Atlanta Birth Injury Attorneys can change a family’s life in the blink of an eye. These injuries can cause medical bills, loss of income, and even preventable death.
Legally, families can seek financial compensation for these damages. This compensation can help pay for therapies, equipment, home accommodations, and other expenses.
Birth injury attorneys specialize in helping families seek financial compensation for the costs associated with medical malpractice-related injuries. A lawyer’s expertise in this area of law allows them to effectively investigate and build a strong case on your behalf. They understand how to maximize your family’s chances of winning a fair settlement, or win a jury verdict in court if necessary.
During a lawsuit, your birth injury attorney will investigate to determine if the medical professional’s actions were negligent. To do this, they will review medical records and hire experts to help them identify any mistakes made. They will also review medical procedures and tests performed to help them determine if the doctor or hospital was at fault. They will need to show that the medical professional breached a standard of care, and that the breach caused your child’s injury.
The next step will be to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. Your lawyer will file the suit with the county in which the incident occurred. The defendants in the lawsuit will be the doctors, hospital and other medical professionals who are alleged to have committed malpractice. The lawsuit will be assigned a case number and will be scheduled for trial, if necessary.
Many medical malpractice cases, including those involving birth injuries, will settle out of court. Often, this is because doctors and hospitals want to avoid negative publicity from a trial. Your birth injury lawyer will negotiate with the defendants to try and get a fair settlement for your family. This will save you the time and stress of going to trial.
Your lawyer will work with medical and economic experts to calculate the full extent of your child’s injuries and the associated expenses. This includes past and future medical expenses, lost wages, emotional distress and other non-economic damages. They will also take into account the impact that the injury has had on your family.
Families of children with severe birth injuries can face lifelong treatment and expensive medical bills. These expenses can be overwhelming for parents, especially if they were caused by the negligence of medical professionals. A top-rated birth injury lawyer can help you pursue the compensation you deserve.
How Do I Find a Birth Injury Lawyer?
You want to find a birth injury lawyer who is familiar with medical malpractice law and specific to the state in which your child was injured. The attorney should also have a strong track record in successfully representing clients in birth injury cases.
Your attorney will need to collect evidence that the doctor who delivered your child breached their duty of care and committed a medical mistake during the delivery process. Typically, this requires a review of medical records, expert witness testimony, and identification of policies and protocols violated by the doctor or hospital.
A top birth injury attorney will have extensive experience handling medical malpractice claims, including those involving serious injuries such as brain trauma. Their experience will include representing clients in settlement negotiations with the malpractice insurance company and, if necessary, filing a lawsuit to recover compensation in court.
The best birth injury attorneys will have significant professional recognition, which provides further confirmation of their skill level and performance track record. They will likely have a wide network of professionals in the legal field and in other industries that can contribute to your case by serving as expert witnesses.
They will usually work on a contingency basis, which means they will evaluate your case for free and only receive payment if they recover a financial award for you. They will also have many resources, such as labor and delivery nurses on staff, that they can use to support your claim and help you understand what went wrong.
Most medical malpractice cases, including those involving birth injuries, are settled out of court. The doctors and hospitals involved in these claims do not want to face a trial in front of a judge and jury, so they are often willing to settle for a fair amount of money. Your lawyer will handle the negotiations with the insurance company for you and may recommend settling to get your child the financial compensation they deserve as quickly as possible.
While winning a legal case won’t undo the damage caused by a medical mistake, it can help you pay for lifetime care so your child has access to the resources they need to live a comfortable life with their condition. The funds can help pay for therapies, medical equipment, home accommodations, and other necessities.
How Much Do Birth Injury Lawyers Cost?
Many families affected by medical negligence are concerned about the cost of hiring a lawyer to file a claim. After all, they already have expensive medical bills and expenses piling up from the injury. Thankfully, it’s common for birth injury attorneys to offer free case evaluations so that families can find out whether or not they qualify to file a claim.
After a consultation and case review, the lawyer will begin investigating the claims to determine if there is evidence of medical malpractice. This usually includes reviewing medical records and obtaining expert witnesses to assess the case and provide a formal opinion as to whether or not malpractice occurred. This process can be lengthy as the lawyers will likely need to request and receive all medical records from the doctor, hospital and any other providers involved in your pregnancy and childbirth.
Another aspect of a birth injury lawsuit is the negotiating process with insurance companies. These companies are well aware of the high expenses associated with a birth injury lawsuit and will often try to lowball their offers or use delay tactics to force you into a settlement. A skilled birth injury attorney will know how to handle these negotiations and ensure that any settlement offers you accept are fair and reflect the actual damages incurred.
Most medical malpractice cases, including claims for birth injuries, settle out of court rather than going to trial. This is because doctors and hospitals are not eager to be subject to negative publicity. However, if the insurance company refuses to make a reasonable settlement offer your lawyer may need to go to trial in order to get them to play fair.
Some states have birth-related neurologic injury compensation programs, which are designed to remove the need for families to file a lawsuit and instead receive financial support directly from the state. This money can be used for ongoing medical care, replacement of lost income, and other costs associated with a neurological injury caused by birth complications. A knowledgeable New York birth injury lawyer can help you determine if your family is eligible for these types of benefits.
How Do I Know if I Need a Birth Injury Lawyer?
The last thing expecting parents want is for their child to suffer from a birth injury. These injuries can lead to long-term medical care, expensive therapy, lost income from work, and many other complications. When a baby is injured due to medical negligence during labor and delivery, it is important for their family to seek financial compensation from those responsible.
Hiring a lawyer can help parents understand their legal rights and build a strong case against the medical professionals involved. These lawyers can identify when doctors have failed to meet professional standards and prove the four parts of a medical malpractice claim: duty, breach, causation, and damages.
One of the first things a birth injury lawyer will do is request and review all the medical records from both the mother and baby in order to determine if there was any negligence that caused a birth injury. They will also determine the appropriate defendants, which will typically include the hospital or other institution where the delivery took place as well as any doctors who were treating either the mother or baby prior to and during labor and delivery.
Building a successful case will require evidence such as medical records, testimony from witnesses, and expert witness testimony. A birth injury attorney will be able to gather this evidence and present it to the jury during trial to secure a fair settlement for their client.
The amount of compensation received will depend on the type and severity of the injury and will vary from case to case. The victim’s family will be able to receive money for past and future medical expenses as well as any lost income from work. They can also be compensated for the emotional and psychological trauma that the injury has caused.
It is important to hire a birth injury lawyer as soon as possible after the injury has occurred. The sooner they begin investigating and building a case, the more likely it is that they can find and secure a fair settlement from an insurance company. If the insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement, the birth injury lawyer will file a lawsuit to put pressure on the insurer and force them to settle.