Helping Children and Families Recover Compensation for a Birth Injury

When we grant doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals permission to make life and death decisions, we are placing a great deal of trust in them. While most medical treatments are completed without serious harm, sometimes mistakes do happen. When they do, there is likely to be a breach of trust especially when the mistake was caused by incompetence, negligence, or wrongdoing. If your child was injured at birth because a medical professional made a grievous mistake, you should consult a birth injury attorney.

Birth Injury Cases Attorneys Can Handle

Any skilled birth injury law firm with years of experience should have successfully recovered millions of dollars in damages related to:

• Fetal stroke
• Erb’s palsy
• Cerebral palsy
• Brain injuries
• Cognitive impairment
• Delayed development
• Forcep mistake
• C-section error or delay
• Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy
• Pitocin
• Mechanical trauma
• Medication error
• + More

If you’re ready to take legal action against the medical professionals who should have been practicing the utmost standard of care on your child, but did not, call an experienced birth injury lawyer now.

The Cost of Hiring a Birth Injury Lawyer

A birth injury can cost thousands of dollars every month. You might feel worried about being unable to cover the costs of a birth injury lawyer even though you are confident about having a legitimate claim.  Most law firms actually take most birth injury cases on a contingency fee basis. This means you don’t pay anything unless you win. You have nothing to lose; give your local law firm a call today to learn about your legal options.

Do You Have a Case?

It’s common for doctors to deny any wrongdoing. They might even tell you that your child’s birth injury was unfortunate, and unavoidable. If your doctor, or any other staff, appears to be reluctant to answer your questions; if medical records go missing; or, if you feel something is not right, you might ask a lawyer for his or her opinion. Many medical malpractice law firms have represented clients from all parts of the state and know what to look for in a birth injury case. When you call them for your free consultation, they will likely make an initial assessment to determine whether or not you should proceed further. By law, they will be required to establish fault. To do this, they may call upon their trusted expert witnesses, investigators, and other sources to prove your case. Rest assured, they shouldn’t settle for anything less than maximum compensation.

Why Choose A Birth Injury Lawyer to Represent Your Injured Child

• They should have decades of experience
• They should listen to your needs
• They should have the financial resources to build a case
• They should be supportive and empathetic
• They should be able to meet you at home, in the hospital, or at our firm
• They should be provided with regular case updates
• You should be able to count on them for honest, transparent, and sound legal advice

Begin Your Case Now with a No Risk Consultation

Call a birth injury  lawyer from a local firm near you to begin holding those accountable for negligence actions that robbed your child from having a normal life.

Almost everybody experiences some kind of medical concerns which involves a hospital stay at some point in their lives. When it occurs, you anticipate the best possible care and treatment from the doctors and other medical professionals in the hospital. However, if mistakes are made on the part of doctors or hospital staff you and your family members might be able to sue for medical malpractice.

All states have statutes of limitations that cap the amount of time throughout which a person can file a claim using injury for medical negligence. The statute of limitations on most medical misconduct or neglect claims is two years from the date you knew or should have known that malpractice occurred. For minors, the statute of limitations doesn’t begin to run until the child reaches the age of majority. Since medical malpractice cases take time to review, it is important to contact an experienced attorney,  immediately if you believe malpractice has occurred which caused a serious injury or wrongful death.

When you have been injured by a medical care professional, there are certain things that will need to be proven to support your claim. This requires a thorough investigating attorney to look into the facts in order to get to the root cause of your injury. A relationship between doctor and client will need to be proven, proof that the staff or doctor was negligent will need to be collected.

Types of Medical Malpractice Claims

Following are common types of medical malpractice claims:

• Anesthesia errors
• Trauma or birth injuries
• Emergency room errors
• Hospital malpractice
• Surgical errors
• Medical device errors
• Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis
• Postoperative negligence

As mentioned above, a wide variety of situations can lead to a medical misconduct claim. Sometimes the cases are a result of a doctor’s actions or inactions, such as:

Failure to diagnose– if a proficient doctor would have found the patient’s disease or made a changed diagnosis, which in turn lead to a better result than the one actually attained, then the patient might have a possible medical negligence claim.

