Birth Injury Lawsuits Explained

Childbirth is a risky and stressful time, but families expect their medical professionals and doctors to ensure a high quality of care. If they fail to do so birth injuries can be catastrophic to families.

If you suspect that your child suffered a birth injury due to medical malpractice, contact a birth injury lawyer to get help. A reputable lawyer will review your case for free and will not charge upfront fees. To prove your claim, you must prove the four elements.

Duty of Care

Few things in life are more joyful and memorable than the birth of a baby. However, the birth process can be traumatic for parents when medical errors cause serious injuries to the baby during labor and delivery. These mistakes can be irreversible and cause a family confront a long list of challenges.

Medical professionals and doctors owe a legal duty to treat patients with the same care and skill ordinarily expected of health care providers in their respective fields under similar circumstances. This is known as the duty of care. You must prove that a medical professional acted in violation of this duty to settle a case. This usually means proving that the medical professional's actions or inability to act deviated from what a reasonably trained and competent medical professional would have done under the same circumstances.

The third element in a negligence lawsuit is the causation. You must show, via medical evidence and expert testimony that the at-fault provider's negligence led to the injury of your child. For example, a doctor may not have observed your child's vital signs during labor and delivery. This could have resulted in brain damage from prolonged oxygen deprivation.

Damages are the final aspect in a successful negligence case. You must prove that you or your child suffered real and quantifiable loss as a result of the healthcare professional's negligence when it came to their duty of care. This includes future and past medical expenses in addition to lost wages, and non-economic losses like pain and discomfort.

Causation

Medical professionals are required to patients to provide treatment in line with the highest standards of care in their field of. A doctor or nurse who fails to adhere to the standard of care can cause injuries to patients, and lead to an action for damages. To succeed in a Birth Injury Law Firm injury case the attorney must prove that the breach of duty directly caused the injuries suffered by your child. This has to be proven by evidence such as medical documents or expert testimony.

It is also essential to prove that your child would not have suffered the injury in the event that the medical professional adhered to the standard of care. Medical experts are required to review the case to determine if a doctor or hospital was acting in a manner that was not consistent with the accepted medical guidelines.

Birth injuries can cause life-altering effects that require an ongoing series of medical treatments and other expenses. It is essential to hold at-fault doctors as well as hospitals accountable for their negligence and seek compensation that will ensure your child's future needs.

A lawyer experienced in handling medical malpractice cases can handle the entire legal process for you, from responding to insurance requests and filing lawsuits against the responsible parties. They can also construct an evidence-based case and get expert testimony, retrieve medical records and other documents and negotiate an equitable settlement to cover the loss of your family as well as lifelong cost of care.

Damages

A birth injury lawsuit requires the expertise of medical experts who will review medical records, testimony from your family and you, and other evidence. They will determine if the doctor who is involved in your case violated their duty of care and caused injuries to your child. They will then determine the amount of damage you have suffered as a result of those injuries. These include the current and future medical expenses as well as lost wages, loss of quality of life, emotional distress and other losses.

When doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel make mistakes that are preventable prior to or during the birth of your child, it could result in devastating consequences for your family. It isn't easy to bring legal action against hospitals and doctors that have acted negligently or with a lack of care. They have teams of lawyers who are full-time employees to defend their clients, deflect claims or limit settlements.

When you employ a New York birth injury lawyer who can hold the at-fault medical professionals accountable. Your lawyer will be in contact with the insurers and then file a claim in court, and create a strong argument based on evidence to establish the liability. They will also fight to get you an equitable settlement or jury verdict to cover your losses and future care costs. They can also file a lawsuit in time for any applicable statute of limitations in the event that the clock begins to tick from the time the malpractice or Birth Injury medical error occurred.

Statute of Limitations

A successful claim for compensation in a birth injury case is based on four components. Your lawyer can help you understand the various elements and develop an effective legal argument to support your claim.

Medical negligence claims require being able to prove that the defendant owed you a duty of care and that the defendant violated this duty, and that the breach directly caused your child's injuries. To prove a claim, it is also essential to prove causation which means that your child's injuries would not have occurred if it weren't for the defendant's actions (or the failure to act).

Defense attorneys can challenge any of these elements. They may argue that you aren't establishing a doctor-patient partnership or that the standard of care is different from what you believe it to be. They may challenge your evidence or the opinions of your expert witnesses.

You'll have to provide medical records, other documents, as well as a statement describing what went wrong during the birth of your child. Also, you'll need to submit an application package that includes an outline of the parties you consider to be defendants. An experienced lawyer can assist identify the right defendants and make sure there's sufficient insurance coverage. Lawyers can assist in advancing costs associated with litigation, like the fees of highly experienced medical experts. This can ease some of the financial stress that comes with pursuing a claim for birth injury.