Birth Injury Lawsuits Explained

Families expect that their medical doctors and other professionals will provide a high standard of care. Birth injuries can be catastrophic for families if not treated appropriately.

If you suspect your child suffered a preventable birth injury due to medical negligence, contact a birth injury lawyer for assistance. Reputable lawyers will evaluate your case at no cost and will not charge upfront fees. A successful claim requires proving the four elements of your case.

Duty of Care

The birth injury attorney of a child is one of the most joyful and special events in a person's life. Unfortunately, the process can be traumatic for parents who have medical errors cause serious injuries to the baby during labor and birth. These errors can be irreversible which can cause an entire series of problems for a family.

Medical professionals and doctors are under a legal obligation to treat their patients with the same respect and skill that is expected from health care providers of similar professions under similar circumstances. This is known as the duty of care. You must demonstrate that a medical professional violated this duty to settle a claim. This typically means proving that the medical professional's conduct or failure to act deviated from what a reasonably trained and competent medical professional would have done in similar circumstances.

The third element in a negligence lawsuit is causation. You must prove, through medical evidence and expert testimony that the at-fault healthcare professional's negligence led to the injury to your child. A doctor, for instance, may not have monitored the vitals of your child during labor and birth. This could have caused brain damage due to the prolonged oxygen deprivation.

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

Causation

Medical professionals have a responsibility to their patients to provide them with care that is in accordance with standards of their field. A doctor or nurse who fails to meet the standards of care can cause injury to a patient, and lead to an action for damages. To succeed in a birth injury case, an attorney must prove that the breach of duty directly led to the injuries suffered by your child. This must be proved using evidence such as medical records and expert testimony.

It is also important to prove that your child would not have suffered an injury in the event that a medical professional given the level of care expected. Medical experts are asked to examine the situation to determine if the physician or hospital acted in a manner that was not in line with the accepted medical guidelines.

Birth injuries can have life-altering impacts that require the need for a lifetime of medical care and other expenses. It is important to hold the at-fault doctors and hospitals responsible for their actions and seek compensation to help ensure your child's future needs.

A lawyer with experience in handling medical malpractice cases can manage the entire legal procedure for you, including responding to insurer requests and bringing a lawsuit against the responsible parties. They can also create a case with the help of evidence, obtain expert testimony, access medical records and documents, and fight for fair settlements to cover the family's life-long care costs and expenses.

Damages

A birth injury lawsuit requires the expertise of medical experts who review medical records, testimony from you and your family, and other evidence. They will help establish that the doctor in your case violated their duty to care and caused injuries to your child. They will then estimate the damages you've suffered due to these injuries. These include your future and current medical expenses and the loss of income, the loss of quality of life, emotional distress, and other losses.

It can be a devastating experience for your family when doctors, nurses and other medical staff make inexcusable mistakes prior to or even after the birth your child. It isn't easy to bring legal action against doctors and hospitals that have committed malpractice or negligence. They have teams of lawyers who are full-time employees to protect their clients, deny claims or limit settlements.

By hiring an New York birth injury lawyer who can hold the medical professionals at fault accountable. The lawyer will handle all communications with insurers and file your claim in court, and develop an evidence-based argument to establish responsibility. They will also fight to secure you a fair settlement or verdict from a jury for your losses and lifetime expenses for medical care. They will also submit your lawsuit on time to satisfy any applicable deadlines, since the clock starts ticking on the date of the malpractice or medical negligence.

Statute of Limitations

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

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

Defense attorneys can challenge any of these elements. They could argue that there is no doctor-patient connection or that the standard care is not what you claim it is. In addition, they can challenge your evidence and your expert witnesses and their opinions.

You'll need to submit medical records, other documentation, as well as an explanation of what occurred during the birth of your child. You will also need to provide a demand package that contains the names of the parties you consider to be defendants. An experienced attorney can assist you in identifying the most appropriate defendants and ensure they have adequate insurance coverage. A lawyer can also help with the advancement of litigation-related costs including the costs for highly qualified medical experts. This can ease some of the financial stress associated with pursuing a claim for birth injury birth injury.