Georgia Birth Injury Lawsuit
When Do I Need to File a Birth Injury Lawsuit?
Birth injuries can be serious, often causing lifelong disabilities. They also can lead to expensive medical bills and thousands of dollars in ongoing treatment and home care. If your child suffered injuries at birth, you might be wondering if filing a birth injury lawsuit is the right thing to do.
The best person to advise you on filing is a Georgia birth injury lawyer. Someone who has worked with clients like you in the past can look over your case and suggest whether or not a lawsuit makes sense.
Generally, you may want to file a birth injury lawsuit to recover damages if:
- Your baby’s injuries are severe and long-term or permanent
- The injuries will impact your child’s quality of life or their ability to live independently
- Your medical bills are high and growing
- Specialists have told you that your child will need treatment or care for the rest of their lives
- You have missed work or may be unable to work in the future because of your child’s needs
- Your baby died during childbirth
How Does a Birth Injury Lawsuit Work in Georgia?
Most personal injury lawsuits, including those involving birth injuries, proceed through a serious of steps through the Georgia courts:
- Filing a complaint with the court
Your lawyer will file a complaint, the document making the lawsuit official, with the correct Georgia court. This document also serves to notify the defendants involved. - Building a case for negligence
Next, your lawyer will go through a discovery period, gathering evidence, holding depositions, and getting information from experts and investigators. - Trying for a pre-trial settlement
With much of the evidence in hand, most defendants agree to settle out of court. Most cases end here. Your lawyer will negotiate with the defendants’ lawyers to agree on an amount. - Litigating for a jury award
Only if the settlement negotiations fail are you likely to go to trial. In court, legal teams on both sides show evidence and bring witnesses and experts in to testify. The jury decides if the defendants are liable for your damages.
Keep in mind that even if you win the jury award, the defendants can appeal. If they do, they will ask a judge in a higher Georgia court to overturn the jury decision. Your lawyer will continue to argue your case.
When is it Too Late to File in Georgia?
Georgia law gives you two years from the time an injury occurs to when you file a lawsuit. Courts may allow some exceptions. For instance, if you could not reasonably have discovered that a doctor’s mistake caused your child’s injury until months later, the clock may start at that time.
How Can I Help My Lawyer Prove My Case?
Your lawyer is the expert and will do most of the work of getting a good outcome for you and your child. There are several things you can do to help a lawyer help you:
- Provide an honest account of what happened, even if you think it makes you look bad.
- Give all the information you have about who was there when the incident occurred and who was directly involved.
- Provide your medical records and bills related to the injuries.
- Give them any other medical information that could be relevant, such as evaluations of your child by specialists.
What is My Georgia Birth Injury Lawsuit Worth?
The main goal of a lawsuit is to recover damages. The amount of damages recovered for any case varies and depends on unique factors:
- The severity of a child’s injuries
- If the injuries are permanent or leave lasting disabilities
- How the child’s quality of life will be affected
- Medical bills
- Expected future medical bills and related expenses, like home care
- Lost wages for the parent who must stay home with the child
State laws also affect damages amounts. In Georgia, if you have some blame in the incident, the court can reduce a jury award to reflect that.
Examples of Georgia Birth Injury Lawsuits
Every case is different. Outcomes depend on the individual factors of every case. These examples of Georgia birth injury lawsuits cannot predict your case’s outcome, but they can give you an idea of why people sue and what lawyers do to help them:
- Wrongful birth lawsuits proceed. The Georgia Supreme Court recently allowed lawsuits to proceed against a sperm bank. Plaintiffs argue that the company misrepresented the characteristics of the donors, leading to some children being born with or developing serious disabilities. The sperm bank argued that lawsuits amounted to claims of wrongful birth, previously banned in Georgia. The Court decided this suit could proceed, and the parents could seek justice and damages.[1]
- Lawsuits against ‘natural birth’ doctor. An Atlanta doctor offering natural births, even for women with complicated pregnancies, faces lawsuits over maternal and birth injuries. These include the suit brought by a woman who labored for more than 60 hours before the doctor performed a C-section. She suffered serious injuries. Another couple is suing over a stillborn baby, a result they claim, of the doctor negligently delaying induction of labor.[2]
- Plaintiffs must show gross negligence. The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled recently that plaintiffs in a birth injury case have a higher burden of proof. They must show the midwife involved acted with gross negligence in causing the baby’s birth injuries. The ruling is controversial, as it means the victims have to show the midwife acted without any diligence at all. The baby has serious nerve damage resulting from shoulder dystocia during birth.[3]
These cases show all the wide variety of birth injury lawsuits filed in Georgia on behalf of these young victims. Because they can be so complicated and difficult to prove, it’s important to work with an experienced lawyer on your Georgia birth injury lawsuit.