United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I need help. WE go to mediation in a couple of months after three years in the making and I am asking anyone that has settled or won their case to please help me. I am trying to get an idea of how cases are going so I can take it to mediation with us. If you can give details, please do, i.e. amount, area you live, degree of injury and so forth. Feel free to email me directly or answer on the boards. longleaf2@cs.com. No names will be used for anything, I'm just trying to show the defense that we are not the only case out there.
Thank you in advance,
Rhonda Tillman

Rhonda,

I recently viewed a packet of Medical Malpractice verdicts...little summaries of cases and verdicts etc. And what we learned from this was that it seems like there was absolutely no rhyme or reason to any of this.

There were some major cases where children died or children were completely paralyzed and machine dependent and the verdicts were very small and then there were some cases that looked small but ended up really big. It was really amazing.

Basically the only thing I learned from it is that it was most certainly the skill of the attorney to convince a jury.

As far as setttlements, someone posted here recently that the highest settlement was in chicago and it was $3.3M and then someone else posted that there was a $2.?M in NJ I think...

I'm in the deposition stage myself - so I can't say anything about mediation but I'm certain people who have gone through it will come forward. I wish you the best - strength and gumption to come to that mediation table and fight for what you think your child should get.

-francine

I am interested in this also.

Here is one attorney's opinion of your (our) question...

"I would say that the overwhelming majority of cases that settle before trial settle in the range of $350,000 to $750,000. Many things affect value, but the single most important factor is the degree of functional permanent disability. In the "typical" Erb's pasly (upper arm) paralysis where the child can get the upper arm parallel with the ground, the range above is usual. The more the disability, the greater the value, and vice versa. In a recent case, where the child had a global paralysis, with virtually no function at all of arm, wrist, hand or fingers, the case settled high, in excess of $2M.

Other factors that have a significant impact on settlement value are:
1. whether or not the child had surgery, and if so, the surgical findings;
2. the amount of the defendant's insurance coverage;
3. the venue where the case is pending (is the area small and rural, or urban, liberal or conservative, etc?) and
4. the strength of the liability (i.e. how great is the risk of losing and getting nothing?).

There are many many more things that might influence a given case, and the key is, I believe, to understand that every case is different and, if the attorney is knowledgeable, trust the attorney's judgment."

My son is 3 now and has had 2 surgeries. He had c5 & c6 ruptured and c6 & c7 avulsed. He has very limited use of his right arm & no hand and wrist function. We live in Southern Alabama but have out of state attorneys. Thank you for all of your input. Everything is helpful!!
Thanks Again,
Rhonda

My son is 3 now and has had 2 surgeries. He had c5 & c6 ruptured and c6 & c7 avulsed. He has very limited use of his right arm & no hand and wrist function. We live in Southern Alabama but have out of state attorneys. Thank you for all of your input. Everything is helpful!!
Thanks Again,
Rhonda

The information Francine provided is right on target...first the "no rhyme or reason" deduction and then the attorney' input. We went through a mediation a few months before our trial date but we walked away from the offer, if you can call it that. Two weeks before trial we accepted a settlement. It took just 2 years for all to transpire. You need to approach a mediation/settlement with a bottom line/amount in your head. We based ours on our daughter's injury (severe and permanent, 2 avulsions, 2 surgeries to date, lifetime of therapy) and the strength of our case (2 previous broken collar bone births, many risk factors for mother with 3rd). We live in a conservative county and verdicts/settlements reflect this over all. Although our daughter has had good return from surgeries she will need therapy and other unforseen assistance as she ages. My husband and I set our bottom line and our attorney negotiated. We decided it was better to accept a certain settlment (amt. of which we were pleased with) than to risk trial. In all truthfulness I didn't want a jury to see my daughter. She's rather robust and her arm isn't atrophied (she has adema so it's deceivingly chubby). She can bear weight and has function, a lot from compensation. I was afraid a jury would take one look at my happy, outgoing, chubby girl and they wouldn't "see" her disabilities. The attorney is highly experienced with birth injuries and he did an excellent job for us. I was confident we'd win at trial but I wasn't sure of the kind of verdict we'd get...our settlement was in the range of what a probable verdict would have been.

Best of luck!