How much does a life care plan cost?
The short answer: most run $2,500–$10,000. The useful answer is what moves the number — and when your case doesn't need the full instrument at all.
The numbers, up front
Published industry figures place most life care plans between $2,500 and $10,000. Straightforward single-system injuries — one joint, a resolved fracture with residuals — sit at the low end. Catastrophic, multi-system injuries — brain injury, spinal cord injury, polytrauma — sit at the top and beyond it.
Two figures usually surprise attorneys budgeting their first plan. First, the fee reflects real hours: a defensible plan takes 30–50 hours of record review, evaluation, cost research, and drafting over four to six weeks. Second, testimony is typically billed separately — in heavily litigated catastrophic cases, the full engagement through trial can reach $15,000–$30,000.
Against that: the plan is the evidentiary foundation for future-medical damages that routinely run six and seven figures. The fee is rarely the constraint; picking the right instrument is.
What actually drives the price
Injury complexity. Each involved body system adds evaluation, future-care categories, and costing work. A mild TBI plan and a TBI-plus-SCI plan are different animals.
Records volume. Three years of treatment across a dozen providers reads slower than six months at one hospital. Review hours scale with the chart.
Evaluation. An in-person or tele-evaluation (typically 3–4 hours) strengthens the plan but adds scope; records-only engagements cost less.
The planner's credential. Physician-authored plans command higher fees than nurse-authored plans — and survive cross-examination differently. A surgeon-planner recommends and defends treatment on their own authority; a non-physician planner borrows someone else's medical opinions. You are buying the credential that will sit in the witness chair.
Testimony. Deposition and trial time is usually hourly and separate. Budget for it in contested cases from day one.
When you don't need the full plan
If the case is non-catastrophic, pre-litigation, or deadline-driven, an abbreviated medical cost projection delivers a credible future-cost number at a fraction of the fee — industry pricing runs from a few hundred dollars for template products to a few thousand for physician-signed analyses, on a days-to-two-weeks timeline.
The decision logic is covered in our companion guide: Life care plan vs. medical cost projection — which does your case need?
And if a projected case later escalates, a well-built projection expands into a full plan by the same expert — the earlier spend isn't wasted.
Budgeting FAQs
Hourly or flat fee?
Both exist in the industry. Flat-fee engagements fix the price for a defined scope — predictable for case budgeting — with testimony billed separately. That's our model: a fixed quote after a no-cost case review.
Is a plan worth it in a mid-size case?
Often the right answer is a medical cost projection instead — most of the persuasive value at a fraction of the fee. The honest broker test for any vendor: do they tell you when you don't need their expensive product? We prepare both, so our incentive is fit, not upsell.
When should I engage the planner?
Work backward from your expert-disclosure deadline: four to six weeks of preparation, plus record-gathering time before that. Engaging early costs nothing extra and protects the timeline; engaging three weeks before disclosure limits your options.
Want a fixed quote for your case?
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