When a child has a birth injury, parents experience emotional pain, medical concerns, and the uncertainty of what the future holds. Travelers of this difficult time, many families seek birth injury compensation to help pay for their child’s medical treatment, therapy, and future care, when needed.
Seeking compensation is not an easy procedure, especially because there are medical and legal details involved that can weigh down parents already going through trauma. One mistake, and it may impact your claim or completely prevent you from receiving the compensation your child deserves.
To assist you through this process, consider avoiding these mistakes when filing a claim for your child’s birth injury compensation and how you can protect your family’s interests every step of the way.
1. Waiting Too Long to File a Claim
One of the biggest mistakes of parents’ involved in a birth injury claim is taking too long to file their birth injury compensation claim. Every state has a statute of limitation — a strict limit of time you can file your case.
When you delay action you are potentially foregoing your right to seek compensation altogether. Even if you are uncertain of your case, it is always best to connect with a birth injury lawyer as soon as possible. An attorney can review your medical history, consult with medical experts, and provide an opinion as to whether your child’s injury was the result of malpractice.
2. Not Gathering Enough Medical Evidence
A strong medical record is the bedrock of a legitimate birth injury compensation claim. Unfortunately, many parents can only see what they have — incomplete or erroneous medical records, satiated with birth injury context — without ever, in their regular lives, coming to process the investigation of the extent of thorough documentation.
To prove, in the sense of a medical professional undertaking unreasonable risk of harm, your child was harmed by that medical professional, your attorney will want access to:
• Thorough prenatal care records
• Labor and delivery notes
• fetal monitoring strips
• neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) records
• medical imaging and neurologic evaluation
Medical professionals will review these medical records, evaluate whether or not standards of care were followed.
If there are missing medical records or any contradictions in the medical records, it could be catastrophic to your claim, and thus warrant further investigation.
Always make sure your legal team requests evidence to be collected from all medical professionals involved in the care processes of the birth.
3. Trying to Handle the Claim Without Legal Help
Another common and costly mistake is trying to navigate a birth injury compensation claim without the assistance of an attorney.
Birth injury cases are among the more convoluted types of cases involving medical malpractice, where the process involves both legal experience and a depth of understanding of medical terminology, hospital policies, and expert testimony.
Insurance firms and the legal teams of hospitals possess access to extensive funding and knowledgeable lawyers whose goal is to reduce benefit payments; presenting yourself without representation from an experienced lawyer put you in a situation where you will likely feel overwhelmed or compelled to accept an undervalued settlement amount.
By collaborating with a qualified birth injury attorney, your rights will be protected as they collect evidence properly and present the case in a way to best develop your interests in obtaining the most compensation possible.
4. Accepting a Settlement Too Quickly
After you submit the claim, you may receive an offer from the hospital or the insurance company for a settlement payment, which is generally accepted. In some situations, the settlement offer to you may appear attractive when your family has accumulated medical bills. Accepting the offer too early could potentially be a mistake.
Birth injuries (permanent or temporary) can be worth substantially more than the offer presented too early in the case. Coping with a birth injury presents challenges to the family for years that call for medical care, special education, and/or adaptive equipment, which could easily extend beyond a single lifetime. All of which makes suffering a birth injury unique cases worth pursuing.
Prior to accepting an offer for settlement, you should always have offer analyzed by a birth injury compensation lawyer everything, which includes a serious look at present and future available costs for medications, home care and living modifications, education and adaptive equipment for satisfactory adjustment to life. A settlement should cover current and future payments, and not just settle existing hospital/medical bills.
5. Failing to Consider Future Expenses
A birth injury will not only impact the present time; it will impact the entire future of your child. However, many families only think of immediate medical costs when pursuing compensation.
A comprehensive claim must include non-economic, long-term damages such as:
• Future medical care and surgeries
• Physical and occupational therapy
• Assistive devices and home modifications
• Lost earning potential
• Emotional and psychological effect on both child and family
Your legal team will frequently work with life care planners and economic experts to compute a full estimation of these damages. When families do not include long-term costs, they may find themselves with under-compensated damages leading to potential hardship in the future.
6. Overlooking Emotional and Non-Economic Damages
While financial costs are important, it is also important to recognize the emotional impact of a birth injury. Parents may also face distressed feelings of anxiety, grieving, and the ever-present worry of caring for a child with special needs.
In many cases families undervalue the inclusion of non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional distress in their damages.
Non-economic damages are valid forms of damages to correspond with the human dimension of the grieving process that your family has endured. They can help your total compensation. A compassionate lawyer will work with you to ensure that your family’s emotional distress is not excluded or under-valued.
7. Choosing the Wrong Attorney
Not every personal injury lawyer is experienced in cases of birth injury. It is possible that a lawyer may take a case involving medical malpractice, but they do not have the specialized knowledge to work successfully on those cases.
When hiring an attorney you want to look for:
• Someone who has demonstrated experience in birth injury and medical malpractice cases.
• Access to good qualified medical experts.
• A good track record of settlements and verdicts.
• Ability to communicate compassionately and transparently.
The right attorney is not just going to represent you, the right attorney will advocate for your child’s future.
Keep in mind that you are not only going through legal process. You are going through a fight for justice and lifelong security for your family.
8. Not Keeping Detailed Personal Records
In addition to medical records, family should keep their own records of their own personal records regarding the injury. Such records may include:
• Notes about hospital visits and conversations with doctors
• Receipts for medical care, therapy, and adaptive equipment
• Journals tracking your child’s improvements and daily struggles,
• Records of missed work and lost income.
These personal details, add to the broader panel of how birth injury has impacted your family, financially and emotionally, above and beyond a medical record. These records will not only support your claim of damages, it also is telling of the impact of your damages.
9. Ignoring the Emotional and Practical Support Available
The process of pursuing a birth injury compensation claim can be a lonely one, but you are not alone. Numerous families turn to support groups, nonprofit organizations, and legal advocates for assistance in navigating this difficult time, and they help many families, including parents of children with birth injuries.
Accessing support groups, organizations, and legal advocates to cope emotionally will help you connect with others who have shared similar experiences. It will also provide you with access to the appropriate professionals for providing guidance on care, benefit programs, and educational options.
10. Giving Up Too Soon
One of the saddest mistakes parents make is, in fact, quitting too soon — they think the case is either too difficult or they simply do not expect to pursue the case.
Hospitals and insurance companies love this. They will, for example, deny responsibility for car, or play the waiting game, and they know, in the end, families will quit pursuing the situation.
Everything matters, and everything can be different. With better form, many families have been able to go on and recover substantial settlements with the aid of an attorney that helps people. The taking care of their child and managing their social and education factors going forward are within reach.
Importantly, pursuing a birth injury compensation claim is not just about securing funds from responsible parties; it is about accountability, justice and securing your child’s quality of life going forward.
Conclusion
Making a birth injury compensation claim is profoundly emotional, but it can also provide the opportunity to establish a better future for your child.By taking care to not do any of the following common mistakes — waiting too long to pursue the claim, accepting a quick settlement offer, or going unrepresented with the benefits of hiring a competent and experienced attorney in a birth injury claim — you can further enable your claim and increase the odds for a successful outcome.
At Child Brain Injury Law Center, we are committed to helping families facing a complicated process with compassion and skill. We are focused on ensuring all children impacted by preventable birth injury are given the care, support, and justice they deserve.
If your family has been dealing with a birth injury, know that you do not need to fight this battle by yourself; Any time we can help — reach out today to learn how and to pursue compensation for a better future for your child.