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Birth Injury Claims

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Services in: Birth Injury Claims

    • Birth Injury To Mother Claims
    • Group B Streptococcus Claims
    • Stillbirth Compensation Claims
    • Health Services Safety Investigations Body
    • NHS Early Notification Scheme

If your child has suffered an injury during birth due to medical negligence, you might be able to claim compensation.

We understand that expectant parents can feel vulnerable and cautious during both pregnancy and childbirth. It’s during this time that you’d expect your child to be properly cared for and will put your trust in the medical professionals.

If your symptoms haven't been taken seriously, or there has been a mistake which has caused harm to you or your child, you may be able to claim for compensation.

Our experts are here to support you during your claim for a birth injury caused by medical negligence.

Who can make a birth injury claim?

If you or your baby was injured due to mistakes by medical professionals before, during or after birth, you may be entitled to make a claim.

Our solicitors have helped families claim for a wide range of birth injuries including:

  • Cerebral Palsy
  • Stillbirth and neonatal death
  • Erb’s Palsy
  • Brain injury caused by lack of oxygen, often referred to as Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy or HIE
  • Other brain injuries such as kernicterus
  • Broken bones such as skull fractures
  • Birth injury to mothers such as perineal tears or obstetric anal sphincter injuries.

We’re able to help with other birth injuries. If the injury your child sustained listed above, please contact us to see if we can help you make a claim. We’ll support you through the whole claims process

Why choose Irwin Mitchell to handle your birth injury claim?

We’ve the largest medical negligence team of any firm in the UK. Our team of specialists in birth

We’ll always discuss every step with you and act on your instructions. We’ll be there to answer any questions you have throughout your claim.

Our Court of Protection team will use financial advisors, such as our Asset Management team, to help you manage your compensation. They’ll make sure the compensation is there for you now and in the future.

Throughout your claim, and afterwards, you’ll have access to our Support and Rehabilitation co-ordinators. Their role is to make sure you’ve access to expert support that’s local to you. This could be financial support you’re entitled to or rehabilitation services like physiotherapy or counselling.

We also work closely with several charities that we can put you in contact with. They’ll offer you support both during and after your claim. Charities we work with include:

  • AvMA
  • Birthrights
  • Brainwave
  • CPotential
  • Group B Strep Support
  • Make Birth Better
  • Pace Centre
  • Peeps
  • Twins Trust
  • WellChild.

We’ve offices around the UK, which means there’ll be an expert local to you. We can also arrange phone or video calls, or communicate via email, whichever is easiest for you.

Maternity matters webinar series

 

Watch more of our maternity matters series.

Access to support and rehabilitation coordinators
Links with support groups and charities
In-house Public Law and Court of Protection experts
Specialist medical negligence solicitors

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Lisa Jordan Partner Meet the team

Birth Injury Claims - More Information

When you contact us, we’ll set up a free initial consultation to discuss your case and see if you have a claim. We’ll also talk about how you can pay for your claim, including no win no fee agreements. 

 

Our experts will investigate your case in detail, gathering evidence from independent medical professionals. These experts will work out what care you should have received and what your future treatment needs will be. 

 

We’ll then get in touch with those responsible for your negligent treatment at an early stage to see if they accept the blame for your birth injury. If they accept responsibility, we’ll try to secure interim compensation payments. These can fund private medical care and ongoing expenses before your final settlement. Any interim payments will be taken out of your final compensation award. 

 

We’ll always try and negotiate claims out of court, keeping your claim as short as we can. However, if your opponent doesn’t accept responsibility or doesn’t agree with the amount of compensation we feel you need, we’ll start court proceedings.

 

Even when trial dates have been set, claims are still often settled before reaching court. If your claim does need to go to court, we’ll be there to help you every step of the way, talking you through what will happen, so you feel as comfortable as possible. 

 

In most cases, where we are able to accept instructions, we are able to offer our clients a no win no fee agreement with delegated ATE Insurance.

This insurance policy fully protects you if your claim is unsuccessful. It also means that you can claim compensation without paying a penny upfront. You only ever pay anything if your no win no fee claim is successful, and even then, your opponent will pay most of your legal costs.

Any remaining costs are deducted from your compensation settlement. We’ll advise you of this in advance, so there won’t be any surprises.

As we can offer our clients this method of funding, we aren't able to offer clients the option of legal aid.

