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How Do I Know If I Have A Strong Case For A Birth Injury?

The easiest way to understand if you have a strong case for a birth injury lawsuit is to contact a skilled birth injury lawyer. An attorney with a strong understanding of the birth injury lawsuit process can help evaluate your case and can tell you whether or not you have a valid claim. If you have a valid claim, they should also tell you how strong they believe your case is, based on what you have told them.

The strength of your case will be based on the four elements of negligence that they will need to prove. These four elements include the duty of care, a breach in the duty of care, causation and damages. Therefore, you will need to arrange an initial consultation with a birth injury attorney. During this meeting, they will ask questions that can help them understand if they will be able to prove these four elements in your case.

Peter Angelos Law – Standing Up For Justice For Newborns And Their Families!

No parent should have to undergo the stress and trauma that comes with watching their child suffer an injury. When this injury could have been prevented had your medical providers provided the standard of medical care they are obligated to give, you have every right to be furious.

Here at Peter Angelos Law, we understand what you are going through and we want to help. Our attorneys have a lot of experience fighting medical malpractice cases and have worked on numerous cases similar to yours, winning favorable outcomes for many clients.

This experience translates into trust, and when you put your trust in us, you are leaving your case in capable hands. We will not rest, settle for less, or stop fighting until every stone has been unturned. You should not be left out of pocket for your medical provider’s negligence, and your child deserves to be compensated for their injuries if they were caused by this negligence.

Each one of our attorneys is a skilled, trial-tested attorney that has won countless cases. We begin at the start, building an attorney-client relationship that inspires trust and confidence from our clients. This comes with a promise to keep you educated and informed throughout your entire case.

Call us for a free consultation today at 410-216-0009.

The Four Elements Of A Birth Injury Case

When bringing a medical malpractice case against medical providers for negligence, your attorney will need to prove the four elements of negligence in order for your case to be valid.

These four elements are as follows:

Duty of Care

The very first element of negligence is to prove that there was a duty of care owed by the party responsible to the victim at the time of the incident. This can be difficult to prove in personal injury cases, but with medical malpractice claims, all medical providers automatically assume a duty of care to their patients.

In legal terms, a duty of care is the legal obligation of an individual or organization to take reasonable care and precautions to avoid causing harm or injury to others. The duty of care requires individuals or organizations to act with a level of care that a reasonable person would exercise in similar circumstances.

The duty of care is a fundamental principle in medical malpractice and personal injury law, which allows individuals who have suffered harm because of another’s breach of duty to seek compensation.

There are several reasons you might assume a duty of care to another person:

Medical providers have a duty of care to provide treatment that meets the accepted standard of care for their field and to act in the best interests of their patients.
Your employers owe you a duty of care to provide a safe working environment, to provide training and supervision, and to take reasonable steps to prevent workplace accidents and injuries.
Property owners have a duty of care to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition and to warn you of any known hazards.
Drivers have a duty of care to operate their vehicles safely, follow traffic laws and avoid behaviors that could put others on the road at risk.
Manufacturers have a duty of care to design and produce products that are reasonably safe for their intended use and to provide adequate warnings of any known risks or dangers associated with the product.

Breach of Duty of Care

The second element, and the one that is usually the most difficult to prove when it comes to a birth injury lawsuit, is the breach of the duty of care.

To prove that your medical provider has breached their duty of care to you, you and your attorney must be able to prove that their behavior was grossly substandard from how a reasonable medical provider would behave.

You must prove their behavior was not in line with the standard of medical practice they owed you and your child, or that they deviated from the standards they have been taught to adhere to. This may be through an act or an omission of an act, such as failing to provide adequate fetal monitoring.

This is usually proven by bringing in medical experts who will consider the behavior of the medical provider in question. Usually, these experts will compare your medical provider’s actions to what they believe a reasonable, trained medical provider would have done in the same situation.

Causation

The third element to prove for a negligence case is causation. Causation means that the actions of the medical provider directly caused you to suffer the injuries you have suffered. Because you have been injured in a hospital setting, this is usually straightforward to prove as you will have up-to-date medical records that show your or your newborn baby’s injuries and when they happened in relation to the negligent behavior.

Your birth injury attorney will examine all the medical records surrounding the event and should be able to prove that the injuries occurred during the birth or the labor.

Damages

The fourth element that you need to prove is that you suffered damages. The damages you are seeking to recover must come directly from the injuries you or your child have suffered because of the malpractice. This means showing evidence of economic damage and proof that you and your child have suffered pain, suffering, or emotional trauma because of the accident.

These damages include:

Economic Damages

In a successful claim, your attorney will calculate all the economic damages that you have suffered. This includes anything that has cost you money as a result of the incident. You may be able to claim for things like:

Medical Expenses

When a child suffers a birth injury through negligence, as a parent, you should not be left responsible for the medical expenses that follow. Instead, you should be compensated for all the medical bills you need to pay to provide your child with the highest quality of medical attention following the medical malpractice lawsuit. This should include all future costs.

Your attorney will need to contact medical experts who can help them accurately gauge what your child’s long-term treatment may cost. This needs to be done in a proficient manner, as you need to ensure that what you are seeking is an accurate representation of a lifetime of medical attention if your child needs it following their injuries.

