Birth Injury Compensation

If your child suffers birth injury as a result of the negligence of a doctor or an unjust decision, it could be devastating. These injuries may require lifetime treatment and care. The family will be left with enormous financial costs.

Many birth injury cases involve a tense debate about medical malpractice versus medical errors. Our attorneys can explain the distinctions.

Costs of Treatment

Attorneys, insurance companies and judges weigh the severity of the birth injury and the impact it has on the child's development when determining the amount of compensation to be awarded. If a child needs intensive medical treatment that continues throughout the course of time the value of the claim will increase.

Medical treatment for birth injuries can be very expensive. The compensation awarded for a birth injury can assist families in paying for these costs. Lawyers and experts often collaborate to create a "Life Care Plan" which calculates the cost of a child's injuries over the course of a lifetime. These include hospitalization, surgical intervention, specialized medical treatment, prescriptions, home renovations and equipment, and much more.

Your legal team will gather medical records from the time of pregnancy and birth of your child, in addition to firsthand accounts from family members. These records will be used to prove that your child was injured due to medical malpractice, and to show the extent of the injury.

Many states have passed medical indemnity funds in order to help families of children who suffer from birth injuries. These funds pay a portion of malpractice insurance premiums, or require doctors and hospitals to contribute to an account of resources. In addition to providing financial assistance, these programs may reduce the necessity for families to bring a lawsuit. JLARC staff, however, found that these programs didn't always achieve their goals and need to be improved.

Life Care Planning

Children suffering from conditions like hypoxic ischephalopathy or cerebral palsy will need medical care throughout their lives. These requirements include physical therapy, special equipment, and home health care. These costs can be substantial.

A life-care plan document is a document which outlines the future medical, educational, home and other expenses a child with disabilities will be liable for throughout their life. These plans are typically used to help calculate the amount of damages awarded in a case of birth injury. They must be comprehensive and carefully drafted to meet the strict requirements of evidentiary for the admissibility of the plan in the court.

Life-care experts can assist to create these documents based on information and formal opinions from the child's doctor as well as therapists and other caregivers. The plans also contain a detailed narrative of the initial injury and diagnosis. They provide the cause of the disability and its long-term consequences.

A medical malpractice lawyer should work with a life planner to draft the most appropriate plan for their clients' situation. The plan's purpose is to ensure that your child is compensated enough to cover all of their future expenses and medical care. The money is usually placed into aarded when there is a substantial amount of malice or negligence on the part of the doctor. However, they are extremely rare in birth injury cases.

After the attorney has identified proper defendants, they must collect and analyze evidence to support their claims. They must prove that the injuries caused by the medical professionals did not conform to the a high standard of medical care. The legal team must provide evidence of losses associated with the injuries, which are referred to as "damages." These damages can be either economic or non-economic.

Economic losses are figured out by the estimation of ongoing treatment costs, which includes long-term facilities as well as other services. They could also include the loss of earnings if an injury has caused both parents to lose their job.

The legal team will then prepare a demand package to be presented to the malpractice carriers. The document will explain the birth injury and the impact it has on the child and their family and request compensation to cover the costs of these loss. The attorneys will negotiate with medical professionals until an agreement is reached. During the discovery process, attorneys will share information with the other party regarding their case. This may include taking depositions of witnesses who testify on oath.