Birth Injury Compensation

If your child has a birth injury as a result of a doctor's negligence or wrongful action, it can be devastating. These injuries usually require lifelong treatment and care, leaving you with huge financial burdens.

Additionally, many birth injury cases have a complex argument over medical malpractice versus medical mistakes. Our attorneys can explain the differences.

Costs of Treatment

Attorneys, insurance companies, and judges consider the severity of the birth injury lawsuits injury and the impact it affects the child's quality of life in determining the amount of compensation to be awarded. If a child requires intensive medical treatment that continues throughout the course of time the value of the claim will increase.

The medical treatment for birth injuries can be expensive. Compensation for birth injuries can help families cover these costs. Experts and lawyers often collaborate to create an "Life Care Plan" which estimates the costs of a child’s injury over a lifetime. These include hospitalization and surgical procedures, as well as specialized medical treatment prescriptions, home renovations and equipment, and more.

Your legal team will collect medical records from your child's pregnancy and birth injury lawyer as well as firsthand reports from family members. These records will be used to prove that your child was injured due to medical malpractice and to prove the extent of the injury.

Many states have established medical indemnity funds, which provide financial assistance to families with children who suffer birth injuries. These funds either collect a portion from malpractice insurance premiums or require doctors and hospital to contribute to the resource pool. In addition to providing monetary assistance, these programs could reduce the requirement for families to file a lawsuit. However, JLARC staff found that these programs may not always achieve their goals and should be improved.

Life Care Planning

Children who suffer from conditions like cerebral palsy and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy will face lifelong medical needs. These needs include physical therapy, special equipment, and home health care. These expenses can be substantial.

A life-care plan is a document that outlines the future medical education, home-based, and other expenses that disabled children are expected to pay for the rest of his or their life. These plans are often utilized to calculate the economic component of damages in a birth injury lawsuit. They should be comprehensive and carefully designed to meet the strict evidentiary requirements for admission in the court.

Life-care planning experts can help to develop these documents based on the input and opinions of the child's doctor as well as therapists and other caregivers. The plans also contain a detailed account of the injury that caused it and its diagnosis. They provide the causes of the disability as well as its long-term consequences.

A medical malpractice attorney should work with a life-care planner to draft the best possible plan for their client's specific situation. The aim of the plan is to ensure that your child receives adequate compensation to cover all of their future expenses and medical care. The funds are usually put into a special needs trust, which is overseen by a licensed administrator. Typically the amount given will be adjusted regularly to reflect changes in your child's future requirements.

Suffering and Pain

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

It is also possible to recover for the loss of income when a victim's disability limits their career options or prevents them from working. Families can also receive compensation for the care and treatment of an injured child.

The verdicts for medical malpractice cases tend to be very high as juries tend to be sensitive to the victims and hold doctors accountable for their mistakes. Because of this, many hospitals and doctors choose to settle instead of undergoing an appeal, which can be expensive and stressful for all parties involved.

During the litigation attorneys from both sides will collect evidence to justify their arguments. They will share documents during a process called discovery, which involves the deposition of witnesses to obtain statements under swearing. The defendants may also request to review the medical records of the plaintiff, which is legal in many states.

A successful birth injury lawsuit requires a lawyer with experience in these types of cases. A seasoned attorney will analyze your case to determine if you have a valid lawsuit and work to find the most effective settlement.

Punitive Damages

Some medical malpractice lawsuits contain punitive damages, which are meant to communicate a message to discourage future reckless behavior. These damages are awarded when there is a substantial amount of malice or negligence on the part of the doctor. They are very rare in the case of birth injuries.

After the attorney identifies the appropriate defendants, they must gather and analyze evidence to back up their assertions. They must demonstrate that the injuries sustained by medical professionals did not meet the standards of care required. The legal team must also be able to prove the costs associated with these injuries, known as "damages." This information can be both economic and non-economic in nature.

Economic losses are calculated by the estimation of ongoing treatment costs, including long-term treatment facilities and other services. They can also include lost earnings if an injury caused one or both parents to lose their job.

The legal team will then create a demand document to present to the malpractice lawyers. The document will outline the birth injuries and the impact they have on the child and family, and demand compensation for the loss. The attorneys will negotiate until a settlement has been reached with the medical providers. In this process, lawyers will share information regarding their cases with the other side through discovery, which involves taking depositions from witnesses who swear to their testimony under oath.