In 2025, the national median cost for a non-medical in-home caregiver was $35 an hour, and private-duty skilled nursing ran a median of $90 an hour. A few hours of help each week adds up fast, especially when care may be needed for years.
A personal injury claim can potentially cover future home care when an injury creates a need for assistance. That can include help with daily activities, skilled nursing, equipment, and certain home modifications. To recover those costs, you generally need evidence that the care will probably be necessary because of the injury, along with a reasonable estimate of its cost. The exact requirements depend on the law governing your claim.
Key Takeaways: Can a Personal Injury Claim Pay for Future Home Care?
- A personal injury claim can potentially include reasonable future home-care costs made necessary by an injury.
- Evidence should explain what care you will need, why you will need it, how often, for how long, and what it is expected to cost.
- You may be able to claim future care before you begin receiving those services.
- Potential expenses include personal assistance, skilled nursing, rehabilitation, medical equipment, and accessibility modifications.
- Whether unpaid family care can be included, and how it is valued, depends on the governing law.
- A settlement generally ends your ability to seek additional compensation from the released parties, making careful planning important.
What Future Home Care Costs Can a Claim Include?
A future home-care claim can potentially include the reasonable cost of services and resources an injury makes necessary. What is recoverable depends on the evidence and the law governing the claim.
These costs tend to fall into five broad categories, though not every case involves all five:
- Personal assistance can include help with bathing, dressing, grooming, eating, transfers, toileting, and other daily activities.
- Medical or skilled care can include skilled nursing, wound care, medication management, physician-directed home health services, and rehabilitation.
- Equipment and supplies can include wheelchairs, hospital beds, transfer equipment, prosthetics or orthotics, and medical supplies.
- Home modifications can include ramps, accessible bathrooms, doorway widening, and other changes needed to make the home accessible.
- Support services can include injury-related transportation, respite care, case management, and other assistance supported by the evidence.
The connection to the injury matters. For example, an accessible shower may be part of a claim when an injury prevents someone from safely using their existing bathroom. The estimate should explain why the modification is needed and what the necessary work will reasonably cost.
Available insurance benefits can also affect how these expenses are handled. For example, in New Jersey auto accident cases, future medical expenses payable through available personal injury protection (PIP) benefits generally cannot also be recovered from the responsible driver at trial. Your attorney can help determine which expenses belong in the injury claim and which should be submitted through available coverage.
How Do You Prove That Future Home Care Will Be Necessary?
Proving the need for future home care generally means connecting the requested services to the injury and showing that the need is more than a possibility.
The precise legal standard varies. For example, New Jersey’s model jury instruction on future medical expenses asks whether those expenses are reasonably probable and requires proof of the probable need for care and the reasonableness of its cost.
Supporting evidence may address:
- The diagnosis and expected recovery
- Physical or cognitive limitations
- Physician recommendations
- Rehabilitation assessments
- Current assistance requirements
- Expected changes in the condition
- Frequency and duration of care
- Equipment needs and replacement schedules
- Anticipated changes in the level of assistance
There is a meaningful difference between saying, “I may need help someday,” and documenting a specific future need.
For example, a physician might explain that a spinal injury will prevent someone from transferring safely between a bed and wheelchair without assistance. An assessment can then identify how often that help will be needed and whether additional support is likely over time.
That gives the claim a clearer foundation than a general concern about what might happen.
Who Calculates the Expected Duration and Cost of Care?
For serious or permanent injuries, a life care planner may organize projected medical, rehabilitation, equipment, and home-care needs into a detailed plan. That work generally draws on medical evidence and input from treating providers and other qualified professionals.
Several professionals may contribute:
| Professional | Main role |
|---|---|
| Treating physicians and specialists | Explain the prognosis, identify medical needs, and recommend treatment or assistance |
| Rehabilitation professionals | Assess functional limitations and identify support needed for daily activities |
| Life care planners | Organize projected services, equipment, frequency, duration, and costs |
| Economists, when needed | Assess financial issues such as future cost changes and present value under the applicable rules |
Not every case needs a life care planner. A more limited period of assistance may be supported by provider recommendations, records, and cost estimates. Whether expert testimony is required depends on the issues and the governing law.
