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What You Should Know About a Birth Injury Lawsuit

Birth injuries happen due to various medical reasons. However, in cases where they occur as a result of medical negligence, parents can take legal action against the party responsible. This is where a birth injury lawyer comes in handy to help the aggrieved party understand his rights and ensure the parent proves their case. Given the complications associated with these cases, parents are obliged to look for a good birth trauma attorney cases. Here are useful tips:

Know where to find the lawyer
The traditional methods compel you to call a few friends and relatives, peruse the Yellow Pages or browse the Internet. The readily available reviews on companies’ websites provide adequate proof for you to find a reliable attorney. While all such resources prove useful, the aggrieved party should determine to visit the lawyer’s firm. Here, he will determine how long the firm has been practicing and the kind of birth injury cases it deals in. Request for previous client’s contacts may help erase any fears you may have.

Look at the lawyer’s experience in related cases

Los Angeles healthcare attorney – specialize in various birth injuries: Cerebral palsy, brain damage and bone fractures among others. Regardless of the kind of birth injury the lawyer deals with, parents should focus on the attorney’s experience in similar birth injury cases. Birth injury in Philadelphia is also considered a personal injury case. As such, some victims engage personal injury lawyers to take on their birth trauma cases. On the contrary, personal injury lawyers have little or no knowledge about birth injuries, hence reduce your chances of proving your case.

How to prove your case

The attorney has to show that:
• The defendant (nurse, medical facility, obstetrician) had a legal duty of care to you and the baby
• The defendant is in breach of legal duty
• The defendant’s breach of the standard of care brought harm to your child
The lawyer will also engage expert witnesses to interpret the medical procedures under normal pregnancy and delivery, the complications in your case, and their opinion as to whether the injury occurred due to the complications.

 

Compensation from a birth injury claim

Where the child suffers severe birth injuries due to medical negligence, the family is entitled to monetary compensation in the form of a trust. However, recent legislative laws limit the amount of damages the plaintiff obtains from a birth trauma claim to provide for both intangible (reduced quality of life) and monetary losses that include:

• The victim’s pain and suffering
• Any future medical expenses
• Lost earnings where a parent’s working hours are reduced or loses employment
• Past medical expenses and extra healthcare costs like counseling in-home care and home modifications

Additionally, in a case where the child has a defect at birth, the parent may also bring a medical malpractice suit against the caregiver or hospital. Here, he claims damages for the emotional distress that arises from the child’s birth defect.

It is, therefore, important that parents enter a lawsuit with particular expectations. Birth trauma cases are different, and the law of torts varies from one state to another. As such, while one plaintiff may win damages for all the above reasons, another obtains compensation for only a few.