The birth of a child should be a wonderful trouble-free time but if something happens that harms an otherwise healthy child, or indeed a mother for that matter, it can be incredibly distressing.
Injuries to the mother or child can have severe consequences for you and your family.
Birth injury is a generic term encompassing a wide range of claims or injuries which may be sustained during the course of the delivery of a child, and as such, in their own way they are worthy of a separate sub-category of clinical negligence or medical negligence cases.
It’s important to set out at the outset, that birth injury claims can arise to the mother or the child, and in the most severe cases, can encompass an injury to the child, who subsequently goes on to develop severe brain injury.
You can find out about brain injury, cerebral palsy and other birth injuries by clicking the links on this page.
At the other end of the spectrum, the case may well be something as elementary as not providing sufficient anaesthesia in the form of an epidural etc. to a mother, or indeed administering an epidural incorrectly.
In order to pursue a successful case, like any medical negligence or clinical negligence case, you will need a Solicitor who will investigate the standard of care you or your child has received, who is well versed with medical procedures and cases of this type.
At Birth Injury, we will obtain and scrutinise your notes and records in conjunction with a team of nurses who we have access to, to find the most appropriate expert to instruct in relation to your case, and to comment on issues of breach of duty and causation. In other words, we will need to commission expert evidence to comment on whether the standard of care you received was poor and secondly, to look at the loss which has occurred, solely as a result of this failing in the standard of care.
Whatever has happened, and whatever injury has been sustained, you will need a lawyer to provide you with jargon free, clear and independent advice and to help and assist you at what will no doubt be a difficult time. These events of course will be unexpected, and whether an injury has been sustained by the mother or to the child, is bound to have very a significant effect on the individual concerned, so it is of paramount importance that you have a specialist lawyer who can provide you with empathy and understanding at this difficult time.
The first thing to do is to contact a member of our Birth Injury Team, who will be able to take initial details from you and then direct your enquiry to one of our experienced Solicitors.
Public funding through the Legal Services Commission (known previously as Legal Aid), is still available for clinical negligence cases. With effect from the 1 April 2013, public funding will only be available for those birth injuries involving brain injury, for example cerebral palsy cases.
However, even if public funding is not available, we can consider a range of other funding options, including a Conditional Fee Agreement (known in some circles as a “No Win, No Fee Agreement”), Legal Expense Insurance, or of course a fixed fee. The important thing to remember is that we will discuss fully with you all the options before carrying out any substantive work on your case, and obviously go through all the options with you in detail.
Medical notes and records will be vitally important in relation to a birth injury case, and as such we will request these from the various institutions. It may be necessary to obtain notes and records from the baby’s mother as well, if we are looking at the standard of care provided during birth for example.
We have a team of experienced nurses at our disposal, who will sort and paginate the notes and records and identify any missing disclosure. It is likely that we will then look at preparing an analysis or chronology of the notes and records and discuss this with you, and take a witness statement to go through what you recall about the treatment and also discuss how you are now.
In order to successfully prosecute a case, it will be necessary to obtain supportive expert evidence. We need to show that the standard of care you received was indefensible (in other words incompetent), and that some loss has been suffered as a result of this.
Obviously, we will identify the right experts to assist from our database of tried and tested experts, and will select the most appropriate expert for you. It is not just a case of asking an expert for an opinion. Experts have to carefully instructed and you will need someone who has the skills and expertise to identify the primary issues in your case and to guide the expert correctly.
Once we have completed the investigative steps, then we can look at putting the case forward to the Defendants, (the other side), including the allegations of negligence, so that they can commence their preliminary investigations too. We will obviously look at the value of your case and instruct experts where necessary, so that in due course we can look at drafting a Schedule of Loss (which is a document setting out the value of the case) to disclose to the Defendants and the Court.
Obviously, if there is a dispute as to the issue of fault and the Defendants do not accept negligence, then we have a wealth of experience at our disposal to pursue the case, together with the likely involvement of a Barrister, in order that we may get your case before a Judge for trial.
No two cases are the same, and whilst they may follow a similar pattern in relation to the steps involved, it’s important for you to note that your case will be looked at on an individual basis, and our legal services will be tailored to your specific needs.
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