Birth Injury Lawsuit | Birth Injuries Lawyer
If you or your baby was injured during birthing, and this injury was caused by the medical negligence of your healthcare professionals, then you could be entitled to sue for significant compensation through a birth injury lawsuit with the help of a skilled birth injury attorney. Birth injuries can have traumatic, long-term impacts on the baby and its mother — as such, it’s critical that you pursue your claims so that you can cover the many losses that you’re likely to have sustained.
Understanding the potential outcomes, including birth injury lawsuit settlements, can help you prepare for the legal process and manage expectations.
Contact 1-800-THE-LAW2 to connect to an experienced birth injuries lawyer in our network for a free consultation.
Of course, if you’d like to learn more about what a birth injury lawsuit entails, and what sort of issues you’re likely to encounter as you navigate litigation, then keep reading! We’ll be covering some of the basics.
What is considered a birth injury?
According to the National Vital Statistics Report, a birth injury is “an impairment of the neonate’s body function or structure due to an adverse event that occurred at birth.” These injuries include a wide range of minor to major injuries due to various mechanical forces during labor and delivery.
Worth reiterating: birth injuries impact the babies themselves. These injuries can have lifelong impacts, causing physical and mental disabilities that negatively influence the baby’s future career, relationship, and lifestyle opportunities.
Sadly, many birth injuries are caused by the medical negligence of the doctors, nurses, and other professionals involved in labor and delivery. These healthcare professionals may have violated “reasonable care” in the process, putting your baby at risk for lifelong issues due to your child’s birth injury. In such cases, you may be able to sue for damages due to the birth injury they were involved in causing. You’ll have to be willing to file a birth injury claim, however.
What causes birth injury?
In most birth injury lawsuits, the birth injuries occur due to issues occurring in the birth canal that can result in physical trauma to the baby. Thus, factors that influence the size and shape of the birth canal, and pressure exerted on the baby during birthing, can contribute significantly to birth injuries. These include, but are not limited to:
- Large babies
- Premature babies
- Difficult labor
- Prolonged labor
- Pelvic disproportion of the mother
- Abnormal birthing presentation (i.e., the baby comes out legs first)
- Maternal obesity
- And more
When it comes to issues caused by medical professionals, such as the misuse of birthing assistance tools, failure to diagnose conditions, and more, these can significantly contribute to birth injuries. These include:
- Misuse of birthing assistance tools
- Failure to diagnose conditions that can contribute to birth injuries
- Choosing not to operate on the mother when doing so could have prevented birth injury
- Misuse of pharmaceutical drugs
- And more
For example, the attending physician’s choice not to recommend a C-section could result in birth injuries. This mistake could be considered medical negligence (i.e., medical malpractice) and could give rise to a birth injury lawsuit.
How often do birth injuries occur?
Birth injury statistics vary from state-to-state, and city-to-city — that being said, across the United States, there are (on average) seven birth injuries per 1000 births. Conditions such as cerebral palsy can result from these birth injuries, leading to lifelong challenges. That may seem insignificant, but it adds up to three birth injuries every hour! Despite how common birth injuries are, very few plaintiffs actually pursue a birth injury lawsuit – in part because it can be challenging to understand the long-term health impacts of a birth injury.
What is the most common form of birth trauma?
Common forms of birth trauma include:
- Brachial palsy (i.e., nerve damage in the baby’s arms, shoulders, and hands)
- Bruising (due to the trauma of passing through the birth canal and contact with bones and tissues)
- Scalp swelling
- Skull bleeding
- Facial paralysis (pressure on the baby’s face during delivery can cause damage to the facial nerves)
- Bone fractures
- And more
If any of these (or other) injuries occurred during the birth of your child, then you might be entitled to sue for compensation depending on if there was medical negligence involved and the extent of harm your child suffered. It’s worth talking to an attorney about this possibility in more detail.
How do I know whether I have an actionable birth injury claim?
For an actionable birth injury claim, you’ll have to satisfy certain “liability” elements common to most birth injury cases. These foundational elements are as follows:
- You sustained a birth injury and subsequent losses;
- The healthcare professional owed a duty of care to you;
- The injury was caused by the healthcare professional’s violation of said duty of care.
