You may be interested in working with birth injury solicitors to make a claim after suffering harm due to medical negligence at birth. This involves a medical professional breaching their duty of care and causing a patient avoidable harm as a result.
Birth injury solicitors
Incidents of medical negligence occurring throughout the birthing process can cause unnecessary harm to both the mother and child. If you can provide evidence that medical negligence caused you harm, you may have grounds to seek a settlement. This guide will discuss the benefits of hiring a solicitor to help you seek compensation.
Alongside this, we will explain how birth injuries occur and the birth injury compensation amounts that could be awarded to address the harm you or your baby have experienced.
Furthermore, we will discuss how a solicitor offering their services on a No Win No Fee basis could benefit you.
To learn more, continue with this guide. Alternatively, you can contact our advisors for free legal advice. To reach them, you can:
- Call 0113 460 1216
- Complete the contact form
- Use the live chat to speak to an advisor instantly
Choose A Section
- How Do You Find Birth Injury Solicitors? – A Guide
- Why Use Our Panel Of No Win No Fee Birth Injury Solicitors?
- When Can You Make A Maternity Negligence Claim?
- What Could You Receive From A Hospital Negligence Claim?
- Potential Evidence That Could Help You Claim For Medical Negligence
- Learn More About Locating Birth Injury Solicitors
How Do You Find Birth Injury Solicitors? – A Guide
When a medical professional fails to provide you with a minimum standard of care, this can result in incidents where you sustain avoidable harm. In order to make a birth injury claim, you must have proof that this was the case.
Birth injury solicitors can help you build your case and ensure it is valid. As part of the services they offer, they can assist you with collecting evidence and organising the different areas of your claim.
If you’re unsure about how to find the right solicitor, we could help by connecting you with a solicitor from our panel. They offer their services on a No Win No Fee basis. We have explored what this means in more detail in the section below. Continue reading to learn more or call our team.
Why Use Our Panel Of No Win No Fee Birth Injury Solicitors?
You can work with a No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel. They offer their services through a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This typically means:
- There are no upfront or ongoing costs to pay for the solicitor’s services.
- You do not have to pay for your solicitor’s services if your case is unsuccessful.
- You will pay a fee from your compensation at the end of a successful claim. This is a success fee and is capped by law.
You can connect with a solicitor from our panel if our team can see a chance of success from your claim.
Contact our advisors today to learn more about connecting with birth injury solicitors and starting the claims process.
How Can You Find The Solicitor That Is Right For You?
There are many birth injury solicitors, however, it’s important you find the solicitor that is right for you. You can take various approaches to do this, including:
- Conducting research online: Looking at online reviews for each solicitor can help you decide if you want to get in touch.
- Asking for recommendations: Ask friends and family if they’ve worked with a solicitor before and who they would recommend.
There are also other factors you should consider before choosing a solicitor. For example, you should ensure the solicitor you choose has experience in handling claims similar to your own. Some solicitors specialise in certain areas, such as birth injury claims, as opposed to all areas of medical negligence.
Additionally, you may wish to consider whether they offer No Win No Fee terms. This can allow you to access their services without paying an upfront fee. There are many experienced solicitors on our panel that could help you with your maternity negligence claim on this basis. Call us on the number above to find out more.
When Can You Make A Maternity Negligence Claim?
Medically trained professionals must provide their patients with a minimum standard of care. The ways in which they have to meet this standard of care can vary slightly in each medical field. The Nursing and Midwifery Council outlines the standards for midwives which will slightly differ from the duties of a doctor that are outlined by the General Medical Council.
If a medical professional fails to provide the correct standard of care and you or your baby are caused avoidable or unnecessary harm as a result, you may be able to seek compensation.
Examples of how a birth injury could occur include:
- A surgeon makes a wrong incision when performing your C-section. As a result, you experience a perforated bowel due to the incision being made too deep.
- The midwife delivering your baby causes serious harm to the head by using forceps incorrectly. Consequently, your baby develops cerebral palsy.
