of the plan is to ensure that your child receives the proper compensation to cover all of his or her future care and expenses. The funds awarded are typically placed into a special needs trust which is administered by an approved administrator. The amount of money that is awarded is typically adjusted every few months to reflect the changing requirements of your child.

Suffering and Pain

In a birth injury attorneys injury lawsuit the damages awarded are for the plaintiff's past as well as future pain and suffering. This includes physical and mental discomfort caused by the injury as well as the inability to engage in activities enjoyed by others.

You may also be able to recover lost income when a victim's injury affects their work options or prevents them working at all. Families may also be compensated to help care for an injured child.

The verdicts for medical malpractice cases are usually extremely high because juries tend to be compassionate towards victims and hold doctors accountable for their mistakes. Due to this, many hospitals and doctors prefer to settle instead of taking on the trial process, which is expensive and stressful for all parties involved.

Both sides will gather evidence to back their arguments in the course of litigation. They will share documents in a process known as discovery, which involves deposing witness to get statements under the oath. In most states, defendants are able to request access to the records of the plaintiff.

An attorney with experience in this kind of case is needed to make an effective claim for birth injuries. A seasoned attorney will analyze the facts of your case, determine if it meets the legal requirements and seek out the most favorable financial settlement that is possible.

Punitive Damages

Some medical malpractice lawsuits include punitive damages. These are meant to send a message and deter future negligent behavior. They can be awarded in instances of serious negligence or where there was willful misconduct on the part the medical professional. However, they are extremely rare in birth injury cases.

After the attorney identifies the appropriate defendants, they have to find and analyze evidence to support their claims. They must demonstrate that the injuries caused by medical professionals did't meet the standard of care. The legal team also has to provide evidence of the damages resulting from these injuries, referred to as "damages." The information could be of a financial or non-economic in the sense that it is not a loss.

Economic losses are figured out by taking into account ongoing treatment costs including long-term treatment facilities and other services. They may also include the loss of earnings if an injury caused both or one parent to lose their job.

The legal team will create an offer package that they will give to malpractice insurers. The document will outline the birth injuries, and their impact on the child as well as the family, and demand compensation for these losses. The attorneys will negotiate until a settlement has been reached with the medical providers. During the discovery process, attorneys will share information with the other party about their case. This includes taking depositions of witnesses who swear to testify under oath.