KW Life Care Planning prepares life care plans and medical cost projections for attorneys handling medical malpractice cases in North Carolina.
Medical malpractice matters involve injury attributed to a departure from the accepted standard of care. The life care plan in these cases must isolate the incremental care the alleged breach made necessary from the baseline care the patient would have required anyway, which makes the causation opinions of the treating and retained physicians the foundation of the plan.
Care categories depend on the injury: delayed-diagnosis cases may involve oncology follow-up, surgery, and palliative care; surgical and anesthesia injury may involve neurological rehabilitation, wound care, ostomy supplies, or chronic pain management; medication and hospital-acquired injury may involve dialysis, organ transplant follow-up, or long-term nursing. The plan is organized by the same categories as any life care plan, with each item flagged as incremental or baseline.
Exposure is the cost of the incremental care across the evaluee's projected life expectancy. Because baseline care is excluded, the plan's value is highly sensitive to the physician's causation and apportionment opinions and to how the pre-existing condition would have progressed absent the breach. Plans often present both the full care profile and the incremental profile so the distinction is transparent.
The planner obtains causation and apportionment opinions from the physicians, builds the but-for baseline of expected care, and then documents the additional services, frequencies, and durations attributable to the injury. Every item carries its clinical source and local cost, and the plan states its methodology so it can be tested against the opposing expert's apportionment.
Medical Malpractice matters in North Carolina are litigated in the state's trial courts, with life care planning and future medical cost testimony evaluated under North Carolina's expert evidence standard. KW Life Care Planning prepares reports and testimony that account for these requirements.
Highest court: Supreme Court of North Carolina. Federal venues: E.D.N.C., M.D.N.C., W.D.N.C..
Source: North Carolina judiciary (nccourts.gov)
North Carolina civil claims are tried in the Superior Court. Workers' compensation claims, and tort claims against the state, are decided by the North Carolina Industrial Commission.
The planner documents what care the patient would have needed for the underlying condition absent the breach, based on physician opinion and the medical record, then lists separately the care made necessary by the injury. Items that fall in both are identified so counsel can address apportionment.
Treating physicians and any retained standard-of-care and causation experts. The life care planner does not opine on causation; the plan states which physician recommendations support each care item.
Yes. Rebuttal review examines the opposing plan's clinical foundation, frequencies, durations, cost sources, and treatment of baseline care, and identifies where it departs from the record or from accepted life care planning methodology.
They define the baseline. The plan projects how the pre-existing condition would have progressed and what care it would have required, then limits the claimed items to the additional care caused by the injury.
Contact our team to discuss how KW Life Care Planning can support your case with certified life care planning expertise. Request a Consultation or call (201) 343-0700.