This is the most important reason that you should decline any quick-fire settlement offers. Do not be fooled by the offer. It most likely does not reflect your child’s long-term medical costs. We recommend you discuss any settlement offer with your attorney.

Lost Wages/Income

In a successful birth injury malpractice case, you will also be able to document the lost income you and your spouse have suffered while you look after your child following their injuries. You should not be left out of pocket for time off that you should not have had to take.

If your claim is successful, you will be able to recover all of your lost wages and if you are going to have to take a prolonged period of time off work to care for the child, you deserve to be compensated for that as well.

Noneconomic Damages

When it comes to birth injury lawsuits, often, the most substantial damages that need to be recovered are the noneconomic damages. These damages are subjective and it will be down to your attorney to figure out what they are worth.

Pain and Suffering

Pain and suffering damages cover all the trauma, pain and emotional distress that the victims have been put through. This includes the pain your child has been through, the loss of enjoyment they may face if they have been permanently injured, and the emotional distress the parents have been through watching their child suffer.

Loss of Companionship

In the most heart-wrenching of scenarios, your child may lose their life because of the careless actions of the medical providers entrusted with their care. In such instances, as grieving parents, you may be entitled to seek justice and compensation for the profound loss of companionship.

Choosing The Right Birth Injury Lawyers For Your Case

Your chances of successfully fighting and winning your case following your child’s birth injury rely on the skills and experience of your attorney. The more skilled they are, and the more cases they have won favorable outcomes in, the better they will be equipped to handle your case.

When you choose an attorney that is renowned for winning cases, one that comes from a law firm that has a prestigious reputation, like ours here at Peter Angelos Law, you gain an advantage. Our attorneys are known as fierce trial litigators, and this will make it less likely that the other party will push for a trial. Instead, they may simply offer a fair and reasonable settlement because they do not want to fight us at trial.

For those that have never required legal representation before, choosing an attorney can feel difficult, but it doesn’t have to be. Your best way to navigate the hiring process is to create a list of questions that you can ask to gauge an attorney’s potential, then arrange a free initial consultation with each attorney.

In this meeting, ask about their:

Experience – A birth injury claim, like all medical negligence cases, is more complicated than a traditional personal injury case. An experienced birth injury lawyer will be one that has handled numerous cases before that are similar to yours. This will give them an edge, as they have experience in the nuances of birth injury cases.
Legal Expertise – Your legal representative must possess a thorough comprehension of how the law applies to personal injury, medical malpractice and birth injury cases. They should promptly evaluate your case and inform you if your claim is justifiable and what actions you should take next.
Medical Expertise – While most birth injury attorneys will not have their own medical training, through their experience in past cases, they should have built up a strong understanding of the birth process, and how birth injuries happen. Where their knowledge is not comprehensive, they should have access to medical experts to advise and provide medical expert testimonials.

Why We Offer A Free Consultation & Case Evaluation

A birth injury settlement can be crucial for parents as it provides the financial compensation and security they need to ensure that their children receive the most favorable medical care following an injury caused by negligence.

When you file birth injury lawsuits, it allows you to not only pursue the recovery of your damages but to also make an example out of the medical provider. This may prevent future newborns from suffering the same injuries.

Our goal is to provide the opportunity to pursue your medical malpractice lawsuit to the fullest extent. We do not want victims to forgo their right to pursue compensation simply because they fear upfront fees or having to pay legal fees if they lose.

We work on a contingency fee basis for a reason. This no win, no fee style of work means that we take cases on for no upfront cost and we do not charge our clients for our losses. If we lose your case, you do not owe us anything. If we win your case, we take our fees directly from your settlement as a flat percentage, never leaving you out of pocket.

How Do I Know If I Have A Strong Case For A Birth Injury Lawsuit – FAQ

Are all birth injuries actionable?

While negligent providers that cause preventable birth injuries can be held accountable, you cannot bring a lawsuit against medical providers that have not acted negligently. Unfortunately, childbirth carries inherent risks and sometimes injuries are unavoidable.

As long as your medical providers have followed the standards of medical practice and provided you and your child with adequate levels of monitoring, they may not be responsible for your child’s injury.

If, however, your child has suffered an injury or birth defect and it could have been preventable, then you may be entitled to bring a claim.

How long do birth injury cases take?

In medical malpractice cases, an array of factors can influence the time each case takes to complete. These factors determine the timeline for reaching a resolution. In some cases, parties may offer birth injury lawsuit settlements early outside of court, often when the opposing party knows that they would likely lose in court against your attorney.

However, some insurance companies may choose to extend the battle and contest you in court, as there is a possibility that they may triumph and avoid paying out compensation.

Do all birth injury cases go to court?

Around 70% of all medical negligence cases will settle without the need for a trial. This is usually because attorneys try to only take on cases that have a strong chance of success and if an attorney believes the case is strong, it usually is.

However, 30% of cases will still end up going to trial and this means that you must ensure that your attorney is a fierce trial attorney.

Contact A Maryland Birth Injury Lawyer Today

If your newborn child has suffered a preventable birth injury, it is natural to feel frustrated with your medical provider. You should not be held accountable for economic damages caused by their carelessness, and both you and your child deserve to seek compensation for the distress you have endured.

For trustworthy and well-informed legal representation, reach out to Peter Angelos Law today. Our extensive experience in Maryland has allowed us to successfully fight numerous complex cases, and we have secured many just settlements for our clients.