How To Win Birth Injury Litigation

For parents looking for a birth injury attorney: here is some good advice as you start down the long road of a civil suit for compensation for you and your child's losses. To start, birth injuries are an entirely different matter than birth defects. The difference is that birth injuries are the result of something that happens during labor and birth. Birth defects are caused by circumstance that existed inutero; that is, from conception to the onset of labor. This short post has two pieces of hard won advice when it comes to winning birth injury lawsuits.

The first step in winning birth injury litigation is having the information your birth injury attorney will need if he is to successfully argue your case. This means you must start a journal - now, if you haven't already done so. In your journal you will keep track of your child's medical condition (e.g., doctor's appointments, medical procedures, medicines, etc.), your legal progress (appointments, results) and your expenses.

It is inevitable that these types of cases - birth injuries and birth defects - can require large settlements. This is sadly the case because compensation must be sufficient to cover losses over a lifetime. For this reason, do your child the favor and follow this second bit of advice: find a birth injury attorney, not just a personal injury lawyer. You want a specialist.

Causes of birth defects can be toxin exposure, genetic misfortune, some medications and some illegal drugs. These cases should be prosecuted by a birth defect attorney, not a birth injury attorney.

Long term physical conditions and disabilities that have resulted in birth injury litigation include brain damage (prenatal asphyxia or vacuum extractors), brachial plexus injuries, cerebral palsy (forceps), Erb's palsy (shoulder nerve damage) and jaundice that wasn't not treated.