Birth Injury Compensation

It can be a devastating experience if your child suffers a birth injury as a result of the negligence of a doctor. These injuries usually require lifelong treatment and care, leaving you with massive financial burdens.

Many birth injury cases also require a lengthy debate on medical malpractice versus medical errors. Our lawyers can help you learn the distinctions.

Costs of Treatment

In determining the amount to give for a birth injury lawyers from insurance companies and judges evaluate the degree of the injury as well as the impact it has on the child's life quality. If a child needs intensive medical treatment that continues throughout the course of time the value of the claim will rise.

Medical treatment for birth injuries can be extremely expensive. The compensation for a birth injury lawyer injury can help families pay for these expenses. Lawyers often collaborate with experts to put together an "Life Care Plan," that calculates the total costs of a child's injury. These include hospitalization or surgical intervention, medical treatment prescriptions, home improvements and other equipment, and many more.

Your legal team will gather medical records from the pregnancy as well as the birth of your child, along with personal accounts from relatives. These records will be used to demonstrate that your child suffered an injury due to negligence by a medical professional, and to demonstrate the extent of the damage caused.

Many states have established medical indemnity funds, which provide financial aid to families of children who have suffered birth injuries. These funds may either take 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 help reduce the need for families to pursue a lawsuit. However, JLARC staff found that these programs do not always meet their goals and need to be improved.

Life Care Planning

Children with conditions such as cerebral palsy or hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy are likely to have ongoing medical requirements. This includes physical therapies as well as specialized equipment and home health care. These costs can often be significant.

A life-care plan is a document that specifies the future medical, educational, in-home and other costs that a disabled child will incur for the rest of his or his or her life. These plans are used to calculate the economic amount that is awarded in the event of birth injury lawsuits injury. They must be thorough and carefully designed to meet the strict requirements for evidence admissibility in the court.

Life-care planning experts can assist to create these documents based on the input and opinions of the child's doctors caregivers, therapists, and doctors. The plans include a detailed narrative about the initial injury and its diagnosis. They explain the underlying causes of the impairment as well as the long-term effects.

A medical malpractice lawyer should collaborate with a life-care planner to create the most effective plan for their client's needs. The goal of the plan is to ensure that your child is provided with adequate compensation to cover all of their future care and expenses. The money is usually put into a trust account for special needs, which is administered by an authorized administrator. Typically the amount awarded will be adjusted periodically to reflect changes in your child's future requirements.

Suffering and Pain

In cases involving birth injuries, damages are awarded to compensate the plaintiff for future and past discomfort and pain. This includes mental and physical discomfort caused by the injury and the inability to participate in the activities that are normally enjoyed by other people.

It is also possible to recuperate for income loss if the disability of a victim limits their professional options or prevents the person from working at all. In addition, families may be compensated if needed to take care of an injured child.

The verdicts in medical malpractice cases are usually very high, as juries are often sympathetic to victims and hold doctors accountable for their actions. Many hospitals and doctors opt to settle rather than risk an expensive trial and stressful for all parties involved.

During the trial, lawyers for both sides will gather evidence to prove their points. They will share documents through a process known as discovery, which includes the deposition of witnesses to obtain statements under an oath. In most states, defendants can also demand access to the plaintiff's records.

A successful birth injury claim requires a lawyer with experience in these kinds of cases. An experienced lawyer will examine the facts of your case, determine if it satisfies the specifications for a lawsuit and seek out the most favorable financial settlement that is possible.

Punitive Damages

Some medical malpractice suits also include punitive damage awards intended as a warning and to prevent future negligence. The award of these damages is made when there is a high degree of malice or negligence on the part the doctor. However, they are rare in birth injury cases.

Once the attorney has identified the appropriate defendants, they need to collect and analyze evidence to support their claims. They must prove that the injuries caused by medical professionals failed to meet a high standard of medical care. The legal team also needs to prove the damages resulting from these injuries, also known as "damages." This information could be either economic or non-economic in nature.

Economic losses are typically calculated by estimating the cost of the child's ongoing treatment, including long-term care facilities as well as other services. They can also include loss of earnings in the event that the injury caused one or both parents to quit their jobs.

The legal team will prepare a demand package to be presented to the malpractice lawyers. This document will detail the birth injuries, and their impact on the child and the family, and request compensation for the loss. The lawyers will negotiate with the medical providers until a settlement is reached. During this negotiation, the lawyers will share information about their cases with the other side through discovery, which includes taking depositions from witnesses who are required to testify under oath.