How a Birth Injury Lawyer Can Help You Navigate Your Complex Birth Injury Case

If your child has suffered a birth injury, you may be overwhelmed at the complexity of the law and medicine involved. Read on to learn some legal and medical basics and how a birth injury lawyer can help you navigate your complex birth injury case. 

PRESERVING YOUR RIGHTS TO FILE A CLAIM

In Pennsylvania, you can file a birth injury claim up to two years after the child turns 18 (i.e., up until their 20th birthday). But you should never wait that long to consult an attorney. If your baby suffered a birth injury, you need to contact a Philadelphia birth injury lawyer as soon as possible to preserve your claims.

 While your child’s case doesn’t expire until your child turns 20, YOUR case expires two years after you knew or should have known that your child’s birth injury was someone’s fault. Your claim as the parent could be for, e.g., out of pocket expenses, emotional suffering, etc. Parents lose their individual right to sue the healthcare providers after those two years expire.

 A Philadelphia birth injury attorney, with sufficient notice, can ensure that you and your child don’t lose your rights to file a lawsuit. 

 GETTING YOUR CHILD ACCESS TO CRITICAL CARE

 If your child has suffered a serious birth injury, you may be so overwhelmed that you don’t know what to do next. You don’t know how to deal with this massive injury that is afflicting your child. You don’t know whom to talk to, how to navigate various hospital systems, and how to obtain the appropriate medical care for your child. Philadelphia birth injury lawyers can help by connecting you with the proper healthcare professionals who can provide thorough medical evaluations, early intervention, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and other critical care.

 COLLECTING CRUCIAL EVIDENCE

 Another way a birth injury attorney can help you is by collecting evidence that could be crucial to your birth injury lawsuit. The medical terms may seem complicated and the medical records may be hard to understand; this is where your birth injury lawyer comes in. Your attorney will review and digest all of the necessary information because it is essential to your birth injury lawsuit – it supports the argument that the healthcare professionals’ actions or omissions caused your child’s injuries. This evidence will also help establish the extent of your child’s injuries, detailing every related issue whether it’s physical or emotional.

 OBTAINING MONEY DAMAGES

 In Pennsylvania, there are two main categories of compensation: economic and non-economic. Economic damages are quantifiable, the specific figures can be established, or at least reasonably estimated, with documentation. Examples of economic damages include: medical expenses, loss of future earnings, and lost wages (for parents who had to stop working to care for their injured child).

 Non-economic damages are not quantifiable – they are more of a subjective assessment of the sad consequences of a birth injury. Examples of non-economic damages include: loss of companionship, loss of life’s pleasures, pain and suffering, humiliation and embarrassment, and disfigurement.

 It goes without saying that no amount of money will take away the pain your child and your family feel after a birth injury. But, with the right birth injury attorney in Philadelphia, you can at least rest assured that you will get the most compensation possible for your complex birth injury case.

There is no birth injury case that is too complex for the lawyers at VSCP Law.