Birth Injury Compensation

It can be devastating If your child suffers a birth injury due to an error by a medical professional. These injuries could require long-term treatment and care. You'll be faced with a huge financial burden.

Many birth injury cases require a lengthy debate on medical errors versus malpractice. Our lawyers can help understand the differences.

Costs of Treatment

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

Medical treatment for birth injuries can be very expensive. The compensation for a birth injury can help families cover these costs. Lawyers and experts often collaborate to develop a "Life Care Plan" which calculates the cost of a child's injuries over the course of a lifetime. These costs include hospitalization, surgery, medical treatments prescriptions, home improvement and equipment, among others.

Your legal team will gather medical records from your child's pregnancy and birth and also firsthand accounts from relatives. These records will be used to show that your child was injured as a result of medical malpractice and to demonstrate the extent to which the injury occurred.

Many states have enacted medical indemnity funds in order to provide financial assistance to families of children suffering from birth injuries. These funds either collect the portion of malpractice insurance premiums or require hospitals and doctors to contribute to an asset pool. In addition to providing monetary support, these programs can also reduce the requirement for families to file a lawsuit. However, JLARC staff found that these programs do not always meet their objectives and could be improved.

Life Care Planning

Children with conditions such as cerebral palsy or hypoxic ischephalopathy will need medical care for the rest of their lives. These needs include physical therapies or equipment for specialized use, as well as home health treatment. The costs for these can be significant.

A life-care plan is a document that specifies the future medical educational, in-home, and other expenses that a disabled child will incur throughout his or their life. These plans are used to calculate the financial portion awarded in a case of birth injury lawsuit injury. These plans should be thorough and carefully designed to satisfy the strict requirements of admissibility.

Life-care planners can assist to develop these documents with the input and opinions of the child's doctor as well as therapists and other caregivers. The plans contain a thorough description of the initial injury and its diagnosis. They also explain the root cause of the disability as well as the long-term consequences.

A medical malpractice lawyer must collaborate with a health care planner to draft the most appropriate plan for their client's situation. The plan's goal is to ensure that your child receives enough compensation to cover all of their future expenses and health care. The money is usually placed into a trust account for special needs, which is managed by an approved administrator. Typically the amount granted will be adjusted over time to meet the changing needs of your child's needs.

Pain and Suffering

In a case where birth injuries are involved that result in damages, the court will compensate the plaintiff for future and past discomfort and pain. This includes physical and mental pain caused by the injury as well as the inability of the plaintiff to take part in activities that others can do.

It is also possible to get compensation for income loss if the victim's condition limits their options for employment or stops them from working in any way. In addition, families may be compensated if needed to take care of the child who is injured.

Medical malpractice cases often receive very high verdicts, since juries tend to show empathy for victims and hold medical professionals accountable for errors. Because of this, many doctors and hospitals prefer to settle instead of taking on the trial process, which is expensive and stressful for the parties involved.

During the trial lawyers from both sides will collect evidence to prove their points. They will also exchange documents during the process known as discovery, which includes deposing witnesses to obtain their statements under the oath. In many states, defendants can also demand access to the records of the plaintiff.

A successful birth injury claim requires a lawyer with experience in these kinds of cases. An experienced lawyer will evaluate your case to determine whether you have a valid lawsuit and will help find the most effective settlement.

Punitive Damages

Certain medical malpractice lawsuits also contain punitive damages awards, that are intended as a warning, and also to deter future negligence. The damages can be awarded when there is a significant amount of malice or negligence on the part of the doctor. They are very rare in the case of birth injury compensation injuries.

After the attorney has identified the appropriate defendants, they must collect and analyze evidence to back up their claims. They must show that the injuries sustained by medical professionals were not at an acceptable standard of care. The legal team must prove the losses that were incurred with the injuries, which are referred to as "damages." These damages can be either economic or non-economic.

Economic losses are calculated by taking into account ongoing treatment costs which includes long-term facilities as well as other services. They can also include losses in earnings if the injury led one or both parents to quit their jobs.

The legal team will draft a demand Birth Injury Compensation package that they will submit to malpractice insurance providers. This document will describe the birth injury and its impact on the child's family and as well as request compensation to cover the expenses of these losses. The attorneys will negotiate with medical professionals until an agreement is reached. During the discovery process, lawyers will share information with the other party regarding their case. This includes taking depositions of witnesses who testify on oath.