Welcoming a new baby is a moment that families often anticipate with love, excitement, and plans for a bright future. Everyone expects the delivery process to culminate in a healthy infant placed gently in their arms. When that joy is shattered by a birth injury, parents are left grappling with overwhelming worries and heartbreak.
Instead of celebrating a cherished milestone, they face questions about whether their child’s injury could have been prevented, how to secure proper care, and how to navigate the stressful financial and legal challenges ahead. If your child’s birth injury may have resulted from medical malpractice or negligence, you may be eligible to recover birth injury compensation through legal action.
Many parents are unsure where to begin or how to manage costly medical needs, therapies, or lifelong support requirements. Our birth injury lawyers at ABC Law Centers investigate what occurred, determine whether malpractice occurred, and advocate for those who have endured emotional and financial harm.
Birth Injuries and Medical Malpractice
A birth injury can take many forms, but in each case, an infant’s well-being is jeopardized, often leaving lifelong complications that demand comprehensive medical care and support. Medical malpractice refers to errors or substandard care delivered by healthcare professionals.
If doctors, nurses, midwives, or healthcare systems fail to adhere to a standard of care in monitoring fetal health, performing timely deliveries, or responding to complications, severe harm can result. When these negligent actions or omissions lead to birth injuries, families are thrust into emotional, physical, and financial turmoil.
Pursuing a legal claim under medical malpractice law with the assistance of an experienced birth injury lawyer can address these difficulties. Although no legal remedy can erase the distress of witnessing your child in pain or facing developmental challenges, compensation may provide financial security and stability. This allows you to better manage medical bills, therapy expenses, and other necessities required to nurture your child’s development.
Common Types of Birth Injuries in Malpractice Cases
Birth injuries often involve harm to a baby’s brain, nerves, bones, or other critical structures before, during, or immediately after delivery. Some common birth injuries that arise in medical malpractice cases include:
- Cerebral Palsy (CP): This involves motor function impairment, muscle rigidity or looseness, and difficulties with posture and coordination. Cerebral palsy can result from oxygen deprivation, brain bleeds, or other trauma during or around the time of birth.
- Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE): A brain injury that occurs when the baby suffers oxygen deprivation. HIE may occur when healthcare providers do not address fetal distress or complications in a timely manner and do not deliver in time.
- Brain bleeds: Brain bleeds can occur due to trauma during birth or hypoxia (lack of oxygen in the baby’s brain). They can lead to severe brain injury without prompt treatment.
- Brachial Plexus Injuries (Erb’s Palsy/Klumpke’s Palsy): Damage to the network of nerves controlling movement in the shoulder, arm, and hand. Such injuries can happen due to excessive force during delivery, particularly in shoulder dystocia situations.
- Fractures or Broken Bones: Improper use of forceps, vacuum extractors, or excessive physical manipulation can lead to fractures, including broken collarbones or other skeletal injuries.
- Facial Nerve Damage: Sometimes, improper use of delivery instruments can damage cranial nerves, leading to facial paralysis or partial paralysis.
- Spinal Cord Injuries: Rare but severe, these may occur from high-impact trauma during labor or surgical errors.
An experienced birth injury attorney looks at whether these conditions or injuries could have been prevented if medical professionals had consistently followed established guidelines. A thorough legal and medical investigation is often the first step toward holding healthcare providers accountable.
Tell us your story.
Dealing with a birth injury diagnosis can be difficult, but our attorneys can help. The ABC Law Centers: Birth Injury Lawyers team focuses exclusively on birth injury and are dedicated to earning justice for families like yours.
Types of Birth Injury Compensation
In a birth injury lawsuit, parents and guardians may pursue various types of damages. Typically, these are broken down into two categories:
Economic Damages
Economic damages refer to tangible financial losses that can be calculated. Examples include medical bills, rehabilitation and therapy costs, assistive devices, ongoing care expenses, attendant care, lost earning capacity, and other quantifiable financial burdens.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages address intangible harm. This can encompass pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of companionship, or diminished enjoyment of life. These losses do not have a fixed price tag and often require expert testimony or other supporting evidence to determine a fair amount.
What Compensation Covers
Birth injury compensation can provide relief for many real-life struggles that parents and children face, both now and in the future. From medical expenses to emotional burdens, birth injury settlements and verdicts reflect the scope of costs linked to medical negligence and malpractice.
Medical and Hospital Expenses
These expenses start accumulating long before the baby leaves the hospital. Prenatal care, delivery room charges, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) bills, and emergency procedures all contribute to staggering totals. Financial compensation can address current bills and projected medical costs for treatments and procedures required later in childhood or adulthood.
Therapy and Long-Term Care Costs
Babies with injuries like cerebral palsy or HIE might require various therapies over many years. Physical therapy focuses on improving mobility. Occupational therapy helps develop skills for daily tasks. Speech therapy can aid in communication and feeding. Attendant care is also needed in many cases. Birth injury compensation can fund these services, making them more accessible and ensuring continuity of care as your child grows.
Assistive Devices and Home Modifications
Some children with mobility or developmental challenges may need wheelchairs, specialized seating devices, lifts, communication aids, or hearing devices. Families may need to modify their homes with ramps, widened doors, or specialized bathroom fixtures. These changes can be expensive and often require ongoing updates as a child grows.