Every claim is different, which means we can’t give you a figure for how much compensation you might get. There are several factors that we’ll consider when working out how much compensation you’re entitled to. These are:

  • Your child’s care needs
  • The severity and extent of their injury
  • The costs of medical treatment, rehabilitation, care support and home adaptations that may be needed
  • Time taken off work or if you’re no longer able to work
  • Travel costs to medical appointments.

Our birth injury solicitors will try to get you a settlement that provides a full care package for your child, for their lifetime if needed. We’ll make sure that their best interests are always put first, and we can help you manage your compensation award to make sure it lasts as long as you need it.

You can claim on behalf of your child any time before their 18th birthday. From 18, they’ve three years to make a claim (until they turn 21). 

 

If you’re claiming for injuries you’ve sustained during labour, you’ve three years from the date of the negligence to claim.

 

If you’re claiming for a child who has passed away because of a birth injury, you’ve three years to make a claim from the date of death. Contact us if you have any questions about claim time limits. 
 

 

We’ll most likely take your case on a no win no fee basis. This means you’ll only pay legal costs if you receive compensation and most of those costs will be covered by your opponent. If your claim is unsuccessful you won’t have to pay anything. 

We'll make sure you're fully aware of all funding options before we start working for you.

Life with Mac quote image

It’s not an easy situation to deal with, but there is assistance out there which has a massive positive impact."

Valerie, client's mother

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a birth injury?

Any injury to a child that happens immediately before, during, or after delivery is a birth injury. A birth injury is different to a birth defect, which is when damage is caused while the foetus is still in the womb. Bruising and swelling can happen, but more severe injuries can have lifelong effects.

 

Mothers can also be injured during childbirth. See our birth injury to mothers claims page for more information.

 

Types of birth injury include:

  • Cerebral Palsy
  • Stillbirth and neonatal death
  • Erb’s Palsy
  • Brain injury caused by lack of oxygen, often referred to as Hypoxic Ischaemic Enbcephalopathy or HIE.
  • Other brain injuries such as kernicterus
  • Broken bones such as skull fractures
  • Birth injury to mothers such as perineal tears or obstetric anal sphincter injuries.

Birth injuries are sometimes unavoidable due to medical complications. But they can also happen when medical staff haven’t provided adequate care. This might include mistakes made during delivery or failing to monitor and react to a child’s vital signs.

 

If you’ve been affected by a birth injury caused by poor medical care, you may be able to make a birth injury compensation claim. Contact us online to find out more about how we can help.

What can cause a birth injury?

Birth injuries can occur due to several mistakes made by hospital staff, including:

  • Missing signs of distress in the baby such as an abnormal heartbeat, low blood sugar levels, or high bilirubin level (failure to act on signs of jaundice)
  • Failing to check medical records or history
  • Delays in diagnosis or treatment
  • Delivering the baby too late
  • Attempting delivery when the baby’s shoulder is stuck.
  • Any other oversight that puts your baby at risk

To make a successful compensation claim, we’ll need to prove a direct link between medical negligence and your baby’s injury. Our solicitors have years of experience investigating claims like this and we know how to get expert evidence to support your case. Contact us online to find out more.

Can we help with NHS early notification scheme claims?

If your child is at risk of having a serious and permanent brain injury the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations (MNSI), formerly the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB), may refer you to the NHS Resolution Early Notification Scheme.

If they find that your child’s injury was a result of negligent medical care, you could get compensation. 

Read More FAQs

Related Information - Birth Injury Claims

Cerebral Palsy - if medical errors caused your child's cerebral palsy, we could help
Asset Management - we can plan the investment of your compensation to get the most out of the award
Maternal Birth Injuries - you could make a claim if your labour was worsened by negligent treatment
Matthew's Story - Learn about Matthew's life with cerebral palsy

All Scottish cases will be handled by the Scottish law firm with which we are associated, Irwin Mitchell Scotland LLP. The law relating to funding is different in Scotland and you will receive separate advice about what that means as well as a separate funding agreement.

* To make a No Win No Fee claim, you need to enter a No Win No Fee agreement that's linked to a suitable insurance policy. We'll explain this in more detail before we start your claim.

About Irwin Mitchell

Founded in Sheffield in 1912, Irwin Mitchell has always been a bit different. Our advisers really get to know the people and business that we help.

We have offices around the UK so wherever you are, our experts can help.

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