Wisconsin Cerebral Palsy Lawyer
This article has been fact checked by an experienced birth injury attorney. Sources of information for the article are listed at the bottom.
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If you have a child born with cerebral palsy, you probably have a lot of questions. You may want to know if your child’s injuries could have been prevented, or if someone is to blame for this. You are probably wondering what to do next. The best step you can take now is to find and hire a Wisconsin cerebral palsy lawyer.
This expert understands the laws regarding medical malpractice, know how to investigate to find evidence of negligence, and can guide your decisions so that you do what is best for your child’s future. Perhaps most importantly right now is that this lawyer is your best chance of recovering damages that will help pay for your child’s care and treatments.
When to Hire a Wisconsin Cerebral Palsy Lawyer
With a child diagnosed with cerebral palsy there is no time to lose in hiring the right lawyer. You need legal action if you even slightly suspect that your child’s condition could have been prevented with better medical care. There are limits on when you can file a medical malpractice lawsuit, so act quickly by finding a good Wisconsin cerebral palsy lawyer.
You may find your family in other situations as your child gets older that necessitate legal advice and guidance. For instance, if your child is not being given adequate accommodations or services at your local schools, you may need to take legal action.
And if you have to make decisions about your child’s future, you may also need to involve legal advice and documents. For instance, a living will is important for anyone with children but especially those with children who have special needs. Financial decisions, like how to seek compensation or benefits or how to set up a trust, will require a legal professional as well.
How Your Lawyer Can Help You Through the Years
Starting a successful medical malpractice case is an immediate way in which your lawyer can help you and your child. But there are many other ways that a cerebral palsy lawyer will help, now and in the future:
- Taking some of the pressure off as you make big legal decisions
- Providing expert information so you can make better decisions
- Giving you the best possible chance of recovering damages to provide your child with good care and early treatments
- Going up against organizations discriminating against your child
- Taking on your local schools or government agencies to ensure your child gets the benefits and services to which they’re entitled
- Drafting important legal documents for your child’s future and helping you make decisions in your child’s best interests.
How to Find a Wisconsin Cerebral Palsy Lawyer
You can find the right lawyer by searching in a few different ways, but make sure that the lawyer you select is truly a specialist in these kinds of cases. Your child needs an expert in malpractice, disability rights, and birth injuries to provide the best advice and best chances of winning big cases. This could make the difference between recovering damages and getting no compensation.
Search for this expert lawyer through the state bar association and through referrals from parents with disabled children or local groups that work with or advocate for the disabled. They should be able to provide you with names and law firms. From there you can interview and choose the legal team you feel is best suited for your needs.
Wisconsin Malpractice Laws
If you choose the right lawyer to guide your decisions, you’ll have expertise in the laws on your side. But you should still have some understanding of the laws in the state of Wisconsin to feel empowered about making those choices. For instance, you must file your malpractice lawsuit within three years of discovering that negligence occurred. And you cannot file after five years have actually passed from the negligent act.
The state also put a cap on the amount of money you can recover for non-economic costs, thinks like emotional suffering or pain. Several cases tested that cap, hoping to have it ruled unconstitutional. While an Appeals Court did find the limit of $750,000 was unconstitutional, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court disagreed and upheld the cap.
Disability Rights in Wisconsin
Laws that govern medical malpractice will be most important to you initially, but as your child gets older you need to understand that there are laws that protect the rights of the disabled. Federal laws, like the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, ensure that the disabled don’t experience discrimination and receive needed services, such as those that provide a free and appropriate education.
There are also several civil rights laws at the state level. Your lawyer will understand which laws apply in your child’s situation and how to file complaints and lawsuits to receive justice or ensure access and services.
Birth Injury and Cerebral Palsy Cases in Wisconsin
There are several examples of cases won for victims in the state, in spite of some restrictive laws. The role that Wisconsin cerebral palsy lawyers play in these cases is crucial. They help families win justice and compensation. In one example a baby was born at Hess Memorial Hospital in Mauston. Birth injuries led to quadriplegic cerebral palsy and severe disabilities. The family’s lawyer helped settle with the hospital to get them an award of $6 million.
In a bigger case from 2010 a doctor at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center was found negligent in forcefully using forceps and a vacuum to deliver a baby who ended up with brain damage and cerebral palsy. The family’s lawyer helped make the case that the doctor should have performed a C-section, and they recovered $22 million in damages.
Another big case was settled more recently for $22.5 million for the family and child harmed. In this case a newborn was undergoing surgery for a birth defect when errors with anesthesia resulted in oxygen deprivation and permanent brain damage. The lawyer of the family helped prove that the resident in charge of the anesthesia failed to do anything about the baby experiencing low blood pressure.
A diagnosis of cerebral palsy is not something any parent wants to hear, but your child can still have a great life, even living independently depending on the degree of disability. But if someone was responsible for brain damage that caused this condition and it could have been prevented, it’s time to seek justice. Let a Wisconsin cerebral palsy guide you through the legal process to a win for your child.
Sources
- http://wilawlibrary.gov/topics/medlaw/malpractice.php
- https://www.wiscnews.com/juneaucountystartimes/news/local/crime_and_courts/malpractice-case-settled-for-million/article_beb0de76-f1db-11df-8633-001cc4c002e0.html
- https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/health-med-fit/state-fund-pays-million-in-uw-malpractice-case-involving-injured/article_ecba5b9e-6016-5bc6-99fc-199c4679e0d0.html
