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A Nebraska cerebral palsy lawyer is a powerful ally if a child has disabilities due to medical negligence. Cerebral palsy is a common neurological condition affecting motor control and movement, but in some cases, it’s preventable. An experienced lawyer can also help you if your child has faced discrimination because of disabilities.
Do I Need a Nebraska Cerebral Palsy Lawyer?
There are many reasons to need a lawyer when you have a child with disabilities. Finding the right Nebraska cerebral palsy lawyer is an integral part of providing for your child’s ongoing care and support.
Finding a lawyer as soon as possible will save you stress and time later. There are time limits on legal actions you can take, and the laws and processes can be complicated to get through without a legal professional on your side.
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Get Help NowSome of the reasons you may need a cerebral palsy lawyer include taking legal action to get justice and recover damages for medical malpractice, ensuring opportunities and access later, and ensuring your child gets appropriate special education services.
Additionally, there are other things you could need a lawyer for, such as setting up trusts and managing any settlements you receive.
How a Nebraska Cerebral Palsy Lawyer Can Help You and Your Child
One of the most critical ways that a lawyer can help is by ensuring you can file a lawsuit for medical malpractice that has the best chance of success.
These lawsuits are essential for holding medical professionals responsible for the harm they cause by negligent actions. They are also crucial in recovering damages to help pay the costs of care for your child.
Negligence is not uncommon, and there is every possibility that your child’s disabilities would not exist if it weren’t for a medical mistake.
A good lawyer can help you determine if negligence occurred, help you file a medical malpractice lawsuit, investigate and work with experts to make your case, and give you a better chance of winning.
A Nebraska cerebral palsy lawyer can also help your child as they grow. Laws protect children with disabilities and ensure access to special educational services, but schools sometimes fail to provide them.
A lawyer can help you face your schools and other organizations and ensure your child gets services, adaptive technologies, access, and opportunity.
How to Find the Right Lawyer
For your child with cerebral palsy and disabilities, you need a lawyer with real expertise and experience in limitations and state medical malpractice laws.
Don’t settle for anything less than a lawyer who specializes in medical malpractice cases and one who can show you a proven track record of successful cases.
You may want to ask around with people you know in similar situations. Other parents with disabled children and community groups that work with families like yours can help guide you in the direction of a good lawyer.
You can also turn to the state bar association to find a lawyer in good standing and with the right expertise.
Medical Malpractice Laws in Nebraska
Medical malpractice laws vary by state, and you need a basic understanding of those in Nebraska to help make better decisions. Your lawyer can guide you, but you should also know some of the major laws that impact how and if you can seek justice for your child.
The statute of limitations, for instance, can limit when you file a lawsuit. For medical malpractice in Nebraska, you have just two years from the time of the negligence or one year from when you discovered it to file a lawsuit.[1]
Nebraska also has a law that impacts how much you can seek damages in a lawsuit. The state has capped total costs, economic and non-economic, at just $1.75 million.[2] Experts believe cases will challenge the cap in the future, but for now, you cannot recover more.
Further, you will need to rely on your lawyer to help you get past the state’s medical review panel before you can file a lawsuit.
The medical review panel requires you to present evidence and expert medical testimony. The panel will decide your case has merit to allow you to proceed with a lawsuit.
Disability Rights in Nebraska
There are state laws that protect the rights of disabled people, but for a child, the federal laws are most important. For instance, your child is entitled to a free and appropriate education under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act.[3]
If your child is not provided every opportunity at school, you may need a lawyer to force the school to act.
Cerebral Palsy and Disability Cases in Nebraska
There are plenty of examples of Nebraska cerebral palsy lawyers succeeding in winning justice and compensation for their clients.
In one unfortunate case, a baby born in 2010 at Methodist Women’s Hospital suffered severe brain damage after staff made several mistakes.
The midwife and doctor providing care failed to manage the baby’s difficulty breathing and misused forceps, among other errors. A jury in their malpractice suit awarded the parents of the baby $11.5 million.[4]
If your child was born and diagnosed with cerebral palsy, you might have a valid medical malpractice case. Mistakes happen all too often, and it is essential to hold medical professionals responsible for them.
You can rely on a Nebraska cerebral palsy lawyer to help make your case, advise you in making decisions, and give you the best chance of helping your child by recovering damages to pay for care, treatment, and lifelong support.
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Get Help NowReferences
- Medical liability/Malpractice statutes of limitation. (2014, March 20). Legislative News, Studies and Analysis | National Conference of State Legislatures.
Retrieved from: https://www.ncsl.org/research/financial-services-and-commerce/medical-liability-malpractice-statutes-of-limitation.aspx - Article 28 - Nebraska hospital-medical liability act. (n.d.). Smarter Legal Research | Casetext.
Retrieved from: https://casetext.com/statute/revised-statutes-of-nebraska/chapter-44-insurance/article-28-nebraska-hospital-medical-liability-act - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). (n.d.). Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. U.S. Department of Education.
Retrieved from: https://sites.ed.gov/idea/ - Hubbard, R. (2019, October 16). Jury awards $11.5 million to Omaha couple in medical malpractice lawsuit over child’s birth. Omaha.com.
Retrieved from: https://www.omaha.com/livewellnebraska/jury-awards-million-to-omaha-couple-in-medical-malpractice-lawsuit/article_e0dc28e6-9b05-11e6-aeb1-0325d33f0cf9.html