California
Motorcycle Injury Accident Attorneys
Rebuilding
Your Life After a Motorcycle Injury:
The Life Care Plan
When
a client walks into our office, we listen to them describe what
has happened to their lives. We understand how devastating and difficult
it can be to deal with a serious motorcycle injury, and how
important it is to you to get your life back together.
At Michael Padway & Associates, we use our many years of experience
with cases similar to yours to help you get back on your feet and
put the trauma of your motorcycle injury behind you. Medically,
we know that you need to have a Life Care Plan. The Life Care Plan
is your medical care plan that needs to take care of your medical
needs for the rest of your life with respect to your motorcycle
injury. If your motorcycle injury interferes with earning
a living, you need a Life Care Plan that includes as much rehabilitation
and retraining as will be helpful, and you may need a substitute
for lost income on an ongoing basis. Not all California motorcycle
injury attorneys have experience with the extent to which adequate
compensation can provide for an interesting and full lifestyle,
even with significant, disabling and permanent injuries. Not every
case will result in the funding level that we would like to see,.
We do what we can to uncover the resources to help you. Insurance
is not always adequate, and liability may be an issue.
We don't claim that we can make every case work, but we do believe
that we can maximize your recovery with the case you have. We're
been here for injured people and their families time and again,
and that means understanding your specific set of circumstances.
We're not just here to process you - our goal as motorcycle injury
lawyers is to help you get your life back.
Building
Your Life Care Plan
Step
1 - Your care providers must evaluate the activities of daily
living and functional capacity in a detailed report prepared by
an experienced therapist or with information from a medical expert.
We start by assessing your abilities, given the extent of your injuries.
This allows evaluation of the ways in which your abilities can be
used to their fullest, and what restrictions can be dealt with to
improve your life. For example, the report may show us that an adaptive
bathtub is needed for a quadriplegic so that a caregiver won't have
to bend down to lower them into a bathtub. Or it may provide for
a ceiling lift, so that a regular bathtub may be used. Or both.
If the injured client is more functional, maybe they can't cook
with heavy cookware, so they need lightweight aluminum and maybe
a rolling cart level with the stove so that they can push pans on
and off without lifting. Maybe they need cleaning and laundry help.
Maybe they need bowel and bladder care from a qualified nursing
professional or a less qualified aide. Perhaps they can work, but
need special tools, equipment, or training.Your California motorcycle
injury attorney must understand the subtleties involved with
your particular injury and its treatment. For example, you may need
more than one wheelchair because they wear out. So the Life Care
Plan calls for replacement every few years. Bed rails to keep you
from falling off the bed may also need to be replaced. Electric
wheelchairs, properly fitted, with adaptive equipment for a paraplegic
with limited upper body movement can cost in the tens of thousands
of dollars. Non-electric, standard, non-fitted chairs are much cheaper.
Your attorney must be sensitive to these differences.
Step 2 - The next step is to have a rehabilitation person
list all of the equipment and help you need in view of the disabilities,
and to determine the cost of those items. Where needed, a vocational
rehabilitation report is generated. This specialist can work with
you to identify your best income opportunities, and the effect on
earnings that your injury will have. Maybe you cancan still work,
but everything takes so long. For example, you might still be able
to do accounting, but can't move around the office, or work a keyboard,
or move files. Someone else has to do these things, or there may
be a technological work around. Maybe you were an automotive mechanic,
but now you will have to learn to program performance chips. The
central document that pulls the issues together is a Life Care Plan
that lays out all of the equipment and personnel and its cost, over
the course of a lifetime. This is supplemented by the Vocational
Rehabilitation Report.
Step 3 - Lastly, an economist figures out the present amount
of money required to pay for these things over a lifetime. The stream
of payments, with presumptions about inflation and rate of return
on conservative investments are taken into account, and provision
is made for periodic large expenditures, such as a future surgery,
or re-doing a handicap equipped living space.
Examples of services you may need:
· Funding
for medical care
· Medical
Insurance in the future
· Vocational
retraining and help discovering your new career choices
· Adaptive
equipment at home so that you can move around and take care of yourself,
alone or with assistance
· Adaptive
equipment so that you can operate a vehicle, or travel
· Adaptive
equipment so that those who help you don't have to struggle so much
· Psychological
help to deal with your injuries and their effect on your life
· Funding
for an experimental procedure that may be available in the future
· Resources,
information and support groups to help you deal with your injury
· Budgeting
for your ongoing treatment and needs
· Mapping
out a plan for the future
Click
here for answers to your questions about injury law and how to find
a California motorcycle lawyer that is right for you
If
you or a loved one has been injured in a motorcycle accident,
call Michael Padway & Associates, California motorcycle
accident attorneys serving Oakland, San Francisco
and San Jose, at 415-777-1511, or fill out this online
contact form. Meet with us and find out how we can help you
start rebuilding your life and get you a fair settlement for your
injury.
Michael
Padway & Associates
595 Market Street, Ste 2520
San Francisco, CA 94105
415-777-1511
800-928-1511
Contact Michael Padway & Associates
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