Birth Injury Law Explained In Less Than 140 Characters
Birth Injury Lawsuits Explained
The birth of a child is a potentially dangerous and stressful experience, but families expect their medical professionals and doctors to adhere to a high standard of care. If they don't birth injuries can be devastating to families.
If you suspect your child was born with a preventable injury as a result of medical malpractice then contact a birth trauma lawyer for assistance. Reputable lawyers will evaluate your case at no cost and will not charge any upfront fees. To prove your claim, you must establish the four elements.
Duty of Care
The birth of a child is one of the most exciting and special events in a person's lifetime. Unfortunately, this process could be difficult for parents if medical blunders cause serious injuries to their child during labor and birth. These mistakes can be irreparable and cause many challenges for a family.
Medical professionals and doctors are under a legal obligation to treat their patients with the same respect and expertise that they expect from health care professionals of similar professions in similar circumstances. This is known as the duty of care. You must prove that a medical professional breached this duty to settle a claim. This typically involves proving that the medical professional's conduct or failure to act was different from what a reasonably trained and competent medical professional would have done under the same circumstances.
The second part of a negligence claim is the causation. You must establish, through medical documents and expert testimony that the at-fault provider's breach of duty caused your child's injury. For instance, a doctor might have not been able to keep track of your child's vital signs during labor and delivery. This could have caused brain damage from prolonged oxygen deprivation.
Damages are the most important component in an effective negligence case. You must demonstrate that you and your child have suffered, quantifiable financial losses resulting from the healthcare professional's inability to meet their obligation of care. This usually includes future and past medical expenses, lost wages and other non-economic losses such as pain and suffering.
Causation
Medical professionals have a responsibility to patients to provide care that is consistent with the standards of medical care in their area of expertise. A nurse or doctor who does not meet the standards of care could cause injury to a patient, and could result in an action for damages. To be successful in a case that involves birth injuries, a lawyer will have to prove that the breach in duty caused the injury to your child. This must be proved with evidence, like medical documents or expert testimony.
It is also important to establish that your child wouldn't have suffered the injury If the medical professional had adhered to the standard of treatment. Medical experts are asked to examine the situation to determine if the doctor or hospital behaved in a way that was not in accordance with the accepted medical guidelines.
Birth injuries can cause life-altering consequences that require an ongoing series of medical treatments and other costs. It is important that you hold hospitals and doctors accountable for their mistakes, and receive compensation to pay for the future needs of your child.
A lawyer experienced in handling medical malpractice cases will manage the entire legal procedure for you, including responding to insurer requests and filing an action against the accountable parties. They can also create a case using evidence, get expert testimony, retrieve documents and medical records, and fight for fair settlements to pay for the family's life-long care costs and expenses.
Damages
Medical experts are needed to look over medical records, evidence from you and your family members and other evidence in a birth injury lawsuit. They will help establish that the doctor involved in your case violated their duty to care and caused injuries to your child. They will then estimate the damages that you have suffered as a result of those injuries. Included are your present and future medical costs and lost wages, as well as loss in quality of life emotional distress and other losses.
When nurses, doctors, or other medical staff commit preventable errors before, during, or after the birth of your child, it can cause devastating harm to your family. It isn't easy to bring legal action against doctors and hospitals who may have acted negligently or with a lack of care. They usually have their own teams of lawyers working full-time to protect their clients and to deny claims or reduce settlement amounts.
By hiring an New York birth injury lawyer, you can hold medical professionals who are at fault accountable. Your lawyer will handle communication with insurers and will submit your claim to court, and construct a strong evidence-based case to prove responsibility. They will also work to secure you a fair settlement or jury verdict for your losses and life-long care costs. They will also submit your lawsuit on time to satisfy any applicable statute of limitations, since the clock starts ticking on the date of the malpractice or medical negligence.
Statute of Limitations
A successful claim for compensation in a birth-related injury case is based on four components. Your lawyer can explain each element and develop a solid legal argument in support of your claim.
Medical negligence claims are based on proving that the defendant owed you the obligation of care, that the defendant breached this obligation and that the breach directly caused your child's injuries. To be successful in a claim it is also necessary that you establish causation, which means that your child's injuries would not have occurred if it weren't for the defendant's actions (or inaction).
Defense attorneys can challenge any of these elements. They may argue that there is no doctor-patient connection or that the standard care is not what you claim it to be. They may challenge your evidence or the opinions of your expert witnesses.
To prove breach of obligation, you'll need submit medical records and other documentation and a written statement that describes what went wrong with your child's birth. Additionally, you'll need to submit a demand packet, which includes an inventory of the parties you believe should be named defendants. An experienced lawyer can help in identifying the appropriate defendants and make sure there's sufficient insurance coverage. A lawyer can also assist in advancing costs related to litigation such as the cost of highly qualified medical experts. This could help ease some of the financial burden associated with pursuing claims for birth injuries.