Improper Treatment- if a health care provider treats the patient in a manner no other skilled doctor would, the patient might have a medical malpractice claim.

Failure to notify a patient about identified risk- Healthcare providers have an obligation to inform their patients about known risks of a medical process and it is recognized as the duty to informed consent. If a patient once suitably informed would have chosen to go through the procedure, the doctor might not be accountable for medical malpractice.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not legal advice.

Most personal injury cases settle out of court, and many settle before a lawsuit is even filed.  Sometimes, when an attorney sends a demand letter, the insurance company immediately negotiates a favorable settlement.  Most states require insurance companies to respond in this matter if liability is reasonably clear.

But typically, liability is not reasonably clear.  For example, the insurance company may believe that the victim/plaintiff does not have enough facts to prove liability.  Or a personal injury lawyer may think there is a defense, such as contributory negligence.

So many negligence cases follow the following pattern, at least in part.

Initial Pleadings

Most states are notice pleading jurisdictions.  The original petition need only allege facts that put the defendant on notice as to the nature of the claim.  Some states, and the federal court system, are fact pleading jurisdictions. Attorneys must spend many hours preparing detailed petitions that allege specific facts.

The defendant then has a chance to respond to these pleadings.  Many times, this response includes an immediate request for judgement.  In federal court, defendants base these motions on Rule 12(b)(6), which is “failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”  Many states have similar rules.

Usually, the defendant has another opportunity to throw the case out of court.  This chance comes after the discovery process is either over or substantially complete.

Discovery

In America, our justice system is primarily designed to learn the facts in a case. Not choose a “winner” and “loser.”  Civil lawsuits feature extensive discovery. During this process, attorneys learn about the other side’s case through things like:

•       Depositions,
•       Property inspections,
•       Document reviews, and
•       Answers to written questions.

If the defendant feels that there is not enough evidence to support the victim/plaintiff’s positions, the defendant files for summary judgment.  If this motion fails, the case moves on to step three.

Mediation/Negotiation

Settlement negotiations usually start at the beginning.  Mediation is essentially supervised negotiation that has a much better chance of succeeding.  A neutral third party listens to both sides. Then the mediator conveys settlement offers back and forth until the parties reach an agreement.  Statistics vary, but voluntary mediations are usually successful about 70 percent of the time.

If settlement negotiations fail, the case moves on to trial.  That could take place before a jury or before a judge, a procedure that’s called a bench trial.  If there is an error in that trial, an appeal may be possible.

This process could take several months or several years.  An experienced attorney usually expedites the process and brings about a more favorable result, so reach out to one today.

For nine months, expectant parents carefully plan for their child to come home. They dream about who their baby will grow up to be, what his or her name will be and can almost picture them coming home as they carefully plan the nursery. Unfortunately, these dreams can become shattered for some when they experience a traumatic birth, resulting in their baby being severely injured or even dying. If you or your baby were the victim of a mistake at the hands of your doctor, contacting a medical malpractice attorney will be a way to ensure that your claim is handled thoughtfully and correctly.

Medical Malpractice

In some situations, medical personnel such as doctors, anesthesiologists, surgeons and nurses make mistakes. When their treatment of the patient was due to negligence on their part, it is likely that medical malpractice is at play. A doctor is considered negligent when their incompetence or lack of skill resulted in the patient’s harm. In order for a patient to prove that medical professionals were negligent they must prove 4 key components:

1.     Duty of care meaning that there is an established doctor-patient relationship.
2.     The doctor violated the standard of care, in that the patient did not receive adequate care.
3.     The patient received an injury or suffered as a result
4.     The injury was due to negligence on the part of the doctor

