Birth Injury Compensation

It can be devastating if your child suffers a birth injury due to the negligence of a doctor. These injuries are often life-long treatment and care, leaving you with huge financial burdens.

Many birth injury cases have a complicated debate about medical malpractice versus medical errors. Our lawyers can explain the distinctions.

Costs of Treatment

Attorneys, insurance companies, and judges look at the severity of the birth injury lawsuit injury as well as the impact it has on the child's development 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 costly. Compensation for birth injuries can help families pay for these expenses. Lawyers and experts often work together to develop a "Life Care Plan" that calculates the costs of a child's injury over the course of his or her life. These costs include hospitalization, surgery, specialized medical treatments and prescriptions, home improvements and equipment, etc.

Your legal team will collect medical records from the pregnancy as well as the birth of your child, as well as firsthand reports from relatives. These documents will be used to prove that your child was injured as a result of medical malpractice and to demonstrate the extent of the injury.

Many states have enacted medical indemnity funds to offer financial aid to families of children who suffer from birth injuries. These funds collect a portion of malpractice insurance premiums or require hospitals and doctors to contribute to a pool of resources. These programs can offer families financial support and decrease the necessity of filing a lawsuit. JLARC staff, however, found that these programs didn't always meet their goals, and need to be improved.

Life Care Planning

Children who suffer from conditions like cerebral palsy and hypoxic ischemic brain disease will have ongoing medical requirements. These needs include physical therapies or equipment for specialized use, as well as home health care. The majority of the time, these costs can be quite significant.

A life-care planning document is an important document that outlines the future medical, educational, home and other expenses that a child who has disabilities will endure throughout their life. These plans are commonly used to calculate the financial portion of the damages awarded in a case of birth injury. They must be comprehensive and carefully drafted to satisfy the strict requirements of evidentiary for admissibility in the court.

Experts in planning for Birth Injury Lawsuit life can help develop these documents using input and the formal opinions of disabled children's doctors or therapists, as well as the caregivers. The plans also contain a detailed account of the initial injury and diagnosis. They also explain the root cause of the impairment as well as the long-term consequences.

A medical malpractice attorney should collaborate with a life-care planner to come up with the best plan for their client's needs. The goal of the plan is to ensure that your child receives sufficient compensation to cover all of their future expenses and medical care. The money is usually placed into a trust for children with special requirements, which is managed by an approved administrator. The amount of money awarded is typically adjusted every few months to reflect changes in the future requirements of your child.

Suffering and Pain

In a birth injury lawsuit, damages are awarded for the plaintiff's past as well as future suffering and pain. This includes the physical and mental discomfort caused by the injury, as well as the inability of the plaintiff to participate in activities that others can do.

It is also possible to recover for lost income if the victim's condition limits their career options or prohibits the person from working at all. Families may also be compensated for the care of an injured child.

Medical malpractice cases usually have very high verdicts due to the fact that juries tend to show sympathy for victims and hold doctors accountable for their mistakes. Due to this, many hospitals and doctors prefer to settle instead of risking an appeal, which can be costly and stressful for the parties involved.

Both sides will gather evidence to support their arguments in the course of litigation. They will share documents during a process called discovery, which involves deposing witnesses to get statements under an oath. In most states, defendants are able to ask to see the records of the plaintiff.

An attorney with experience in this type of situation is required to submit a successful claim for birth injury. An experienced attorney will go over the facts of your case to determine if it meets the requirements for a lawsuit and seek out the most favorable financial settlement that is possible.

Punitive Damages

Some medical malpractice suits also include punitive damages, which are intended to serve as a warning, and also to discourage future negligence. They can be awarded in instances of serious negligence or where there was willful misconduct on the part the medical professional. They are not common in the case of birth injuries.

After identifying the defendants, the attorney must gather and examine the evidence to back the claim. They must demonstrate that the injuries caused by medical professionals were not up to standards of care. The legal team must provide evidence of losses associated with the injuries, referred to as "damages." These damages can be either economic or non-economic.

The economic losses are usually calculated by estimating the cost of the child's ongoing treatment, including long-term care facilities as well as other services. It is also possible to include the loss of earnings if the injury has caused one or both parents to leave their jobs.

The legal team will create a demand document to be presented to the malpractice insurance companies. This document will describe the birth injury and its impact on the child and family in order to seek compensation to cover the costs of these losses. The lawyers will negotiate until a settlement is reached with the medical professionals. During this negotiation, the attorneys will exchange information about their cases with the opposing side through discovery, which involves taking depositions from witnesses who testify under oath.