- Your baby could develop erb’s palsy due to the midwife failing to correctly monitor the baby. As a result, they sustain a shoulder injury during a difficult birth.
- You’re given medication to help with the pain during childbirth, but it is administered orally rather than intravenously. As a result of the medication error, you are caused unnecessary harm.
If you’re eligible, you can claim for both the unnecessary harm you have experienced as well as your baby. Call the number above to find out more.
What Could You Receive From A Hospital Negligence Claim?
Payouts for birth injury settlements are often split into two heads. Firstly, you can claim general damages to cover the pain and suffering you experienced as a result of the physical or psychological harm you experienced due to medical negligence.
Legal professionals use the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to value the general damages portion of medical negligence claims. This publication highlights compensation brackets for different injuries. We’ve provided some examples below. Please note that these figures are only to be used as a guideline.
| Injury | Compensation | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Injuries Involving Paralysis (a) | £324,600 - £403,990 | Tetraplegia or quadriplegia. |
| Injuries Involving Paralysis (b) | £219,070 - £284,260 | Paraplegia |
| Very Severe Brain Damage (a) | £282,010 - £403,990 | This bracket can include cases of quadriplegic cerebral palsy resulting in cognitive and physical disabilities of a severe nature. |
| Moderately Severe Brain Damage (b) | £219,070 - £282,010 | The person has a very serious physical or cognitive disability. Physical disabilities can include limb paralysis. |
| Female Reproductive System (a) | £114,900 - £170,280 | Cases of infertility caused by injury or disease are included in this bracket. |
| Female Reproductive System (b) | £43,010 - £102,100 | Cases involving significant medical complications such as ectopic pregnancies or multiple surgeries are included in this bracket. |
| Severe Neck Injury (a) (i) | In the region of £148,330 | Injuries are associated with incomplete paraplegia or resulting in permanent spastic quadriparesis. |
| Severe Arm Injuries (a) | £96,160 to £130,930 | Cases of a serious brachial plexus injury is included in this bracket. |
| Moderate Pelvis and Hips Injury (b) (i) | £26,590 to £39,170 | A significant hip or pelvis injury. There is not major permanent disability and the risk of this is not great either. |
| Serious Shoulder Injury (b) | £12,770 to £19,200 | Shoulder dislocation with lower brachial plexus damage that causes shoulder, neck and elbow pain with other issues. |
When Can You Receive Special Damages Compensation?
Alongside general damages, you can claim special damages for the financial losses you have experienced as a result of the harm you sustained due to medical negligence. This includes any travel costs, loss of earnings, medical bills and care costs. However, to claim these losses back, you must provide evidence, such as prescriptions, receipts and payslips.
Contact our advisors to learn more about how birth injury solicitors could help you seek compensation. They can also discuss how much compensation you could be awarded following a successful claim.
Potential Evidence That Could Help You Claim For Medical Negligence
It is vital to collect as much evidence as possible in order to support a birth injury claim. Some examples of relevant evidence include:
- The contact details of witnesses.
- A diary about you and your baby’s treatment and symptoms following the incident.
- Medical evidence, such as hospital reports and doctor reports.
Birth injury solicitors can help you with collecting evidence for your claim. They could also arrange for you to attend an independent medical assessment, if necessary. This is often carried out by an independent medical professional to understand the full extent of the harm sustained.
Call our advisors today to learn more about the birth injury claims process.
Contact Us To See If You Can Make A Maternity Negligence Claim
Our panel of birth injury solicitors can assist you with your claim if it’s valid and has a chance of success. To learn more about how you could work with them, contact our advisors. They are available 24/7 to offer free legal advice. You can reach them by:
- Calling 0113 460 1216
- Completing the contact form
- Using the live chat to speak to an advisor instantly
Learn More About Locating Birth Injury Solicitors
You can find more information in our other medical negligence guides.
- Claiming compensation after unnecessary medical treatment
- How to report medication errors
- Can I claim for hospital medication errors?
We’ve also included some links to other helpful websites.
For further support with finding birth injury solicitors, contact our advisors today.
Writer Jess Aitch
Editor Meg McGloughlin