Common Delivery Room Injuries

It is important to remember that although the doctor’s negligence may have been realized in the delivery room or following the birth of the baby, in some cases the negligence occurred during prenatal care such as failing to diagnose a birth defect. There are a number of oversights a doctor may make in the delivery room including:

• Placental Abruption is when the placenta detaches from the uterine wall.
• Not responding to fetal distress
• Shoulder Dystocia when the baby’s shoulder is not able to pass through or is stuck during delivery.
• Complications from a tangled umbilical cord
• Group B Strep, a bacterial infection carried in the vagina or rectum of the mother that could be passed to the baby if not treated appropriately.
• Stillbirth when a baby dies in utero after 28 weeks of pregnancy.
• Incorrect use of forceps

When parents to be go to the hospital to have their baby, they anticipate a happy occasion with the arrival of their new little bundle of joy. It can be utterly painful to face a lifetime disability in caring for your child or worse, leaving the hospital with empty arms. If you have been the victim of an error during the delivery of your child, you may be entitled to compensation. Contact a birth injury lawyer Salt Lake City, UT, trusts for further guidance around managing the legal complexities associated with a medical malpractice suit.

 

Thanks to our friends and contributors from Rasmussen & Miner for their insight into birth injuries.

If someone you love has passed away, you may consider filing a wrongful death claim in the event that a person passed due to the negligence of a person or entity. Obtaining legal counsel from an attorney will be a vital part to filing a wrongful death claim. Wrongful death claims can be a complex process, especially when you are up against a large entity such as a hospital.  An attorney will be able to communicate with the hospital and their insurance company so that you can give yourself the needed time and space to grieve your loved one.

 

Most Common Types of Emergency Room Wrongful Death

The following includes some of the most common wrongful deaths that can take place in the emergency room.

 

• Misdiagnosis or treating someone for the wrong illness or problem
• Not treating a person quickly enough
• Not examining the patient closely enough
• Surgical mistakes
• Error in medications by either giving someone the wrong med or too much of something

 

Collecting Damages

Family of a loved one who has passed away may be entitled to collect damages in a wrongful death case. This is especially the case if an attorney is able to prove that the family has taken on additional expenses as the result of a loved one’s death. If the family members were financially dependent on the person who died, they may also be entitled to collect compensation for lost wages. Other types of damages that could be collected are:

 

• Funeral expenses
• Medical expenses
• Pain and suffering
• Lost wages

 

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages are part of the compensation that the claimants can be awarded in a wrongful death case. It is important to note that wrongful death claims are not part of criminal court as they are civil cases. Punitive damages are put in place to require the negligent party to pay penance for the wrong doing that they are guilty of. As a result, if a defendant is required to pay for damages in a wrongful death case, they are not sentenced to time in prison. Determining whether or not someone will serve time is part of the criminal court process, which is separate from civil court. When the defendant is ordered to pay damages in a wrongful death claim, those who brought forth the wrongful death suit receive the money.

 

The intricacies of wrongful death claims can seem like daunting processes, especially when you aren’t sure where to even begin. Speaking with reputable hospital injury lawyers Memphis TN residents frequently turn to can help to ensure that you have everything you need in place prior to going to court.

 

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Thanks to our friends and contributors from Darrell Castle and Associates, PLLC, for their insight into hospital injuries.

 

Statute of limitations laws varies from state to state. If you received a personal injury, your claim for compensation will no longer be available if you miss the deadline to file. You are only given a limited amount of time by the courts to sue for a personal injury. While some states may allow a claimant as many as three years to file a lawsuit, others only give you up to a year to make a claim. Depending on the type of case you file a claim for, there are more specific deadlines.

Consulting an Attorney

The need to hire an attorney who is experienced in personal injury is vital when navigating the specifics around timeframes and the statute of limitations. Legal counsel will help you to figure out the statute of limitations and the period to which the lawsuit can be filed. In order to meet the time frame mandated by law, hiring an attorney, like a personal injury lawyer Salt Lake City UT trusts, that can correctly file your lawsuit will help to stay on track for your personal injury claim.