National cost surveys can provide context, but a claim needs estimates suited to the person’s actual care. Local provider rates, the required level of skill, the number of care hours, and anticipated changes in need can all affect the calculation. State rules may also affect which cost evidence can be used.
Can Unpaid Care From Family Members Be Valued?
Unpaid care from a family member can potentially be included in a personal injury claim. Whether it is recoverable, and how its value is calculated, depends on the governing law.
For example, in Bandel v. Friedrich, the New Jersey Supreme Court recognized recovery for the reasonable value of necessary home-health care provided without charge by the injured person’s mother. That is a New Jersey example, rather than a nationwide rule.
Several related concepts deserve separate attention:
- Paid professional care involves services provided for a fee. Invoices, care records, and provider rates help document the expense.
- Unpaid family assistance can include injury-related help with bathing, dressing, transfers, meals, medication reminders, and other tasks.
- Lost household services concern tasks the injured person previously performed and can no longer manage. Whether these losses are recoverable, and who may claim them, depends on state law.
- Future professional care is paid assistance expected to be needed going forward, based on the person’s condition and supporting evidence.
These categories can overlap. A claim should identify the actual services and losses without counting the same assistance twice.
A family member’s lost wages are also different from the reasonable value of caregiving services. Missing work to provide care does not automatically make those wages recoverable in the injured person’s claim.
Documenting Attendant Care, Nursing, and Household Assistance
A future-care claim gets easier to evaluate when records show what assistance is being provided, how often, by whom, and why the injury makes it necessary.
Three categories of records can help:
- Current care records: Dates, hours of assistance, specific tasks, the person providing care, and any medical supervision involved.
- Future care evidence: Provider recommendations, expected frequency and duration, anticipated changes in need, equipment replacement, and proposed home modifications.
- Cost evidence: Invoices, local hourly rates, written provider estimates, equipment prices, and estimates for necessary accessibility work.
Family caregivers can keep a straightforward care log. For example, an entry might record 30 minutes helping with bathing and dressing, followed by 15 minutes assisting with a transfer and mobility exercises recommended by a provider.
Specific entries are more useful than a general statement that a family member “helps all day.” Record hands-on assistance and any injury-related supervision or standby help separately. Explain why each is needed, rather than treating all time spent together as caregiving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can future home care be claimed in a settlement, or only at trial?
Future home-care costs can be addressed in settlement negotiations or presented at trial when supported by the evidence and governing law. Including a projected expense in a demand does not guarantee that the other side will agree to pay it.
What happens if my care needs turn out to be different from what was estimated?
Once you settle and release the claim, you generally cannot seek more money from the released parties just because your care costs turn out to be higher than expected. That makes a careful assessment of future needs important before settlement.
Who pays for a caregiver before any settlement is reached?
Payment depends on available coverage and benefits. Eligible services may be covered by insurance or a public benefits program, subject to its requirements and limits. The injured person or family may have to pay expenses that are not covered. A pending personal injury claim does not automatically provide ongoing payments for care.
Can a family member get paid directly for providing care before the case resolves?
An eligible family member may be able to receive payment through a separate caregiving program. For example, some state Medicaid programs allow qualifying relatives to become paid caregivers. That is different from including the value of unpaid family care in a personal injury claim.
Is there a minimum level of injury needed to claim future home care?
An injury does not necessarily have to be permanent or catastrophic to create a compensable need for future assistance. The key questions are whether the injury makes the care necessary, whether the expected need is sufficiently supported, and whether the governing law allows recovery.
Does getting a life care plan cost the injured person anything?
Preparing a life care plan generally involves a professional fee. How that expense is advanced or paid depends on the arrangement with the attorney and expert. Ask how expert costs are handled under the representation agreement, including whether they are deducted from a recovery and what happens if the claim is unsuccessful.
Get Legal Help from Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney at Law
Recovering from an injury can leave you managing medical appointments, changes at home, and concerns about how to pay for the help you need. You do not have to work through those questions alone.
Brandon J. Broderick, Attorney at Law, is here to help you understand your options and pursue compensation for care your injury makes necessary. Our team can help gather supporting records, work with appropriate professionals, and address questions about future expenses, taking some of that stress off your plate so you can focus on your recovery.
Contact us to discuss your injury and the support you may need in the years ahead.