For a child that has been injured at birth due to medical negligence, a life care plan is usually created to provide for the future medical needs for the rest of the child’s life. It’s a complicated matter that requires the participation of many specialists.
Planning for everything – right down to Band-Aids
We asked Jeff Milman, an attorney who has been practicing medical negligence law for 26 years and member of the Advocate Law Group, to explain how a life care plan works. Here’s what he said:
It is a plan usually created by a nurse that is certified as a life care planner. He or she interacts with the treating physicians of the child, the pediatrician, as well as experts that we retain for purposes of the case such as the pediatric neurologist, a pediatric physical medicine expert and a rehabilitation expert. The goal is to set forth all of the future medical care needs down to Band-Aids and medicines that this child may need over the course of his or her lifetime.
Plans are based on today’s dollar
Life care plans are based upon what it would cost in today’s dollar – so, making sure that all the child’s foreseeable expenses are covered couldn’t be more important. According to Milman, “The life care plan is for the baby’s lifetime. We get an economist who will basically evaluate that life care plan and put the figures in today’s dollars.”
“So for example, you may have a life care plan that deals with $12 million of needs of this child through age 75. However, the present value, meaning the amount that it would cost to write a check to let the money grow and cover all that may be say, $3 million. Of course, the other side will have competing experts that will say that our numbers are inflated, so we get to fight about that.”
Once you settle, you settle
We wondered if the family or the child has an opportunity to come back if there’s a later complication that will require more money than what the life care plan called for. According to Milman, basically, once you settle, you settle. He explained:
Under rare circumstances, if the child dies later on from the injuries, the family might be able to bring a wrongful death case if the death is related to the negligence. However, most defendants don’t want to include that and they want to write one check and be done with it. So I always joke with my clients and say, if you sign the settlement agreement and you get your money, if your neck and back turn green and fall off tomorrow, it’s your problem, not theirs.
There are different ways to settle cases. There are special needs trusts and there’s payment streams called annuities. Some annuities are guaranteed, meaning that if the child were to die, the heirs get the funds. Others are only for the life of the child.
Milman also told us that if you go to trial and have a verdict, the court can set limits, monitor and cut off payments that are ordered by the jury for future medical needs if there’s a change. He provided this example, “If the jury has allocated $3 million for future medical needs and the child dies two years later, the defendants can go to court on certain occasions and cut that stream off. However, that’s with a verdict; settlements are different and you can control how the money is allocated.”
If your child was profoundly injured or died as the result of medical negligence, contact an attorney whose practice focuses in this area of law for help. To contact an experienced attorney near you, please click here.