When Does the Clock Start Ticking?

Essentially, once the injury or wrong doing occurs, the statute of limitations generally starts. For example, if a person is in a collision and sustains injuries as a result, the statute of limitations begins on the date that the car accident occurred. If a person was injured and is unaware that they were hurt until a later date, the statute of limitations would not start on the date the accident occurred. The statute of limitation would not start until the injured were aware that they had been hurt in the accident. For example, if in the car accident, the person later presented with back issues, they would not know there was a problem until that date. The caveat to this is if the person realistically should have known whether or not they had sustained an injury by a certain date, the statute of limitations would start from that point.

Speaking with an attorney for an initial consultation regarding the statute of limitations and the details of your personal injury often comes at no cost to you. It is common practice for attorneys not to charge for their first consultation when discussing whether or not a claimant has an appropriate lawsuit. Because of this, scheduling to meet with an attorney is at no financial risk to you and is a good way to bring forth your case and receive trusted legal advice regarding the statute of limitations.

Thanks to our friends and contributors from Rasmussen & Miner for their insight into personal injury practice.

First things first: a wrongful death suit is filed when someone dies due to the negligence, mistake, omission, error, or similar act of a third party.  Typically, wrongful death suits are brought in the case of car accidents, death of a worker on the job, and due to a defect in a product, like tires that blow out or spinach with E Coli.

The sole purpose of the wrongful death claim is to compensate the immediate survivors for their loss through damages.  These can include loss of earnings, which can be especially high when someone dies young, medical costs, funeral costs, and damages for loss of the company of the individual.

The suit is filed against the person, people, or entity that the relatives of the decedent believe caused the death of their loved one.  This is where things get tricky.  To start, the wrongful death claim must allege that the defendant caused the death of the person and that because of the death, the survivors have incurred damages. It may sound fairly straightforward, but it’s not.

First, the relatives must investigate and determine who was responsible for the death. In the case of a car accident, the obvious choice might be the other driver, but it is also possible that due to some manufacturing defect, either on the decedent’s car or the other car, an accident turned into a fatality.  In a workplace death, while the deceased may have been killed by falling debris which the company failed to have a safety plan in place to avoid, maybe a third-party contractor left the debris the day before and failed to secure it.  It is never as simple as it seems.

Second, the family must be able to prove that because of the death that was caused by the defendant(s), they have incurred damages.  This can be surprisingly difficult.  For example, a claim for loss of earnings may be circumvented by the defense showing that even if the decedent had lived, their earning potential was small and inconsequential.

Another problem can rear its ugly head if the relatives who are suing are not in fact relatives. If the marriage of the decedent and the surviving “spouse” was actually invalid because the decedent never divorced their first spouse, the surviving “spouse” may not be the individual filing the suit. Similarly, there could be ancillary claims of paternity from children not of the marriage who may come calling to be added to the suit.

Then there is the issue of how to quantify the loss of the relatives.  Medical bills and funeral expenses are easily documented and loss of earnings is relatively easy to quantify by an actuary.  Putting a price on the loss of companionship is much harder.

Finally, there is a sense of urgency that will hang over the filing of the suit as wrongful death claims can only be brought within a limited amount of time after the death. The amount of time varies from state to state, but each has a statute of limitations after which no further claims can be filed.

In this day and age, video cameras are everywhere. Most businesses have security camera systems and I’d venture to say that just about every mobile phone now has a video camera function.  Like it or not, you are being recorded almost everywhere you go.

A quick internet search on YouTube will turn up hundreds of thousands of events captured by everyday people who are bystanders or witnesses to events. People record everything. Have you been to a concert recently? Ever notice the number of people who stand holding their cell phones up in the air to record the concert rather than enjoy the moment?

