A spinal cord injury, severe brain injury, amputation, or major burn can change a person’s life in seconds. The full cost of these injuries, however, often becomes clear only over years or decades.
For New Yorkers seeking compensation, the hardest question is often what care will be needed for the rest of the injured person’s life. An experienced personal injury attorney, working with a life care plan crafted by experts, can help uncover the answer.
Components of a Life Care Plan
A life care plan is a single document that lists each required item or service and its projected cost for people living with disabilities or chronic health conditions. Personal injury attorneys use life care plans to develop realistic estimates of costs for settlement negotiations or trials.
What a Life Care Plan Typically Covers
Life care plans generally organize future costs into categories such as hospitalizations and surgical procedures, preventive care, and ongoing treatment. Components of care can include:
- Physician and specialist follow-up visits
- Diagnostic testing
- Therapies
- Durable medical equipment
- Home and vehicle modifications
- Home health or attendant care
- Medications
Who Prepares a Life Care Plan
Plans are typically prepared by a rehabilitation expert with a Certified Life Care Planner credential. Planners holding this credential, often nurses, rehabilitation counselors, or other health care professionals, must complete 120 hours of approved training, submit a sample plan for peer review, and pass a certification exam. A physiatrist, a physician who specializes in rehabilitation medicine, is the central consultant who helps identify likely complications, additional testing, and adaptive equipment needs.
An economist often works alongside the life care planner to project how these costs will grow with inflation over the injured person’s expected lifespan.
How Life Care Plans Fit New York Law
In New York, juries in personal injury cases must separate each category of damages into past and future amounts and state the number of years future awards are meant to cover. In medical malpractice cases, the rule goes further, requiring juries to specify for each future economic item the annual amount in current dollars, the period of years, the growth rate, and whether the loss is permanent.
A well-supported plan also helps insurers, mediators, and juries understand why each item is necessary, linking every recommendation to the injured person’s medical records and treating physicians’ opinions. Because juries must break future damages down by category, amount, and duration, a detailed life care plan gives them the structure they need to reach an itemized verdict.
New York law directs juries to award the full amount of future damages without reducing them to present value, and plaintiffs may present expert testimony on how inflation will affect future costs.
Large awards for future damages are not always paid at once. Past damages and the first $250,000 of future damages are generally paid in a lump sum. Future damages above that amount are typically paid in periodic installments over time, often funded through an annuity. Medical malpractice cases follow a separate set of payment rules.
Expect the Defense to Push Back
A life care plan presented at trial or in settlement negotiations will be challenged. Defendants usually hire their own life care planner whose projections for care are less expensive, sometimes by millions of dollars. Thorough medical documentation and well-qualified experts can make the difference between a fully funded future and inadequate care.
Talk to a New York Catastrophic Injury Attorney
If you or a family member has suffered a life-altering injury, an accurate picture of future needs is essential to a fair recovery. Contact Samuel Martin Law to discuss your case and learn how a life care plan can help document the full cost of your injury.