Salt Lake City Birth Injury Attorney

Parents with children who suffer from birth injuries are often left with seemingly insurmountable challenges. You have to think of the best ways to address your child’s losses as well as your own while also contending with significant hospital bills. When all this stress stems from an institution’s medical malpractice, it’s easy to feel angry.

Our team helps you turn that anger into action. If your child endures a birth injury, you can call on the birth injury lawyers in Salt Lake City. We can assess the value of your case and help you bring it before a county judge. 1Law can then represent you in court or negotiations as you fight to recover damages equal to the losses you and your child endured.

How to Address Birth Injuries

Birth injuries are a subset of a larger swath of personal injury cases. When you take a birth injury to civil court, you can subsequently do so under the broader umbrella of Utah’s personal injury suits.

More specifically, though, birth injury cases tend to embody medical malpractice. If you want to carry your case forward to trial or legal negotiations, you need to submit proof of medical malpractice negligence in your initial complaint. There are some injuries that tend to be more indicative of medical malpractice and negligence than others, including:

• Cerebral palsy
• Brachial plexus injury, or shoulder injury
• Brain damage
• Skull fractures
• Facial paralysis
• Neonatal injuries

Our Salt Lake City birth injury attorneys can still file a birth injuries case even if your child doesn’t suffer from one of these conditions. That said, you should be prepared to indicate that you believe any other injury your child suffered resulted from a violated duty of care.

The Importance of Record Keeping in Birth Injury Cases

Record keeping may not be the first thing on your mind when you go to give birth. When you can effectively track the bills you receive for your and your child’s care, though, you can more effectively list the losses you endured should your child experience a birth injury.

There are several forms of compensation you can request in a birth injury suit, but you need to back each of these requests with evidence. With that in mind, try to find paperwork or a witness to back losses, including:

• Expenses related to the birth itself
• Expenses related to post-birth treatment of parents and the child
• Pain management and mobility aids
• Emotional damages
• Stress
• Pain and suffering

We can assess the value of your non-economic losses by applying a multiplier to the bills you received after your essential medical care.

Damage Caps for Birth Injuries and Wrongful Death

Utah places a cap on the damages you can receive in a birth injuries case. A family that endured a birth injury prior to May 15, 2010, can receive up to $400,000 in damages, with those expenses adjusted for inflation. Any plaintiffs who endured birth injuries after this point can receive up to $450,000 in damages, again adjusting for applicable inflation.

That said, Utah does not place damage caps on birth injury wrongful death cases. Smith v. U.S., 356 P.3d 1249 (2015) found the application of this cap in wrongful death cases unconstitutional. As a result, you can request and receive full compensation for your losses if you believe you lost a loved one or child due to a birth injury.

When to File a Birth Injury Complaint

Because birth injuries fall into so many categories, the statute of limitations that applies to each case is going to be unique. If you, as a parent, want to file a claim on your child’s behalf or regarding your own losses in a birth injury, you need to refer to Utah Code Ann. § 78B-3-404. This statute gives you two years to file your claim.

Comparatively, children who want to file claims regarding their birth injury losses have until they turn twenty years old to take action. The state of Utah dictates that the application of a traditional statute of limitations is unconstitutional in cases involving minors. As such, children and their attorneys have longer to build a case.

That said, your circumstances change if your birth injury case involves a wrongful death. Utah Code Ann. § 78B-3-404 gives families two years to act on wrongful death cases, even those involving children. You can discuss how a wrongful death may impact your filing deadline with a Salt Lake City birth injury lawyer if the death occurs while you are still building your initial claim.

Predicting Liable Parties’ Reactions to Birth Injury Summons

When you bring your birth injury claim forward, the party you name as liable for your losses will most often be a hospital and not a single individual. That hospital’s legal team can respond to your complaint, in turn. Many hospitals can make you a settlement offer to try and keep your case from going to court.

This initial settlement offer can seem generous, but it is often less valuable than your compensation may be if you move your case forward. We can compare this offer against our own compensation estimate and push for the settlement that you deserve.

Rejecting this initial settlement will not see you lose your opportunity to argue for financial support. In fact, you can continue negotiating with the defendant in your case even if you carry your complaint forward into a trial. We can represent you through this process. Our attorneys can also stand between you and a hospital’s attempt to trick you out of your right to file.

Overcome the Challenges of a Birth Injury With Our Team

Giving birth is a challenge on its own. Contending with unexpected birth injuries on top of your pre-existing medical trials is more than challenging. For new parents, these injuries can feel like a slap in the face.

The birth injury lawyers in Salt Lake City at 1Law can help you overcome the difficulties of your child’s birth injuries. When you contact us or set up your free legal chat online, you can discuss your emotional damages as well as the bills related to your and your child’s care.

We can take your losses to court and fight for the compensation you need to bring normality back to your life.