312.626.6230
Live 24/7
A live intake specialist answers day or night. Urgent matters route to an attorney immediately.
Free Consultation
Every birth injury claim starts with a confidential conversation. We’ll listen, work through what the delivery and newborn records show, and tell you honestly whether your case fits our practice — including when the answer is no.
- Call 24/7
- 312.626.6230
- Response
- Within 1 business day
- Fee Structure
- No fee unless we win
- Practice
- Illinois
Start Your Review
Request a case evaluation
We’ll respond within one business day. For time-sensitive matters, call the line above — it rings 24/7.
How long do I have to bring a birth injury claim in Illinois?
There is more than one answer, and this page deliberately publishes none of them, because the wrong number is worse than no number. Illinois allows a minor a materially longer period for their own claim than an adult gets. A parent's claim for their own injuries runs on the ordinary adult timetable and is not extended by the child's — so a family focused on a child's case can lose the mother's while the child's remains available. Claims against a local public entity are governed by separate provisions again, and care at a federally funded health center produces a claim against the United States, requiring an administrative claim before suit. Which applies depends on facts about the provider that are frequently not obvious to a patient. Deadlines are strict and missing one ends the claim regardless of its merit — so get yours confirmed against your own facts rather than working it out from a web page, including this one.
What Happens Next
From first call to signed engagement
Here’s exactly what the first weeks of working with us look like. No surprises, no pressure — just a clear path from “something was wrong and nobody explained it” to a real answer, including when the answer is no.
01
The Call
You describe what happened and whatever you have; we listen and ask clarifying questions. Confidential and free. We assess whether the facts plausibly support a claim, what the records would need to show, and which deadline applies to which claim.
02
Records
If the matter fits our practice, requests go out immediately — the complete maternal and neonatal record rather than a discharge summary, the fetal monitoring archive in native form, the unit protocols in force at the time, and the placental pathology if a specimen was taken. Retention schedules for several of those are finite, so this does not wait for the paperwork.
03
Expert Review
The record is read by qualified experts — obstetric, neonatal, and where relevant neuroradiology and placental pathology. Illinois requires a written report finding reasonable and meritorious cause before a healing-art malpractice complaint can proceed, so this happens before anything is filed. It is also where a substantial number of matters stop, and we tell you plainly when yours is one.
04
Engagement
If everyone is aligned — you, our attorneys, and the consulting experts — we send a contingency engagement agreement. No fees or costs come out of your pocket; the firm funds the case until recovery.
Live Answer
A live intake specialist picks up — day or night, weekdays and weekends.
Not a call center. Not a voicemail chain. Urgent matters — a recent hospitalization, the loss of a child, an approaching deadline, care at a public or federally funded provider — are routed to an attorney immediately. Routine intake still reaches a real person.
Four ways to start a conversation.
Choose what's easiest. We respond on your timeline — or ours, when minutes matter.
Secure Intake
≤ 1 business day
The form above drops into our attorney-routed queue. An attorney calls back within one business day.
Confidential
≤ 1 business day
Encrypted channel routed to intake. Phone is faster for time-sensitive matters.
By Arrangement
By appointment
Offices in Chicago and Joliet — and where travel is difficult, we come to homes, hospitals and rehabilitation facilities rather than asking you to come to us.
Prep
Nothing on this list is required to start. Having any of it ready just lets the first conversation go deeper — but we can help gather everything once you engage.
Where and when
The hospital or clinic, the approximate date of the delivery, and — if you know it — whether any of the care was given somewhere else, such as a community health center or a transfer to another unit. Who the provider was changes the procedure entirely, so it is the first thing we establish.
Whatever paperwork you already have
Discharge summaries, the diagnosis letter, imaging reports, therapy assessments, or the school and early intervention paperwork that often describes a child's function better than anything clinical. None of it is required. We request the complete record — yours as well as your child's — under HIPAA once we engage, so there is no need to chase a hospital alone.
What you were told, and when
What anyone said at the time or afterwards about what happened, and when the diagnosis was first raised. It does not need to be precise. It matters because it is frequently the only account of conversations that appear nowhere in the notes, and because the date a family first learned something can bear on which deadline applies.
The care your child needs now
Therapies, equipment, medication, surgery already done or planned, hours of help at home, and what school or nursery has put in place. Where a claim proceeds, this is the beginning of the life care projection that will dominate its value — and it is the part a family knows better than any expert does.
Time-Sensitive
We understand. Take the time you need.
If a family member recently died, someone is still in hospital, or a government vehicle was involved and the deadline is short — someone is available right now. We answer 24/7, and we'll be here when you're ready to talk. No pressure, no marketing script.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions prospective clients ask most before picking up the phone. If yours isn’t here, ask it on the call — there’s no cost and no obligation.
A confidential conversation about what happened and whatever you have — a diagnosis, a discharge summary, or nothing at all. We explain what a claim would have to establish, which records answer it, and which deadline is likely to apply to which claim. If the records do not support a claim we will say so, and that is a common outcome rather than a rare one. Where a matter does not fit our practice we will often refer you to a firm that is a better match.
Within one business day for web and voicemail inquiries, and immediately on a live call — we answer 24/7. Time-sensitive matters are triaged ahead of routine intake: a death in the family, a child still in hospital, an approaching deadline, or care delivered at a public hospital or a federally funded clinic, where the procedure and the clock are different from what people expect.
Yes. Every communication with our office — the initial inquiry through any retainer discussions — is protected by attorney-client confidentiality, regardless of whether you ultimately retain the firm. We do not share intake information with third parties.
No. Initial consultations are by phone or video. The firm keeps offices in Chicago and Joliet, and where an in-person meeting is easier we travel to homes, hospitals and rehabilitation facilities rather than asking a family caring for a disabled child to travel to us.
Whatever medical records you already hold — discharge summaries, imaging reports, the diagnosis letter — together with the name of the hospital or clinic and the approximate dates. None of it is required to start. We can request the complete record, including your own maternity notes and your child’s, once we engage.
Nothing up front. We work on contingency — you pay legal fees only if and when we recover money for you. Case costs (expert fees, records, depositions) are advanced by the firm during the case and reimbursed out of the recovery. No recovery, no fees and no costs billed back.
Not to ask the questions — the consultation is free and there is no obligation to retain. But two clocks run and neither waits for you to decide. One is the filing deadline, and there is more than one of those: a child’s claim, a parent’s own claim, and a claim against a public or federally funded provider are governed differently, so a family focused on a child’s case can lose the mother’s while the child’s remains available. The other is the retention schedule on the hospital’s own records — placental blocks and slides, native monitoring archives — which is finite and is not extended by anyone’s good intentions.
Free Consultation
Get your free case evaluation today
Was your child injured at or around birth?
Where We Practice
Illinois
A trial firm handling birth injury and cerebral palsy claims in Illinois.
- Chicago OfficeZayed Law Offices1132 S Wabash Ave, Suite 303Chicago, IL 60605-2305
- Joliet OfficeZayed Law Offices195 Springfield Ave, Suite 202Joliet, IL 60435
Call 24/7312.626.6230