Birth Injury Compensation

It can be a devastating experience when your child suffers birth injury due to a doctor's negligence. These injuries can require ongoing treatment and treatment. You'll be left with huge financial costs.

Many birth injury cases also involve a complex debate over medical errors versus malpractice. Our lawyers can explain the differences.

Costs of Treatment

Attorneys, insurance companies, and judges look at the severity of the birth injury and the impact it affects the child's quality of life when determining the amount compensation to be awarded. If a child requires intensive medical treatment that continues over time the value of the claim will increase.

Medical treatment for birth injuries can be very expensive. Compensation for birth injury can help families pay for these expenses. Lawyers and experts frequently collaborate to create an "Life Care Plan" which calculates the cost of a child's injuries over the course of a lifetime. These expenses include hospitalization, surgeries, specialized medical treatments such as prescriptions, home repairs and equipment, among others.

Your legal team will collect medical documents from the pregnancy and birth of your child, along with personal accounts from relatives. These records will be used to prove that your child suffered an injury as a result of negligence in the medical field and to show the extent of the damage caused.

Many states have passed medical indemnity funds in order to provide financial support to families of children suffering from birth injuries. These funds can either collect the portion of malpractice insurance premiums or require hospitals and doctors to contribute to an asset pool. In addition to providing monetary aid, these programs can also decrease the requirement for families to pursue a lawsuit. JLARC staff however found that these programs did not always meet their objectives and need to be improved.

Life Care Planning

Children who suffer from disorders such as cerebral palsy or hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy are likely to have permanent medical requirements. These needs include physical therapy, specialized equipment and home health. The costs for these can be significant.

A life-care plan is a document that specifies the future medical education, home-based, and other expenses that disabled children will have to pay for the rest of his or her life. These plans are typically used to help calculate the amount of damages in a birth injury case. These plans must be thorough and carefully drafted in order to meet the strict requirements of admissibility.

Life-care experts can assist to create these documents with information and formal opinions from a disabled child's doctors, therapists and caregivers. The plans contain a thorough account of the injury and birth injury lawsuit its diagnosis. They explain the underlying causes of the disability and the long-term consequences.

An attorney for medical malpractice should collaborate with a planner for life to create the most effective plan for their client's specific situation. The purpose of the plan is to ensure that your child receives the proper compensation to cover all of their future medical expenses and birth injury lawsuit care. The funds are usually put into a special needs trust that is managed by a reputable administrator. Typically the amount granted will be adjusted over time to adjust to any changes in your child's requirements.

Suffering and Pain

In a birth injury lawsuit damages are awarded to cover the plaintiff's past as well as future suffering and pain. This includes mental and physical discomfort caused by the injury as well as the inability to participate in activities that are enjoyed by other people.

You can also recover lost income when a victim's injury affects their work options or prohibits them from working all. In addition, families can be compensated if required to help care for an injured child.

The verdicts for medical malpractice cases are typically very high, as juries tend to be sympathetic towards victims and hold doctors accountable for their errors. Many hospitals and doctors opt to settle rather than risk an expensive trial and stressful for all parties involved.

During the lawsuit attorneys from both sides will gather evidence to back their arguments. They will exchange documents during the process known as discovery, which includes deposing witnesses to obtain their statements under the oath. The defendants could also ask to review the medical records of the plaintiff and are legal in all states.

A successful birth injury lawsuit requires a skilled lawyer in these types of cases. A seasoned attorney will analyze the circumstances of your case, determine if it is in line with the requirements for a lawsuit, and seek out the most favorable settlement for your financial needs.

Punitive Damages

Certain medical malpractice lawsuits include punitive damages, which are intended to serve as a warning and to discourage future negligence. They may be awarded in cases that involve grave negligence or when there was willful misconduct on the part the doctor. They are rare in the case of birth injuries.

After identifying the defendants, the attorney must collect and examine the evidence to back the claim. They must prove that the injuries sustained by medical professionals were not at a high level of care. The legal team should also prove the losses that were incurred with the injuries, which are known as "damages." These damages could be economic or non-economic.

Economic losses are typically calculated by making estimates of the cost of the child's ongoing treatment, which may include long-term care facilities and other services. They may also factor in the loss of earnings if the injury has caused one or both parents to leave their jobs.

The legal team will prepare an offer package that they will submit to malpractice insurance companies. The document will explain the birth injuries and their effects on the child and family, and ask for compensation for these losses. The attorneys will negotiate until a settlement is reached with the medical professionals. During the discovery process, lawyers will share information with the other party on their case. This may include taking depositions of witnesses who swear to testify under oath.