Birth Injury Claims

How to qualify for a birth injury claim

To make a claim for birth injuries, you can either look for compensation for an injury caused to yourself or your baby as a result of medical negligence. For babies, the injuries included under this umbrella can range from bruising to broken bones.

Any injuries are serious and any birth injury to a newborn, or neonatal birth trauma, that could have been avoided means you are eligible to make a claim.

Compensation can be claimed for events as far back as during the pregnancy as well as the post-birth period. Any issue of medical negligence which leads to avoidable injury or illness for you or your baby qualifies you to make a claim.

How to make a successful birth injury claim

On the legal side, the claims that are most likely to be successful are the ones in which you can show two things – negligence and causation. Negligence is when a professional medical practitioner fails to meet the level of care that is reasonable to expect. Causation is the injury or illness caused as a result of a lack of care or even a negligent act. You must be able to demonstrate both of these things in order to have any chance at making a successful claim.

The evidence you need to make a case

There are a few essential things you need to make a successful claim. You will need to have proof of:

Duty of care

To be eligible for compensation, there must have been a duty to look after you to begin with. In this case, any doctors or nurses will have a duty of care to ensure you are looked after and no harm is caused to you.

Breach of duty

Once you have proved that there was a duty of care towards you, you also need to be sure that this duty was breached.

Causation

The breach of duty needs to have led to an injury or illness, and it has to be a direct result of the breach of care.

Damages

A legal team can work for you to put together a case that proves the outcome was directly linked to the breach of care. In many situations, this can be settled without going to court which will save you a lot of time. It is the job of a legal team to do this, so you don’t have to worry.

How much are birth injury payouts?

There is a wide range of how much you could earn from your compensation claim for a birth injury. This could be anywhere from thousands, up to as high as £12 million. Higher amounts can be gained in extremely serious cases, such as brain damage and long-term illnesses that result in severe impairment to quality of life.

How long will a claim take?

Claims can take anywhere from a few months to a few years. This can depend on how complicated the situation is and how long it takes to find all the evidence necessary. This process is a lot quicker when you work with legal professionals who can find all of this proof on your behalf.

What is the claim process?

There are a few steps in the claims process. These are:

1. Evaluation

This is the first stage and involves the solicitor or professional you are working with getting an idea of what your case involves and whether you have a chance at receiving a claim. They will ask for details and any evidence in order to compile a better understanding of your case.

2. Examination

The solicitor you are working with will look at the evidence and examine how the injury has affected you and your life. This helps them to build a case for you and also gives you a better idea of what you can hope to achieve from the process.

3. Notification

The third party will be contacted to make them aware of the claim against them. This is when they will receive all the details of your claim and what you are accusing them of.

How much could I get?

This depends greatly on a range of factors including the severity of the injury. More severe illnesses or injuries could see you entitled to a much larger sum, but only if you can prove that this was caused by medical malpractice. Find out more in the ‘How much can I get’ section above.

How long does it take?

A birth injury claim could take anywhere from a few months to years to go through. This depends on a lot of factors including how much compensation you are asking for as well as how long it takes for evidence to be gathered in order to ensure that you receive a positive outcome. However, with legal help, it is likely to go much more smoothly and provide you with compensation as a result. This also saves you time since the professionals you go to will find all the evidence and information for you. Refer to the ‘How long will a claim take’ section to find out more.