Most children have suffered an injury during birth, which usually has life-changing results for them and their parents. Making a claim in such cases is a long process that will require you to trust the other medical professionals that your medical malpractice attorney will instruct to review the treatment that you and your child were given.

In this guide, we will help you understand the process of making a birth injury claim. Here you’ll learn how making a birth injury claim is different from other types of claims and will also take a look at some of the common issues that may arise during the process.

How Long Does a Malpractice Settlement (Birth Injury) Take?

Well, this depends on a number of factors, such as establishing liability in a birth injury claim, providing the necessary documents, etc. In other cases, it can take 5 years to settle a birth injury medical malpractice claim. This claim is one of the most difficult ones to settle, which is why you need an experienced medical malpractice attorney.

Legal Requirements, What You Need To Prove

There are a number of things that you need to show in order to recover damages for personal injury sustained during birth. Those things are the following:

Negligence

You need to prove that there was negligence on the part of the hospital or doctor when you or your child were receiving treatment from them.

Causation

You also have to prove that the negligence of the hospital or the doctor caused the injury to your child, loss, and damage to property for which you are seeking compensation.

Consequence

Another thing that you have to prove is that the injury that your child sustained was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the negligent treatment that the hospital or doctor gave them.

How to Prove Negligence

In most medical malpractice claims, it is difficult to say the doctor or clinic was negligent. This is because there are many ways of carrying out a medical procedure, all of which are acceptable in the eyes of medical law.

In this case, you can prove negligence by going to another doctor for a second or even a third opinion and getting them to agree that what caused the injury to your child could have been avoided or that there was another way to do it.

Of course, you do not have to prove negligence beyond a reasonable doubt, you just have to prove it on the balance of probabilities.

How to Prove Causation

The issue of causation is much more difficult to prove in medical malpractice cases. This is because you are probably dealing with a doctor who has a pristine record in medicine or a hospital that is highly rated.

For example, in the case where the child is suffering from cerebral palsy, the hospital will not accept that the child should have been delivered soon; instead, they may argue that delivering in time would have made no difference to the outcome, and they may claim that perhaps the injury rose during the early stages of labor.

You can prove causation by proving that the negligent act was the actual cause of the injury and, secondarily, that it was the proximate cause of the harm. For example, as mentioned above, you can seek a second opinion from other doctors in the same field and review other similar past cases; your Pittsburgh medical malpractice lawyers will help you do the reviews.

How Much Can You Get From a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit (Birth Injury)?

To determine how much you can get from a birth injury claim, you have to first do some evaluation. Understand the economic damages that have been caused by the birth injury; these may include medical costs, lost wages due to the parent not working because they have to take care of the child, the cost of medical needs, pain and suffering, loss of quality of life or enjoyment, and long-term care costs.

Overall, the average birth injury compensation settlement is $1.3 million. especially if the child has a birth brain injury. What you have to consider in your calculations is that this average birth injury settlement does not give all the information. Factors and circumstances involved in the case will determine how much settlement you can get, as there is no calculator where you punch in and then get a payout.

Why You Need an Experienced Pittsburgh Attorney to Handle Your Birth Injury Claim

An experienced medical malpractice attorney knows the law, and the law is very complicated. There is lots of paperwork to go through, and an attorney will take it upon themselves to make it easy for you. Pittsburgh medical malpractice attorneys know how to challenge medical malpractice defenses.

The doctors or the hospital being sued for medical malpractice will also hire their own team of attorneys; they may argue that the birth injuries were not a result of medical error. Rest assured, your attorneys have dealt with similar cases before, so they know how to challenge, defend, and, in the end, win the compensation that your child deserves.

The money will cover medical treatment, any damages that may have been endured due to the birth injury, and some future costs so you and your family can have the life that you deserve.

Why Choose Frischman & Rizza to Handle Your Case?

At Frischman & Rizza, we are one of the best medical malpractice lawyers in Pittsburgh, PA. For over 30 years in the industry, we have been fighting for injury victims, and we have been regarded as the top of their peer group. The American College of Trial Lawyers even inducted Attorney Bernard Rizza into the 1% of the best lawyers in Pennsylvania.

We handle different types of medical malpractice lawsuits, and we always aim to win the cases. We offer free consultations and no hourly charges. If your child has birth injuries or if you suspect there might have been some medical errors in your treatment, do not worry.

At Frischman & Rizza, we are not just another law firm; we treat our clients as part of the family, which is why when we decide to take on your case, you will work with us from the beginning to the end.

Contact a Frischman & Rizza Pittsburgh medical malpractice lawyer today about your medical malpractice case.