The value of a birth injury case determines how much compensation you could recover if your case is successful. You’ll need to work with a birth injury lawyer in Maryland so they can help you value your case and pursue compensation for your damages.
How Do You Determine the Value of a Birth Injury Case?
The value of a birth injury case is based on the severity of the child’s injuries and the damages that have come as a result of those injuries. How long the injuries are going to last plays a role in the value of the claim, too. For instance, when the injuries are sustained at birth and result in a disability that will last for the rest of the child’s life, the settlement tends to have a higher value.
Economic damages play a major role in the value of a birth injury case, as these are financially measurable damages that you can be compensated for if you win your claim. Non-economic damages are also often calculated based on economic damages using something called the multiplier method.
Types of Damages Involved in a Birth Injury Case
Birth injury claims usually have economic and non-economic damages recoverable in them. While economic damages have a financial value that can be calculated or estimated, economic damages don’t. Your attorney can help you calculate the value of these damages; visit this page to contact an experienced birth injury lawyer.
Economic Damages
Medical Expenses
Medical expenses can add up quickly, and they’re often a significant financial burden for parents to handle after a birth injury. In the majority of successful cases, the parents will be reimbursed for these medical expenses that they’ve already paid. Parents may be reimbursed for the cost of medical equipment, medications, surgeries, consultations, and much more.
If the child is going to need further care going forward, then the parents may also recover compensation for future medical expenses.
Lost Wages and Earning Capacity
If one or both parents need to stop working to take care of the child, then they’re entitled to be reimbursed for the wages they missed out on while not working.
Damages for lost earning capacity are often recoverable, too. If the child won’t be able to work when they grow up, then lost earning capacity could factor into the value of the settlement.
Rehabilitation and Long-Term Care
Some children will need rehabilitation to learn to manage their condition as they grow up. They may also require long-term in-home care while growing up. Compensation for rehabilitation, long-term care, and similar may be recoverable as part of the economic damages involved in a birth injury claim.
Non-Economic Damages
There are many types of non-economic damages, and which damages apply depends on the case. In many cases, parents may be compensated for the emotional distress they experience by seeing their child suffering.
If the individual who experienced the birth injury is the one making the claim, which they can do once they turn 18, then they may recover compensation for their own physical pain, emotional suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, or other factors.
Are Punitive Damages Ever Awarded in Birth Injury Cases?
In very rare instances, punitive damages can raise the value of a birth injury claim. Punitive damages are a type of compensation that must be paid out as a punishment to the physician who committed medical malpractice. However, the physician must have acted particularly egregiously when committing the malpractice for punitive damages to be awarded, and these are uncommon.
Examples of egregious behavior that could result in punitive damages being awarded include being drunk while treating the mother and baby or deliberately lying to a patient.
Are There Caps on Damages in Birth Injury Cases?
There are no caps on the value of economic damages that can be awarded in a birth injury case in Maryland. However, there is a cap on non-economic damages. As of 2024, the cap on non-economic damages is $890,000. The cap on non-economic damages is higher if the birth injury resulted in a wrongful death.
Contact a Birth Injury Lawyer in Maryland
Birth injury cases can be very complex, and you’ll need help calculating the value of your claim. Once you’ve calculated the value, you’ll also need a lawyer to build your case. Ensure you’re working with an experienced attorney who has won similar cases to yours in the past. Having a skilled attorney by your side is essential when you’re trying to recover the full value of the birth injury claim.
The value of a birth injury case is based on the damages involved. First, you have to calculate the economic damages, and the non-economic damages will often be calculated from there. The details and damages involved in your claim determine its value, and working with an experienced birth injury attorney should help you recover the highest sum possible in your case.
