HurtCallMax · Alberta injury resources
A future-care assessment is about supported needs and reasonable costs over time. It is not a shopping list or a total that can be reliably generated from an injury label.
Connect a proposed expense to evidence
Ask the treating team and your lawyer what recommendations and records are needed to explain the assistance, equipment or treatment being considered. The frequency, duration and reason for a proposed item should be clear.
A legal assessment may involve health professionals, rehabilitation specialists and financial evidence. Who is qualified to address each question, what further assessment is needed and who pays for it should be discussed before reports are ordered.
Keep a useful care record
- The task being performed, how often it is needed and who currently helps.
- Appointments, treatment recommendations and changes in ability.
- Receipts and quotes, with the date and what each amount includes.
- The layout or access issue relevant to a proposed home modification.
- Existing public, private or employer benefits that may respond.
Family assistance deserves a clear description
Record actual tasks and time without inflating them. Distinguish ordinary family activities from additional assistance arising after the injury. A family member’s observations can help explain daily realities, but they do not replace a professional assessment where one is needed.
Avoid a false total
Life expectancy, changing needs, replacement cycles, available benefits and financial assumptions can affect an assessment. This page does not publish standard lifetime-care prices or claim that a particular injury always produces a particular award. Ask how each assumption in a proposed calculation is supported.
Describe each proposed support separately
- Personal or attendant care: specify the tasks, frequency, current assistance and the recommendation being relied on.
- Treatment and rehabilitation: separate current appointments from proposed future care, and identify who recommends the proposed plan.
- Equipment: record the item, fit or assessment needed, purchase or rental terms, maintenance and possible replacement.
- Home access: describe the actual entrance, bathroom or other barrier before assuming a particular renovation is required.
- Transport: explain the mobility or access need and the available alternatives rather than assuming a vehicle modification is always recoverable.
- Household assistance: distinguish tasks previously performed, additional help now required and any assistance already paid for.
- Coordination: record which professionals or family members arrange care and where a need remains unmet.
Understand what each expert contributes
A treating professional may address the medical outlook. An occupational therapist or other rehabilitation professional may assess function and daily tasks. A cost or financial expert may address prices and future assumptions. Their roles are different, and not every file needs the same roster of reports.
Ask the lawyer what question each proposed report should answer and how it helps resolve an actual disputed issue. Discuss fees, funding and the consequences if the matter does not result in recovery. HCM does not promise that every participating firm pays every expense in advance.
Review the assumptions, not just the total
A projection may change when frequency, duration, replacement intervals, expected changes in need or available benefits change. Ask to see these assumptions clearly. A recurring expense multiplied by an assumed lifetime is not, by itself, a present-value assessment.
Keep income-loss calculations separate from future-care costs so that the same task or expense is not counted twice. Ask how unpaid family help and existing benefits are treated in the proposed assessment.
If a structured payment arrangement is proposed, ask about payment timing, flexibility, security, costs and tax treatment with appropriately qualified advisers. This page does not promise a tax result, inflation protection or the suitability of an annuity.
When the prognosis is still changing
Tell the lawyer about pending assessments, recommended surgery or a change in support needs. Ask which uncertainty can be addressed now and which requires further information. There is no fixed month at which every serious injury reaches a final prognosis, and waiting for medical clarity must not mean overlooking legal deadlines.
Content update — September 27, 2026
Unsupported cost bands and generalized financial assumptions have been removed. The guide now explains what evidence to prepare and which questions to ask.