Finding the Right Birth Injury Lawyer for Your Case
Birth injuries are devastating for families, especially when these incidents occur due to the careless or negligent actions of a medical provider. At GOLDLAW, we are here to help if you need a West Palm Beach birth injury attorney by your side. Our team of West Palm Beach personal injury attorneys understands the complex nature of these claims, and we can help you every step of the way as you work to hold a healthcare provider accountable for their actions. You deserve compensation, and we want to help.
Common Birth Injuries
There are many different types of birth injuries, ranging from minor injuries that heal independently to more severe injuries that require medical intervention and can have long-term consequences. Some of the most common types of birth injuries include:
Cerebral Palsy: This neurological condition can be caused by an injury to the brain during pregnancy, childbirth, or shortly after birth. Symptoms often include muscle weakness, poor coordination, and problems with speech and vision.
Erb’s Palsy: This condition affects the nerves in the shoulder and arm, resulting in paralysis of those muscles. It is most often caused by damage to the nerves during delivery.
Shoulder Dystocia: This can occur when the baby’s shoulder gets stuck behind the mother’s pelvis during delivery. Shoulder dystocia can often be resolved without lasting damage, but in some cases, it can cause nerve damage or even broken bones.
Skull Fractures: These can occur when too much force is used during delivery, resulting in a broken skull. Skull fractures can lead to serious complications later in life. A fracture to the skull can cause blood clots, which can, in turn, lead to strokes or other serious neurological problems.
Hypoxia: Hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen to the baby’s brain, can also cause irreparable damage. In some cases, it can lead to coma or even death.
Types of Compensation Available for a Successful Claim
After a birth injury occurs, individuals will likely experience several types of losses. Our team works diligently to help clients recover compensation for both economic and non-economic damages.
- Economic damages. These types of losses revolve around calculable expenses that personal injury victims are likely to encounter as a result of their injury and the recovery process. By examining receipts or bills that come in after the incident occurs, the following types of economic damages are often added to a personal injury demand:
- Emergency and ongoing medical bills
- Lost income if an individual cannot work
- Out-of-pocket expenses
- Property damage expenses
- Non-economic damages. These types of losses are more difficult to calculate because there are no direct receipts or bills necessarily available, but they are equally as important. These types of losses are more immeasurable because they revolve around an injury victim’s more unseen physical and emotional pain and suffering. These types of losses include compensation for emotional and psychological pain and suffering damages, physical pain and suffering losses, as well as any loss of enjoyment or loss of quality of life caused by the injury.
How Long Do You Have to File a Claim?
Examining Florida Revised Statutes §95.11, we can see that medical malpractice claims must be filed within two years from the date of a medical provider’s error. However, there are times when some birth injuries are not immediately apparent after a child is born. Sometimes, birth injury signs and symptoms are not obvious until later in life.
The delayed onset of birth injury signs and symptoms highlights an issue with the two-year filing deadline. Fortunately, Florida law allows claimants two years to file a lawsuit from the day they discover the injury or illness or reasonably should have discovered the injury or illness. However, the overall extension typically does not allow for more than four years to pass from the date the alleged malpractice occurred.
Tony’s Bill in Florida
Children who sustained birth injuries and were born after July 1, 1996, cannot turn to a Florida-specific law called Tony’s Bill to receive compensation. Under this law, parents have until their child turns 8 years old to file a lawsuit against an alleged negligent medical provider who caused an injury or illness. This law will not apply if the injury is known or could have reasonably been discovered prior to the child turning 8 years old.
If you have any questions about whether or not you have time to file your birth injury claim, we encourage you to speak to your birth injury lawyer in West Palm Beach as soon as possible. Understanding time frames for filing birth injury cases is challenging, but a professional with experience handling medical malpractice issues in West Palm Beach can guide you through this particular part of the process.
GOLDLAW Can Help With Your Birth Injury Claim
No parent should have to go through the trauma of seeing their child suffer a birth injury. If you find yourself in this situation, know that you are not alone, and help is available.
GOLDLAW can help you in the following ways:
1. Establish Fault
To recover compensation for a birth injury, you must prove that someone is responsible. Our experienced West Palm Beach birth injury lawyers will show that your doctor’s care fell below the standard level of care, which led to the injuries sustained by you and/or your child.
2. Establish Severity of Injuries
To receive compensation for your/your child’s injuries, you will need to show that they are severe and have caused you financial hardship. Medical records and bills can be used as evidence of the severity of your injuries. We will obtain all this documentation so you can focus on yourself and your family at this difficult time.
3. Calculate Damages
To receive compensation for your injuries, you will need to calculate the total damages you have incurred. This can include medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other economic and non-economic damages.
There is no specific time frame for how long it will take a West Palm Beach birth injury claim to reach a resolution. In general, medical malpractice claims take time to resolve. Filing the claim must be done within the specific timeframes mentioned above, but this is only the beginning of the process.
After a medical malpractice lawsuit is filed in Florida, the discovery process begins where each legal team involved exchanges evidence with the other parties and has the chance to take depositions under oath from any potential witnesses to the case.
Overall, it is unlikely that a medical malpractice claim will be resolved within a year, and it may take a few years for a case to reach a jury trial if one becomes necessary. Often, these claims are settled before a trial is required.
Who Can Sue After a Birth Injury?
We encourage you to speak to your birth injury lawyer in West Palm Beach about who may hold liability for your child’s birth injury. There may be various parties responsible or who could hold responsibility, meaning multiple claims may need to be filed.
When examining these claims, we have to look at the medical professionals directly involved in the care of the child.
This can include, but is not necessarily limited to, the following types of individuals:
- Doctors
- Surgeons
- Nurses
- Hospital technicians
- Radiologists
- Nurse assistants
- Physician assistants
- Pharmacists
- Pharmacy technicians
- Emergency medical personnel
Aside from individual healthcare professionals, medical facilities, such as hospitals or other types of OBGYN facilities, could hold financial responsibility for the negligent actions of their employees that lead to birth injuries. Questions of facility and hospital liability become cloudy depending on the nature of the working relationship between the medical professional and the facility. For example, many healthcare providers work inside medical facilities on a contract basis only and not as employees, which could hinder holding the facility responsible for the actions of the professional.
Call a West Palm Beach Birth Injury Lawyer Today
If you or something you care about needs assistance resolving a birth injury claim, we encourage you to reach out to an birth injury attorney in West Palm Beach for assistance as soon as possible. These claims are challenging, but a West Palm Beach birth injury attorney can help you and your loved ones with every aspect of the claim. You deserve Peace of Mind and a legal advocate willing to go to trial on your behalf.
If you need help with a claim involving birth injuries, contact us today to schedule a free and confidential consultation.
