North Carolina Birth Injury Lawsuit
When is it Appropriate to File a Birth Injury Lawsuit?
This is a tricky question to answer if you have never been in this situation. This is why it’s so important to speak with a firm or attorney specializing in medical malpractice and birth injuries. They can look over your case for free and provide advice. If they don’t think you have a case, they won’t offer to represent you.
In general, it makes sense to file a lawsuit if:
- Your baby’s birth injuries are severe.
- Your baby’s condition is long-term or permanent and will cause disabilities or impact quality of life.
- The related medical expenses are already high.
- You expect the costs of your child’s treatment and care to continue for months or years.
- You have missed work or cannot work in the future because you need to stay home to care for your child.
- Your baby died from birth injuries.
Is There a Time Limit on Filing?
North Carolina’s statute of limitations on personal injury lawsuits applies here. It gives you three years from the time the injuries occurred to file. You may have more time, depending on when you could have reasonably connected your child’s condition to an incident during labor and delivery.
How Will My Lawyer Prove the Doctor Was Negligent?
Proving medical malpractice can be difficult. Your lawyer needs to prove a series of four facts:
- There is a standard of care for your child’s situation based on what other doctors would have done.
- Your doctor, or other medical professional, breached that standard and did something different.
- That breach resulted in your child’s injuries.
- The injuries have resulted in significant damages, such as treatment costs and emotional suffering.
To prove these four steps, your lawyer will work with medical experts and rely on evidence. The latter includes your recollections of what happened, witness testimony, medical reports, and bills.
How Does a North Carolina Birth Injury Lawsuit Work?
If you want to file a North Carolina birth injury lawsuit, your lawyer will guide you through the process. There are several steps to take, although many cases never make it through all of them:
- Filing a complaint
The first step in the process is to file a complaint with the appropriate North Carolina court. Your lawyer will know how to do this and will include information about your allegations and identify the defendants. - Discovery
A discovery period begins with the complaint filing. This is a period of time that allows both sides to investigate, gather evidence, and build a case. - Settlement discussions
Most defendants are willing to enter into negotiations for a settlement before resorting to a trial in court. They can usually save money this way, as jury awards tend to be higher. - Trial
Most personal injury lawsuits end in a settlement, but some are forced into court. Here, your lawyer will present your case to a judge and jury. The jury rules on whether or not the defendants are negligent. If they are, the jury will award you a specific amount of damages. - Appeals
Some cases end in an appeal. If the defendants appeal a jury decision, they’ll ask a judge to overturn it. Your lawyer defends the jury decision.
How Much Can I Recover in Damages?
It is impossible to predict or guarantee a specific amount of damages exactly. Any lawyer who tries to guarantee you an outcome cannot be trusted. What your lawyer can do is estimate a reasonable amount to seek, which depends on:
- The severity and permanence of your child’s injuries
- How those injuries will affect your child’s independence and quality of life
- Existing medical bills and other costs related to the injuries
- Expected future costs, including for treatment, home care, assistive devices, therapy, and more
- Lost wages if you cannot work because of your child’s condition
- Pain and suffering as well as other intangible costs
Every case is different, with unique circumstances that impact damages amounts. All medical malpractice cases, however, are subject to North Carolina law, which caps non-economic damages. Set at $500,000 when the law passed, the limit increases yearly based on inflation. There is no cap on economic damages.
North Carolina Birth Injury Lawsuits
You may want to look at examples of successful North Carolina birth injury lawsuits to get an idea of what the right legal team can do for victims. These are useful to see if you’re unsure you want to take the step to file a suit.
- $9.5 million verdict for delayed treatment. A North Carolina woman went to a hospital with contractions. The staff sent her home, but she soon returned and did not receive care for more than an hour. She suffered a placental abruption, but the staff again delayed a C-section. The baby was born without a heartbeat, was resuscitated, and suffered irreversible brain damage. She now needs 24-hour care for life.
- $9 million settlement for NICU burns. Some birth injuries happen soon after delivery, while the baby is still in the hospital. A premature baby in the neonatal intensive care unit suffered third-degree burns after nurses left her on overheated saline solution bags. The burns led to infections, meningitis, and resulting brain damages.
- $725,000 settlement for shoulder dystocia. Hospital staff disregarded risk factors for complications and attempted to deliver the baby vaginally instead of performing a C-section. The baby’s shoulder stuck in the birth canal.Efforts to deliver the baby led to serious nerve damage and permanent disability in the affected arm.
These and other cases demonstrate how serious malpractice can be, especially for a newborn. Babies with lifelong disabilities, because of a doctor’s or nurse’s carelessness, deserve compensation. If your baby suffered irreversible birth injuries, contact North Carolina birth injury lawyers to get advice and take action.