If your child suffered a preventable birth injury, you could seek compensation from the responsible medical provider. Depending on the nature of the injury, you could face significant medical bills that will be expected to continue on into the future.
Maryland birth injury lawyer Ben Crump Law, PLLC can help you pursue the liable parties and hold them accountable for causing harm to your child. We can handle all the details of a complex birth injury case for you.
What Qualifies As a Birth Injury Case in Maryland?
Preventable birth injuries due to medical errors qualify as medical malpractice under Maryland law. Medical malpractice occurs when doctors or other medical professionals provide medical care that falls below the appropriate professional standard of care.
If they lead to a birth injury, some examples of actions (or inactions) that might be medical negligence may include:
- Delaying a Caesarean section for too long
- Failing to take action when signs of distress occur during labor
- Failing to properly monitor a birth
- Improperly using forceps or vacuum extraction
- Giving inappropriate medications during pregnancy
Medical experts typically must weigh in on whether your healthcare professional provided a reasonable level of care. If their care was not equivalent to what a reasonable professional would provide in a similar situation, they could have committed medical malpractice. Establishing this means your medical team could be liable (or financially responsible) for your child’s birth injury and related losses.
Financial Awards Available in Your Birth Injury Case
The value of the financial awards you can seek in a birth injury case depends on various factors, including:
- How serious the injury is and how it will impact the life of the child
- Whether the injury is treatable
- The permanent effects of the injury
- The necessity of ongoing medical treatment and personal care
- The need for a parent to become a full-time caregiver, thus losing income
You can seek compensation for economic and non-economic losses. Awards typically account for both types of compensation. The amounts awarded for these losses may vary.
Economic Awards
Economic awards relate to a specific financial loss such as:
- Doctor bills
- Therapist and rehabilitation expenses
- Surgical and hospital bills
- Expenses for medical assistive devices and supplies
- Costs of medications and home health and personal care attendants
- Lost earnings and earning capacity of a parent who must be a caregiver
Non-Economic Awards
Other forms of compensation are non-economic, or not related to a specific financial loss. Nonetheless, these losses can be significant, such as:
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional and mental trauma
- Loss of enjoyment of life
Damage Caps in Medical Malpractice Cases
Maryland law places caps on the amount of non-economic compensation that you can receive in medical malpractice cases, including in birth injury cases.
Under Md. Cts. & Jud. Proc. Code Section 3-2A-09, damages caps medical malpractice depend on the year when the birth injury occurred. If a birth injury occurred between 2005 and 2008, you could seek up to $650,000. The cap increases by $15,000 every year starting in 2009.
We can help you understand how damage caps apply to your case.
How Our Lawyers Can Help with Your Maryland Birth Injury Case
Our birth injury lawyers know that you may be uncertain about how to best handle your case. You likely are focused on getting your child necessary medical treatment, not a legal case.
We can handle the major aspects of your case while you concentrate your efforts on your family. These tasks can differ from one case to another, but generally, we can:
- Review your case with medical experts
- Gather evidence to support your claim
- Determine the cause of your child’s birth injury
- Negotiate with the insurance company to resolve your case
- File a case in court if needed
Since legal claims do come with deadlines, you may wish to consult with our team as soon as possible. This way, you can be aware of your rights.
Types of Birth Injury Cases We Can Assist with
Medical negligence at birth can lead to a number of conditions for a child. We can help you seek compensation if your child’s birth injury resulted in health issues like:
- Erb’s palsy
- Cerebral palsy
- Head or brain injuries
- Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
- Facial paralysis
- Fetal stroke
- Fractures
- And other conditions
You Can Get Our Legal Services for no Upfront Fees
You can get a free consultation about your birth injury case. We want to hear your version of events so that we can evaluate your case.
Next, if your family and our legal team choose to work together on your case, you pay no money upfront. We will begin work on your case immediately. You don’t need to worry about any out-of-pocket payments, as we get paid only if we resolve your birth injury case.
Time Limits for Filing Birth Injury Cases in Maryland
Children who suffer birth injuries (and their families) generally have a greater amount of time than other medical malpractice victims to file their cases in court. Under Md. Cts. & Jud. Proc. Code Section 5-109, medical malpractice victims who are under the age of 11 at the time of their injury have extended time to file suit.
This extended time frame allows for medical malpractice claims in situations in which, for example, birth injuries may not immediately appear. If a birth injury is not apparent until the child gets older, the involved parties could still have the opportunity to file suit.
We can tell you how long you have to file a lawsuit in Maryland based on the details of your case.
Our Lawyers Are Here to Assist You Through Every Step of Your Birth Injury Case
A birth injury lawyer from Ben Crump Law, PLLC can help you through this challenging time in your life. You can concentrate your energy on your family while we handle the legal details. You can count on us to represent your legal interests and stand up against the medical professionals who hurt your child.
Call us at (844) 998-2554 and learn how the attorneys and staff of Ben Crump Law, PLLC can help your family. Get your free consultation and get your questions answered about your legal rights.
