According to reports, a cerebral palsy lawsuit in New York was settled last summer for $5.3 million. The way that the settlement worked might give some insight into these clams for those who are considering pursuing a cerebral palsy lawsuit themselves.
The Claim
In this particular case, the lawsuit alleged that the medical staff did not provide adequate care to the mother and because of that negligence, her child was born with Cerebral Palsy. She had her child at 32 weeks. The lawsuit alleged that there wasn’t adequate care given, and because of that, the premature birth resulted. The child in this case was born with cerebral palsy that affected all four limbs.
Cerebral palsy lawsuits sometimes win in court and sometimes conclude via settlement. There are cases, of course, that do not win, when the jury finds that it was not the fault of anyone involved in providing medical care. In such cases, it may be that there was nothing that reasonably could have been done to prevent the brain injury. The child may also have been injured during the process of being born in a way that could not have been avoided.
In claims where the mother or child was denied the medical care they needed or where they were given the wrong type of care, there is sometimes a chance that a lawsuit will win. It depends upon the exact circumstances of the injury and whether or not the birth injury lawyers the family hires are able to establish medical malpractice as the cause of the child’s injuries.
How Do Lawyers Succeed in these Cases?
The lawyers that handle birth injury claims are generally knowledgeable about cerebral palsy and other birth injury related disorders themselves, but they don’t rely on their own expertise. They can engage other experts to lend their credibility to the claim and, if necessary, to testify in the plaintiff’s case. They can also take a look at other claims that are similar to the ones with which they are presented and determine whether or it it’s likely that a case would win.
No attorney can guarantee a claim will win, but most Cerebral Palsy lawyers work on contingency meaning they do not charge a fee unless they win the case. This way there’s no financial risk for the family.