Birth Injury Case Tools To Streamline Your Everyday Lifethe Only Birth Injury Case Trick That Everyone Should Know
Birth Injury Compensation
If your child is suffering from a birth injury due to negligence by a doctor or other wrongful decision, it could be devastating. These injuries usually require lifelong treatment and care, leaving you with huge financial burdens.
Many birth injury cases also involve a complex debate over medical errors versus malpractice. Our lawyers can help you understand the differences.
Costs of Treatment
Attorneys, insurance companies and judges take into account the severity of the birth injury as well as the impact it has on the child's life when determining the amount compensation to be paid. If a child requires extensive medical treatment that lasts throughout the course of time, the value of the claim will increase.
Medical treatment for birth injuries can be very expensive. Compensation for birth injuries could aid families in covering these costs. Lawyers often collaborate with experts in putting together an "Life Care Plan" which estimates the lifelong costs of a child's injury. These include hospitalization including surgical interventions, specialized medical treatment prescriptions, home improvements and equipment, and much more.
Your legal team will collect medical records from the time of pregnancy and birth of your child, as well as firsthand reports from relatives. These will be used to prove that your child suffered an injury as a result of negligence by a medical professional, and to demonstrate the extent of the harm caused.
Many states have established medical indemnity fund that provides financial aid to families with children who suffer birth injuries. These funds collect part of malpractice insurance premiums or require hospitals and doctors to contribute to an asset pool. In addition to providing monetary assistance, these programs may also reduce the requirement for families to file a lawsuit. However, JLARC staff found that the programs don't always achieve their goals and could be improved.
Life Care Planning
Children who suffer from conditions like cerebral palsy and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy will have lifelong medical needs. 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 establishes the future medical, educational, in-home and other costs disabled children are expected to pay for the rest of his or her life. These plans are used to calculate the economic amount that is awarded in the event of birth injury. These plans must be thorough and carefully designed to satisfy the strict requirements of admissibility.
Life-care experts can help develop these documents using input and formal opinions of disabled children's doctors or therapists, as well as the caregivers. The plans also contain an extensive description of the injury's initial diagnosis. They describe the underlying causes of the disability as well as the long-term effects.
A medical malpractice lawyer must collaborate with a life-care planner to create the most suitable plan for their clients' situation. The goal of the plan is to ensure that your child is provided with adequate compensation to cover all of his or her future expenses and medical care. The funds are usually put into a trust account for special needs, which is managed by an administrator approved by the trustee. The amount of money given is typically adjusted regularly to reflect the changing requirements of your child.
Pain and Suffering
In a birth injury case there are damages awarded for a plaintiff's past and future pain and suffering. This includes physical and mental suffering from the injury and the inability to engage in activities enjoyed by others.
It is also possible to recover for lost income if the disability of a victim limits their professional options or prevents them from working. Families could also be compensated to care for an injured child.
The verdicts in medical malpractice cases tend to be extremely high because juries tend to be sympathetic to victims and hold doctors accountable for their mistakes. Because of this, some hospitals and doctors prefer to settle instead of undergoing 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 through a process known as discovery, which entails deposing witnesses to get statements under oath. The defendants can also ask to review the medical records of the plaintiff as it is legal in the majority of states.
An attorney with experience in this kind of case is required to file a successful claim for birth injury. A seasoned attorney will analyze your case to determine if you have a valid claim and will work to obtain the most favorable settlement.
Punitive Damages
Certain medical malpractice lawsuits include punitive damage awards which are meant to serve as a warning and deter future negligence. They are awarded in cases involving particularly serious negligence or where there was malice on the part of the medical professional. They are not common in cases of birth injury law firms injuries.
After the attorney has identified the appropriate defendants, they must examine and gather evidence to support their claims. They must demonstrate that the injuries sustained by medical professionals were not at a high level of care. The legal team must also be able to show the losses associated with these injuries, also known as "damages." This information can be both economic and non-economic in nature.
Economic losses are typically calculated by estimation of the cost of a child's ongoing treatment, including long-term care facilities and other services. They can also include the loss of earnings if an injury caused both or one parent to lose their job.
The legal team will draft a demand package that they will submit to malpractice insurance providers. This document will detail the birth injuries and their effects on the child as well as the family, and ask for compensation for the loss. The lawyers will negotiate with the medical professionals until a settlement is reached. During this negotiation, the attorneys will discuss their cases with the opposing side through discovery, which includes taking depositions from witnesses who are required to testify under an oath.