Birth Injury. One Standard.

Injury and wrongful death claims arising from care around the time of delivery: how a labor was monitored and escalated, when an emergency cesarean was called, how a shoulder dystocia or an assisted delivery was managed, and what happened in the newborn period — infection, oxygen management, glucose, jaundice and feeding. It also covers maternal injuries, which are the mother’s own claim rather than part of her child’s. The organizing question is not the diagnosis but what the records show was observable and what the guidance called for in response.

The evidence. A labor and a neonatal admission are among the most heavily instrumented episodes in medicine: the fetal monitoring strip runs continuously, ventilator settings and medications are logged with every change, and neonatal units operate written protocols that state what should have happened. Most medical negligence needs an expert to establish the standard; here the institution has frequently already written it down. What is harder is causation, which is contested in essentially every case.

Usually not, and we would rather say so at the first conversation than the last. The substantial majority of cerebral palsy is attributable to processes that predate labor. The cases that are delivery-related are identified by convergence — acidosis on cord blood gases, encephalopathy in the first hours, an MRI pattern consistent with an acute event, placental pathology that does not identify an older process, and the exclusion of genetic and metabolic causes. That question is answerable from records, and the answer is often no.

Yes, and they are handled as distinct kinds of claim because they are. Claims against a local public entity in Illinois are governed by the Local Governmental and Governmental Employees Tort Immunity Act, which sets its own periods and treats patient-care claims differently from other claims against the same entity. Separately, clinicians at a federally funded health center are deemed federal employees under 42 U.S.C. § 233, which makes the claim one against the United States: an administrative claim must be presented before suit, and the suit is brought in federal court. Establishing which category a provider falls into is one of the first things we do.

A confidential, no-obligation 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, which deadline is likely to apply to which claim, and what we would need to see before anyone signs anything. If the matter does not fit this practice we will say so.

No. These matters are handled on a contingency fee basis — no legal fee unless the case recovers. Case costs such as expert review, records retrieval, life care planning and depositions are advanced by the firm and reimbursed out of any recovery rather than paid by you during the case. Illinois requires a qualified health professional’s written report finding reasonable and meritorious cause before a complaint can proceed, and that review is a case cost, not a client cost.