The birth of your child should be one of the happiest days of your life, but what happens when problems during the delivery leave your child injured? Birth injuries can range from minor to serious. Severe injuries can be devastating, resulting in a lifetime of suffering, disability, specialized care, and medical costs.
Birth injuries are often the consequence of a doctor’s or healthcare provider’s carelessness, which means you may be able to hold the person or facility involved liable. A birth injury case must be filed within a certain time range, just like any other litigation. If you wait too long, your lawsuit may be dismissed. If you have a problem or just want to know if your child’s injury or impairment was caused by medical mistakes, call a delivery mistake attorney.
What Is a Limitation Period?
The statute of limitations is the time restriction established by law for filing a lawsuit. Distinct sorts of cases have different time limits — or statutes of limitations. Cases submitted after the appropriate statute of limitations has expired, regardless of how genuine the claim or how terrible the harm, will be dismissed. As a result, it is critical to speak with skilled attorneys to evaluate a potential claim as soon as you suspect your child has suffered a birth injury as a result of anything done, or not done, by a health care practitioner.
Statute of Limitations for Birth Injuries
Not every birth injury is visible at birth. Many birth injuries do not emerge for months or even years. For this and other reasons, most states have a longer statute of limitations for birth damage claims. For example, the statute of limitations in Pennsylvania for a normal medical malpractice case is two years, which means that the complaint must be filed within two years after the improper medical care. However, Pennsylvania law made an exemption for birth injury claims, allowing a birth injury lawsuit to be brought up to the child’s 20th birthday.
Because each state has its own statute of limitations, it is critical to speak with an attorney as soon as possible so that they can examine the claim and completely defend your and your child’s rights. While state law may provide for a particular extension of the statute of limitations in a birth injury lawsuit, it should only be invoked when absolutely necessary. If you believe that medical care has harmed your child, you should talk with a knowledgeable attorney right away. The attorney will need time to get the mother’s and child’s medical records, as well as the numerous test results and other papers and items required to assess the treatment provided, and then meet with several medical specialists to fully investigate and substantiate the claim.
Who Can File a Lawsuit and How Much Can be Recovered?
Because a child cannot sue, the parents or legal guardians would have the right to sue for the child’s birth damage. The amount of money that can be obtained in birth injury claims varies by state. In general, the child can be awarded money to compensate him or her for things like pain and suffering, deformity, potential lifelong medical bills, and loss of future income if they are unable to work full-time in the future. The parents may also claim compensation for any physical damage sustained by the mother as a result of poor delivery care, as well as the cost of medical equipment, treatment, and other connected expenditures.
Is the Statute of Limitations for Birth Injury Different in Each State?
Again, each state has its own statute of limitations that establishes a time restriction for initiating a case. States may have their own Statute of Limitations that apply to birth harm claims. Families who have suffered birth injuries should contact a lawyer as soon as possible, ideally a delivery mistake attorney, so that they may successfully make a claim within the time constraints. Based on your state’s laws, an attorney with experience in birth injury lawsuits will move fast.