In some cases, a birth injury claim may also involve a medical malpractice lawsuit if the healthcare professional’s actions are found to be negligent.
Though this seems like a straightforward analysis, each element can be argued in-depth, due to the nuance that each entails.
For example, the defendant may try to argue that even if their actions caused you injury, their actions did not constitute a violation of the “duty of care” that they owed you. Alternatively, the defendant may try to argue that you did not actually sustain a birth injury and that your condition is due to some pre-existing injury that you are conflating with birth-related trauma.
Given these complexities and the many ways in which they can impact your claims, it’s important that you work closely with a qualified personal injury lawyer who can navigate the issues effectively.
What sort of compensation am I entitled to for my birth injury?
When you’re dealing with birth-related trauma and other birth injuries, you may be able to sue for compensation to cover all the losses that you sustained due to the defendant’s negligence, recklessness, and intentional misconduct. Claimable losses vary quite a bit and include medical expenses, lost wages, and more:
- Lost wages
- Loss of earning capacity
- Loss of property
- Healthcare expenses (i.e., medical bills for whatever medical treatment you received to deal with your injuries, supported by your various medical records)
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of companionship
- And more
Every birth injury lawsuit is different — both the facts surrounding the accident and the circumstances of the injured plaintiff — so, naturally, the potential damages tend to vary quite a bit from case-to-case, too.
For example, if you suffer a birth injury that prevents you from ever working again, then your wage loss compensation is going to be substantial since it has to account for future earning capacity until retirement age. By contrast, if your birth injury doesn’t prevent you from working, then your wage loss damages will be minimal.
Given the variation in compensation, it’s worth consulting an experienced personal injury attorney who can help you “work up” your case and build strong supportive evidence for your damages claim.
How much does a birth injuries lawyer cost? Do I have to be wealthy to afford legal representation?
You do not have to be wealthy to afford legal representation — in fact, you don’t need any money at all. Most personal injury lawyers (including birth injury lawyers) work on a contingency fee basis. That means they typically don’t cost anything upfront or out-of-pocket. Instead, they offer to represent you in exchange for a percentage cut of whatever compensation they’re able to secure on your behalf. This can range from 25 percent to 40 percent or more, depending on what you negotiate when you hire them.
Given the variation in compensation, it’s worth consulting an experienced birth injury lawyer who can help you “work up” your case and build strong supportive evidence for your damages claim. When you work with an attorney on contingency, they don’t get paid unless (and until) you get paid. If you don’t “win” compensation, then you’re not on the hook for fees. That makes it a lot less burdensome to pursue your legal claims since there’s really no risk to pushing ahead with litigation.
One of the other significant advantages of contingency fee arrangements is that they incentivize the attorney to work efficiently and effectively to maximize your compensation. Not only do they have to “win” compensation to get paid, but the more you get paid, the more they get paid — so they have a strong incentive to make sure that you get a favorable payout.
Contact 1-800-THE-LAW2 for a Free Consultation
If you or your baby have sustained an injury due to birth trauma, then you could have an actionable claim for damages that makes it worth pursuing a birth injury lawsuit. And in cases where your baby sustained a fatal injury, you could be entitled to bring a wrongful death lawsuit.
Navigating the birth injury lawsuit process can be overwhelming and confusing for a first-time plaintiff. That being said, navigating the legal process can be overwhelming and confusing for a first-time plaintiff — and this is further complicated by the expertise necessary to effectively tease apart the facts in a medical negligence case (i.e., a birth injury). We encourage you to get in touch with an experienced birth injury lawyer for guidance.
Contact 1-800-THE-LAW2 for a free consultation with a qualified local birth injury lawyer in our network. During this initial consultation, you’ll be able to discuss the details of your case and learn more about what steps you should take to secure compensation. If you decide against moving forward with the dispute, that’s okay, too — there’s no obligation for you to continue after you’ve had your consultation. So pick up the phone and call in today to get started!
We look forward to assisting you.