Loss of Future Earnings
If a birth injury affects a child’s ability to work or earn a living in the future, a birth injury compensation claim can seek to recover for that lost earning capacity. Expert economists frequently calculate these damages based on factors such as life expectancy, the child’s probable career trajectory if uninjured, and local economic conditions.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering damages can compensate for both the physical pain the injured child experiences and the emotional distress that families endure as a result of medical malpractice. While no sum can fully undo the ordeal, this category attempts to address the real mental and emotional anguish resulting from the experience.
Loss of Enjoyment of Life and Emotional Distress
Birth injuries can deprive children of many experiences that their peers enjoy. They may miss out on sports, social events, or typical childhood milestones. Families dealing with medical complications can feel a strain on relationships, heightened anxiety, and psychological effects. Non-economic damages sometimes account for these intangible losses.
Birth Injury Laws and Regulations
Across the United States, medical malpractice laws set forth the general parameters of birth injury litigation. The statutes can vary by jurisdiction, but some common elements include filing deadlines, potential damage caps, and how liability is decided.
Statute of Limitations in Birth Injury Cases
Most states have a specific timeline, referred to as a statute of limitations, within which parents can file a birth injury lawsuit. In many cases, special rules extend or pause (toll) that timeline. For example, some jurisdictions allow a suit to be filed on behalf of the child until the child reaches a certain age. A lawyer can tell you what your statute of limitations is under your state’s laws.
Caps on Damages
Some states place limits (caps) on non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. Non-economic damages include subjective losses like pain and suffering. Economic damages, such as medical bills or ongoing therapy expenses, are often not limited. An experienced birth injury attorney familiar with your jurisdiction’s rules will be able to explain the impact of any caps on your potential compensation.
Informed Consent and Medical Errors
Many medical negligence and malpractice cases also examine issues of informed consent. Healthcare providers must explain proposed treatments and the associated risks or alternatives. If a provider omits a crucial risk factor or fails to communicate complications, and that omission results in a birth injury, there may be grounds for a malpractice claim. Your lawyer can help determine if informed consent protocols were adequately followed.
Tell us your story.
Dealing with a birth injury diagnosis can be difficult, but our attorneys can help. The ABC Law Centers: Birth Injury Lawyers team focuses exclusively on birth injury and are dedicated to earning justice for families like yours.
The Legal Process of Pursuing Birth Injury Compensation
Each birth injury case involves multiple steps, from initial investigation to trial or settlement. Our team of birth injury lawyers have been guiding families like yours throughout this process for over 25 years. We handle all aspects of your case so you can focus on your child.
Initial Consultation and Investigation
Your first step might be an initial consultation with ABC Law Centers: Birth Injury Lawyers, during which you tell us about your child’s injury. Our legal team then reviews hospital records, tests, imaging studies, and other relevant documents. Our in-house nurses will further review your child’s records to determine if the birth injury likely resulted from negligent care.
Filing a Birth Injury Lawsuit
If the investigation reveals that there was medical malpractice, we file a complaint in the appropriate jurisdiction. This legal document outlines the factual and legal bases for the lawsuit and identifies the medical provider(s) and facility as defendants. Once the complaint is filed, the legal process formally begins.
Discovery and Expert Testimony
Discovery is a stage where both sides exchange information and relevant documents and interview witnesses under oath. Expert witnesses, often doctors or medical professionals, review the evidence and explain how the defendants’ conduct aligns with or deviates from the standard of care. The findings of expert witnesses can prove pivotal in demonstrating liability and the extent of harm.
Settlement Negotiations
It is common for the parties to negotiate a birth injury lawsuit settlement before trial. A settlement can provide a quicker resolution than waiting on court proceedings and potential appeals. However, families should weigh any offer against the lifelong costs of ongoing care, therapies, and lost opportunities. Our lawyers will help you evaluate whether the settlement covers your child’s current and future needs.
Trial and Appeals
If settlement negotiations do not produce a satisfactory agreement, the case may proceed to trial. During the trial, each side presents arguments, witness testimony, and evidence to a judge or jury. After a verdict, an appeal is possible, which can prolong the process.
Our experienced attorneys will manage the complexities at every stage, advocating for the most favorable outcome possible under the law.
Reach Out for a Free Case Review
Talking to a lawyer may feel intimidating. Yet, understanding your legal options can bring clarity and open doors to birth injury compensation that can transform your child’s life.
If you choose to move forward, our lawyers will thoroughly investigate your case and explain your legal options. Our team has a network of leading medical, economic, and forensic experts who help address the unique costs your family confronts, from ongoing therapy to assistive technologies and beyond.
If you are unsure whether you have grounds for a lawsuit, our team will do an initial case review to help you decide the best course of action.
Contact ABC Law Centers when you’re ready. Our team knows that your priority is your child and your time is precious, which is why we offer multiple ways to contact us or schedule a consultation at a time best for you. There is no cost or obligation to work with us if you decide to speak with us. We are here to listen compassionately, answer your questions, and let you know what your options are.
While we cannot change the events of the past, we strive to give parents peace of mind, help ensure accountability, and empower them to build a stable future for their children.