What does this have to do with court cases and litigation? Well, they say “a picture speaks a thousand words” so imagine the effect that a video has when it is played for the jury during a trial, especially if the video captures sound. If you were a juror, wouldn’t you rather have a video of an incident to watch than to look at a series of still photographs? Of course you would!

A video can either make or break a case. As a personal injury lawyer Memphis, TN  comes to time and again for legal advice, here are a couple of things to keep in mind in today’s video savvy society:

(1)    Always assume you are being recorded, and act accordingly.  Not much goes undocumented these days.  Don’t let a moment of bad judgment ruin your reputation, or in the context of litigation, your entire case.

(2)    Beware of surveillance by private investigators. Attorneys often hire private investigators to obtain video surveillance of a person of interest. For example, a defense lawyer might hire an investigator to follow an injured person around for a few days and film him or her to try to show that the person is exaggerating their injuries for purposes of the lawsuit.  Another example might be that a divorce lawyer hires an investigator to capture video surveillance of a cheating spouse.

One Example of How Video Surveillance Footage Has Been Used in Court

• A personal injury victim (the Plaintiff) claimed that after the accident, she “really couldn’t do anything because everything bothered” her.  She stated she could not walk a lot, stand too long, cook as often, bend, stand straight up after sitting, and that she does not use stairs. She also stated that she limped and dragged her leg for 3-4 years after the accident and was still not active by the time of the trial 7 years later. The Defendant presented video surveillance of the Plaintiff which showed her running errands around town and getting into and out of her car, walking in and out of various locations, walking in high heels, standing around talking with a friend, and getting into and out of her large SUV without difficulty. The judge allowed the video over the Plaintiff’s objection because it was relevant to the Plaintiff’s credibility, her symptoms, and the effects of the injury.

 Thanks to our friends and contributors at Wiseman Bray PLLC who have significant experience fighting for injury victims in Tennessee.

While modern technology has made it much safer for women during their pregnancies and deliveries, medical misconduct or negligence can still result in the death of the mother. Not only does this mean that the child will grow up without ever knowing their mother, the family will go through intense suffering, financial and social hardships as a result.

The World Health Organization sets goals to reduce mortality in childbirth, and was alarmed to find in recent years that this number has gone up in parts of the United States.  One risk factor is delivery by C-Section deliveries, which now accounts for 32% of births. “Cesarean has its place, and it has saved the lives of mothers and babies,” says Dr. Michael Lu. “But Cesarean has its complications and these can increase the risk of maternal death.” This is due to how C-sections require intensive surgery, and are associated with higher health and safety risks for mothers and infants such as infection.

Another factor is women are having children later in life.  With this risk factor, “It’s not clear whether it’s age, or that older women have more chronic conditions when they enter pregnancy,” he says. “The demographic of childbearing is changing. Women are getting older and they are entering pregnancy with more conditions like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.”  One avoidable risk factor in maternal mortality is negligence.

If it can be proven that the mother died as a result of negligence and the family sustained damages as a direct result of her death, the remaining family members may be eligible to maintain a wrongful death lawsuit against the hospital,doctors, and staff. In most cases, the deceased mother’s immediate family, such as her spouse or partner and child, may file the claim. In other cases, however, extended family members may be eligible to file a claim if they sustained damages caused by the death.

When filing a wrongful death claim against a doctor or the hospital where the death occurred, there are certain types of compensation that the family members of the deceased person may seek. These include any medical expenses, the cost of an unexpected funeral and income that was lost. Additionally, the family may seek compensation for their pain and suffering and for their loss of companionship.

If the mother dies unexpectedly during childbirth, it may be difficult for the woman’s family to think about anything but their loss. However, if there is any indication that negligence was involved in the death, it is imperative that the family commence a wrongful death action as soon as possible due to the statute of limitations. Statute of limitation refers to the number of years you have after an injury to file a claim. A personal injury lawyer Naperville IL trusts may assist the remaining family with determining whether or not the family has a claim and provide evidence that their loved one’s death was caused by negligence.