Birth Injury Compensation

It could be devastating for your child if they suffer a birth injury as a result of a doctor's negligence. These injuries often require lifetime treatment and care, leaving you with massive financial burdens.

A lot of birth injury lawyer injury cases require a lengthy debate on medical errors versus malpractice. Our lawyers can help you learn the distinctions.

Costs of Treatment

Insurance companies, attorneys, and judges look at the severity of the birth injury as well as the impact it has on the child's development when determining the amount compensation to be awarded. If a child requires extensive medical treatment that continues for a long time, the value of the claim will rise.

Medical treatment for birth injuries can be expensive. Compensation for birth injuries can help families pay for these expenses. Lawyers often work with experts in putting together an "Life Care Plan," which calculates the life-time cost of a child's injuries. These costs include hospitalization, surgeries, specialized medical treatments, prescriptions, home improvements and equipment, etc.

Your legal team will collect medical records from the time of pregnancy and birth of your child, along with firsthand reports from relatives. These records will be used to prove that your child suffered an injury due to negligence on the part of a medical professional and to prove the extent of the damage caused.

Many states have enacted medical indemnity funds to provide financial assistance to families of children who suffer from birth injuries. These funds collect a portion from malpractice insurance premiums, or require hospitals and doctors to contribute to an asset pool. In addition to providing financial aid, these programs can reduce the need for families to file a lawsuit. However, JLARC staff found that the programs don't always meet their goals and should be improved.

Life Care Planning

Children suffering from conditions such as cerebral palsy or hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy are likely to have long-term medical needs. These requirements include physical therapy, specialized equipment, and home health. In many cases, these costs can be quite substantial.

A life-care plan is a document that specifies the future medical, educational, in-home and other costs that disabled children are expected to pay for the rest of his or her life. These plans are typically used to determine the economic portion of damages in a birth injury lawsuit. They should be comprehensive and carefully drafted to satisfy the strict requirements for evidence admission in the court.

Life-care planners can assist to develop these documents based on the input and opinions of the child's medical professionals or therapists as well as caregivers. The plans also include an in-depth description of the initial injury and diagnosis. They provide the causes of the disability as well as its long-term effects.

A medical malpractice attorney should collaborate with a planner for life to create the most effective plan for their client's needs. The aim of the plan is to ensure that your child receives sufficient compensation to cover all future expenses and care. The money is usually placed into a trust for special needs, which is administered by an administrator approved by the trustee. Typically the amount granted will be adjusted over time to meet changes in your child's needs.

Pain and Suffering

In a case involving a birth injury there are damages awarded for the plaintiff's past and future pain and suffering. This includes the physical and mental suffering caused by the injury as and the inability to participate in activities that others are able to perform.

You can also recover lost earnings if the injury of a victim restricts their career options or prevents them from working at all. In addition, families can be compensated if required to provide care for an injured child.

The verdicts in medical malpractice cases are typically very high as juries are often sympathetic towards victims and hold doctors accountable for their actions. Many doctors and hospitals settle rather than risk an expensive trial and stressful for all involved.

Both sides will collect evidence to support their arguments in the course of trial. They will exchange documents during the process of discovery, which involves deposing a witnesses to obtain statements under oath. The defendants could also ask to examine the medical records of a plaintiff, which is legal in most states.

A successful birth injury law firm injury lawsuit requires a skilled lawyer in these kinds of cases. An experienced attorney will review the circumstances of your case, determine if it satisfies the legal requirements and work to secure the best financial settlement possible.

Punitive Damages

Certain medical malpractice lawsuits contain punitive damages, which are meant to communicate a message and discourage any future negligent behavior. The award of these damages is made when there is a high level of negligence or malice on the part of the doctor. However, they are very rare in birth injury cases.

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

The economic losses are usually calculated by making estimates of the cost of the child's ongoing treatment, birth injuries including long-term care facilities and other services. They can also include lost earnings if a traumatic event caused one or both parents to lose their job.

The legal team will prepare a demand package that they can present to the malpractice carriers. This document will detail the birth injuries and their effects on the child and family, and ask for compensation for these losses. The lawyers will negotiate until a settlement has been reached with the medical professionals. In this process, lawyers will share information about their cases with the other side through discovery, which entails depositions of witnesses who are required to testify under an oath.