Birth Injury Lawsuits Explained

Families expect that their medical professionals and doctors will ensure a high standard of care. When they do not, birth injuries can be catastrophic to families.

If you suspect that your child has suffered a preventable birth injury due to medical negligence or birth injuries, you should contact a birth injury lawyer to get help. A reputable lawyer will review your case for free and charge no upfront costs. To prove your claim, you must prove the four elements.

Duty of Care

Few life events are more exciting and special than the birth of a baby. Unfortunately, this process can be traumatic for parents if medical blunders cause severe injuries to their baby during birth and labor. These errors can be irreversible which can cause a lifetime of challenges for families.

Medical professionals and doctors have the legal obligation of treating their patients with the same respect and skill that is expected from health care providers in similar professions under similar circumstances. This is known as the duty of care. You must prove that a medical professional acted in violation of this duty in order to prevail on a case. This usually means proving that the medical professional's actions or the lack of them, differed from what a qualified and reasonably trained medical professional would perform under the same circumstances.

The second part of a negligence claim is the causation. You must establish, through medical records and expert testimony, that the at-fault healthcare professional's negligence caused the injury of your child. For instance, a doctor might not have been able to observe your child's vital indicators during labor and birth. This could have resulted in prolonged oxygen deprivation which, in turn, caused brain damage.

Damages are the last part of a successful negligence case. You must prove that you or your child suffered genuine, quantifiable losses as a result of the healthcare provider's lapse to perform their duty of care. This typically includes future and past medical expenses, lost wages, and non-economic losses like pain and suffering.

Causation

Medical professionals are required to patients to provide treatment that is in line with the highest standards of care in their field. A doctor or nurse who fails to adhere to the standard of care can cause injuries to a patient and lead to the possibility of a claim for damages. In order to be successful in a case that involves birth injuries, an attorney will need to prove that the breach of duty was responsible for your child's injury. This must be proved with evidence such as medical records or expert testimony.

It is also essential to establish that your child would not have suffered a traumatic injury if a medical professional had provided the standard of medical care expected. Medical experts are required to examine the situation and provide their opinion on whether or not the doctor or hospital performed a procedure that was not in accordance with accepted medical procedures.

Birth injuries can have life-altering consequences that require the need for a lifetime of medical care and other expenses. It is essential to hold at-fault physicians and hospitals responsible for their negligence and obtain compensation that will the future of your child's needs.

A lawyer who has handled medical malpractice cases is able to manage the entire legal process, including responding to insurance requests and filing a lawsuit against the accountable parties. They can also create a case using evidence, get expert testimony, obtain documents and medical records and advocate for fair settlements to pay for the family's lifetime medical costs and expenses.

Damages

Medical experts are needed to review medical records, witness statements from you and your family members, and other evidence in a birth injury lawsuit. They will determine if the doctor who is involved in your case acted outside of their duty to provide care and harmed your child. They will then estimate the damages you have suffered as a result of these injuries. These include the current and future medical expenses and loss of wages, loss of quality of life, emotional distress and other losses.

It can be a devastating experience for your family members when doctors, nurses and other medical professionals make unavoidable errors prior to or even after the birth injury lawyers of your child. It isn't easy to bring legal action against doctors and hospitals who have committed malpractice or negligence. They usually have their own teams of lawyers who are on call 24/7 to protect their clients and deny claims, or reduce settlement amounts.

By hiring an New York birth injury lawyer to represent you, you can hold medical professionals at fault accountable. Your attorney will handle communications with insurance companies and present your claim in court, and create solid evidence-based arguments to prove liability. They will also advocate for you to obtain an equitable jury verdict or settlement for your losses and expenses over your life. They will also make your claim in time to meet any applicable time limit, as the clock begins ticking off from the date of the medical negligence or malpractice.

Statute of limitations

A successful claim for compensation in a birth injury case requires four components. Your attorney can explain each of them and formulate a convincing legal argument in support of your claim.

Medical negligence claims depend on proving that the defendant owed you the obligation of care, that the defendant breached this obligation, and that the breach directly led to the injuries to your child. It is crucial to prove causation to be successful in a claim. This means that the defendant's actions or inability to act would not have resulted in the injury of your child.

The defendants can challenge any of these elements. They could claim that there isn't a doctor-patient relationship or that standard of care isn't what you claim it is. Additionally, they may challenge your evidence or expert witnesses opinion.

You'll need to submit medical records, as well as other evidence along with a statement describing what went wrong during the birth of your child. You'll also have to submit a demand packet, which includes a list of the parties you think should be named as defendants. An experienced attorney will assist you in identifying the most appropriate defendants and ensure they have adequate insurance coverage. A lawyer can also assist in advancing costs related to litigation such as the cost of highly qualified medical experts. This helps to alleviate some of the financial stress that comes with litigating a birth-related injury claim.