Considering the Future Care Needs for Injured Children

by Jeffrey J. Kroll

Throughout our careers, the Personal Injury and Wrongful Death attorneys at Kaveny + Kroll have had the important duty of ensuring that injured children will have the resources to obtain the necessary care for future medical needs required for the rest of their lives.  When a jury reaches a verdict, an injured child cannot come back to a jury in the future and explain they cannot pay their medical bills.  While there is no perfect way to predict future care needs of a child, the Personal Injury and Wrongful Death attorneys at Kaveny + Kroll advocate for clients’ expected future medical needs and have a thorough understanding of how future costs are calculated.

In Illinois, future medical costs must be presented to the jury in their “present value” form.  While it may seem complicated, the present cash value of the future costs is the amount that will actually take care of a child’s future medical for the rest of their lives.  From an economic standpoint, to determine the cash value of child’s future life care plan is a two-step process.  First, you need to adjust the child’s life care plan for inflation.  Thereafter, one must discount it to present cash value.

Without getting too complicated, the individuals or corporate entities that injured the child will seek a higher interest rate or a higher-risk investment.  Where does that risk fall? With the child.  It is not fair, and it is something that an advocate for the child will argue.  As advocates for injured children, the child injury attorneys at Kaveny + Kroll understand these calculations and will provide the children with the best chance for a future to meet their future care needs.