Birth Injury Attorney Atlanta can help you obtain resources for your child’s care. A lawyer can also take over communications with insurers and other parties involved in your case so that you can focus on your child.
Most cases are settled outside of court. Your birth injury attorney will negotiate with medical providers’ malpractice insurers and other parties to secure a fair settlement.
The birth of a child is supposed to be one of the most joyous moments in a family’s life. However, medical mistakes during childbirth can have long-term effects that change the lives of a new parent and their child forever. In many cases, these injuries could have been prevented with proper medical care.
Medical malpractice during labor and delivery is not uncommon and can be devastating to families. If you suspect that a medical mistake caused your child’s birth injury, it is important to speak with an experienced attorney right away. A qualified New York birth injury lawyer can help you fight for financial compensation that can pay for your child’s medical needs, including ongoing treatment, medication, therapy, and rehabilitation.
An experienced birth injury attorney will conduct an in-depth investigation into the facts of your case. This will involve a review of the medical records, witness testimonies, and possibly consultations with medical experts to ascertain whether or not negligence occurred during your child’s delivery. If the attorney determines that there was medical malpractice, they will file a lawsuit against the doctors and hospitals involved.
Depending on the severity of your child’s injury, you may be entitled to economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages include:
- Any medical expenses related to the injury.
- Lost earnings.
- Loss of future earning potential.
Non-economic damages include pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life.
While no amount of money can undo the harm caused by a birth injury, it can at least allow families to focus on what is most important: caring for their child. A successful legal claim can also serve to hold negligent medical providers accountable for their actions, ensuring that they do not harm any other patients in the future.
Because of the complicated nature of these cases, most birth injury claims are settled outside of court. However, if the medical provider refuses to offer a fair settlement, your attorney will prepare to take the case to trial before a judge and jury.
Proving Negligence
Doctors and hospitals are required to adhere to a professional standard of care, but when they ignore this duty, a child may suffer life-altering injuries. A birth injury lawsuit holds these healthcare professionals accountable, allowing families to receive compensation for their losses and costs. Damage awards can cover past and future medical expenses, loss of wages from having to stay home or work fewer hours, the cost of disability access equipment and home modifications, pain and suffering, and more.
However, it can be difficult to prove that a medical provider committed an action that fell below the accepted standards of care. Insurance companies often try to shift blame or present only a portion of the facts to reduce or deny claims. An experienced birth injury attorney knows how to gather the evidence necessary to show that the medical professional acted negligently.
An attorney can also help determine what types of damages are appropriate in your case. Damages depend on how serious the injuries are, what the long-term implications will be, how much your family has already spent on treatment and care, and other important factors. An experienced lawyer can take all of these elements into consideration when calculating the amount of damages that are warranted.
The doctor or hospital that harmed your child has professional liability insurance, which means they must pay your claim if their actions were responsible for the injury. Your lawyer will examine your child’s medical records, seek expert opinions, and identify policies and procedures that were violated to build a strong case. They can then negotiate with the defendant to reach a settlement outside of court, or go to trial if necessary.
Although no amount of money can undo your child’s birth injury, holding medical personnel responsible can prevent them from harming other children and mothers in the future. This is especially important as many of the same doctors and nurses who harmed your child have been allowed to practice for years, even decades, without being held accountable for their errors. A successful claim will not only help your family recover the financial compensation you deserve, but it can also prevent the same mistakes from occurring again and allow you to focus on your child’s recovery.
Gathering Evidence
In most birth injury cases, you will need to show evidence of negligence. This means that you will need to have medical records showing that a medical professional failed to follow the standard of care. A good birth injury attorney knows where to look for the necessary medical records and can review those records to identify any errors that may have contributed to your child’s injuries.
Your birth injury lawyer should also be able to provide you with examples of similar medical malpractice cases that they have successfully handled. While they cannot divulge details of specific cases because of confidentiality rules, they should be able to provide you with some general information about settlements or jury verdicts in those cases.
If you have a strong case, your birth injury lawyer will work with the medical providers and their malpractice insurers to try to settle your claim. This process can be difficult because insurance companies often use pressure tactics to reduce or even deny a payout. A skilled birth injury attorney will be able to counter this and can help you receive a settlement that fairly reflects the impact of your child’s injury.
A successful claim can result in compensation that pays for your child’s current and future medical expenses, past and future loss of income from being unable to work, ongoing therapy costs, and other damages. This financial award cannot undo the damage done by medical malpractice, but it can help ease the emotional distress and provide your child with the resources they need to live a happy life.
A Brooklyn birth injury lawyer can investigate the cause of your child’s injuries and determine if you have a valid claim for negligence. They can also help you find the best way to proceed with filing a lawsuit against the medical professionals responsible for your child’s injuries. Depending on the nature of your child’s injuries, you might also be able to file claims against hospitals, which can be held vicariously liable for their employees’ actions under certain circumstances.
Filing a Lawsuit
Injuries to a child during birth can change the family’s lives forever. Not only does the injury cause physical pain and suffering, but the medical costs associated with treatment can be overwhelming for any family. A successful birth injury lawsuit can provide the financial support needed to cover those costs.
A birth injury attorney can help you identify if a medical mistake caused your child’s injuries. Once he or she has done that, the next step is to file a lawsuit. Once the lawsuit is filed, your attorney will negotiate with the defendants to settle the case out of court. If a settlement cannot be reached, your lawyer will prepare to take the case to trial. Throughout the trial process, your attorney will depose witnesses and ask them questions under oath. The information provided during these depositions will add to the evidence in your case.
A lawsuit can help you hold negligent healthcare professionals liable for their mistakes. Medical negligence is when doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers fail to follow expected standards of care for patients. When this occurs, it can lead to serious injuries and even wrongful death for the patient. A claim can also help you receive compensation for your child’s current and future medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost earnings, and other losses related to the injury.