Birth Injury Compensation

If your child has a birth injury resulting from a doctor's negligence or wrongful decision, it could be devastating. These injuries can require lifelong treatment and care. You'll be left with a huge financial burden.

Many birth injury cases have a complicated debate about medical errors versus malpractice. Our lawyers can help you understand the differences.

Costs of Treatment

In determining the amount to pay for a birth injury attorneys from insurance companies and judges consider the extent of the injury and the impact it has on the child's life quality. If a child requires extensive medical treatment which continues for a long time the value of the claim will rise.

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

Your legal team will gather medical records from the pregnancy as well as the birth of your child, as well as personal accounts from relatives. They will be used to prove that your child suffered an injury due to negligence in the medical field and to show the extent of the harm caused.

Many states have established medical indemnity funds, which provide financial aid to families of children who suffer birth injuries. These funds either collect part of malpractice insurance premiums, or require hospitals and doctors to contribute to the resource pool. In addition to providing monetary aid, these programs can also decrease the need for families to make a claim. However, JLARC staff found that the programs don't always meet their goals and need to be improved.

Life Care Planning

Children with conditions such as hypoxic ischephalopathy or cerebral palsy will require medical treatment throughout their lives. This includes physical therapy, special equipment, and home health care. These costs can be quite substantial.

A life-care planning document is an outline of the future medical, educational, home and other expenses that a child with disabilities is likely to have to pay for throughout his or her lifetime. These plans are frequently used to determine the financial portion of damages awarded in a case involving a birth injury. They must be thorough and meticulously drafted to meet the strict requirements of evidentiary for admissibility in the court.

Life-care experts can assist in the development of these documents based on the input and formal opinions of a child with disabilities' doctors as well as therapists and caregivers. The plans also contain a detailed narrative of the injury's initial diagnosis. They provide the reason for the disability and its long-term consequences.

An attorney for medical malpractice should work with a life care planner to draft the best possible plan for their client's situation. The plan's goal is to ensure that your child receives sufficient compensation to cover all of their future expenses and medical care. The funds are usually put into a trust account for special needs, and is overseen by an administrator who is approved. The amount of money given is typically adjusted regularly to reflect the changing needs of your child.

Pain and Suffering

In a birth-related injury case damages are awarded to cover a plaintiff's past and future pain and suffering. This includes physical and mental distress from the injury, and the inability to engage in the activities that are normally enjoyed by other people.

You may also be able to recover lost income if an injury limits their options professionally or stops them from working at all. Families can also be compensated to help care for an injured child.

Medical malpractice cases often receive extremely high verdicts, as juries tend to show empathy for victims and hold medical professionals accountable for their mistakes. Due to this, many hospitals and doctors choose to settle instead of taking on the possibility of a trial, which is costly and stressful for the parties involved.

Both sides will gather evidence to support their arguments during the litigation. They will also exchange documents during the process known as discovery, which involves deposing a witness to get statements under an oath. In many states, defendants may also request to view the plaintiff's records.

A successful birth injury law firms injury lawsuit requires a lawyer with experience in these types of cases. An experienced lawyer will evaluate your case to determine whether you have a valid lawsuit and will work to get the best settlement.

Punitive Damages

Some medical malpractice suits contain punitive damages awards, intended as a warning and to discourage future negligence. They can be awarded in cases involving particularly serious negligence or where there was willful misconduct on the part the doctor. However, they are extremely rare in birth injury (go here) cases.

After the attorney has identified the appropriate defendants, they have to collect and analyze evidence to support their claims. They must demonstrate that the injuries incurred by medical professionals were not at the standard of care. The legal team also needs to provide evidence of the damages resulting from these injuries, known as "damages." This information can be both economic and non-economic in nature.

Economic losses are figured out by making estimates of ongoing treatment costs including long-term facilities and other services. They can also include lost earnings if a traumatic event resulted in both parents to lose their job.

The legal team will create a demand form to be presented to the malpractice carriers. The document will explain the birth injuries, and their impact on the child as well as the family, and request compensation for the losses. The lawyers will negotiate with medical providers until an agreement is reached. During the discovery process, lawyers will exchange information with the other party on their case. This may include taking depositions of witnesses who swear to testify under oath.