What Should I Do If I Suspect My Child’s Cerebral Palsy Was Caused by Negligence?
Early action protects your child’s rights and preserves critical evidence. First, gather every medical record you have, from prenatal visits to NICU discharge notes, and keep a written timeline of events and symptoms. Those documents let our neurologists and obstetric experts spot red flags such as prolonged decelerations or missed infection screens.
Next, schedule a free case review with us. We obtain the complete fetal-monitoring strips, anesthesia logs, and delivery-room checklists from any Montgomery County facility, then fast-track them to independent specialists. Their analysis determines whether a breach of care caused the brain injury and whether Maryland’s five-year/three-year statute of limitations clock has already started.
Avoid talking to hospital risk managers or insurers before you have legal guidance. Their questions seem routine, but recorded statements can undermine a future claim. Our attorneys handle every conversation, file the required Certificate of Qualified Expert, and move quickly to secure funding for therapy and adaptive equipment, so you can focus on your child, not paperwork.
How Do We Prove Medical Malpractice in a Bethesda Cerebral Palsy Case?
Winning a cerebral palsy claim requires clear evidence that a preventable mistake, not fate, injured your child. Our attorneys build that proof through four tightly linked elements the Maryland courts demand.
Key elements we must show
- Duty of care – obstetric staff at Suburban Hospital or another Bethesda facility owed your family accepted medical standards.
- Breach of duty – they fell below those standards by ignoring fetal-distress alarms, delaying a C-section, or committing another error.
- Causation – that specific lapse cut oxygen or caused trauma, directly damaging your baby’s brain.
- Damages – the injury now creates lifetime costs for therapy, equipment, lost earnings, and pain and suffering.
We secure fetal-monitor strips, operative notes, and neonatal scans, then hire independent OB-GYN and neurology specialists to pin each element to a precise moment in labor. Maryland law also requires a Certificate of Qualified Expert, we handle that filing and any courtroom testimony. Because the state’s “5-year from injury / 3-year from discovery” deadline is unforgiving, our team moves quickly; gathering records early preserves electronic data and staff recollections that can fade within months.
With those building blocks in place, we press insurers for a settlement that covers every projected expense. If they refuse, we try the case before a Montgomery County jury, armed with the evidence needed to win.
What Compensation Can a Cerebral Palsy Malpractice Lawsuit Provide?
A successful claim secures the resources your child needs to thrive. Lifetime care for cerebral palsy often costs $1 – $3 million, and the D.C. metro’s high therapy rates make adequate funding critical. We calculate every dollar your family will spend, then fight for full reimbursement.
Damages we pursue include
- Medical expenses
- Cost of lifetime care
- Lost income
- Future lost earnings
- Special education and support services
- Pain and suffering
When adjusters minimize rehab fees or low-ball adaptive-equipment budgets, our attorneys show local Bethesda pricing, proving what care really costs here. Every dollar we recover safeguards therapy continuity, prevents gaps in insurance, and gives your child the best possible quality of life.
Do I Need a Lawyer for a Bethesda Cerebral Palsy Case, or Can I Handle It Myself?
Parents can file a medical-malpractice claim on their own, but birth-injury cases are among the most technical lawsuits in Maryland. Hospitals retain defense teams skilled at blaming genetics or unavoidable complications, and they rarely offer fair settlements without pressure. Our Bethesda cerebral palsy attorneys level that playing field by supplying medical experts, calculating seven-figure lifetime-care costs, and meeting every procedural requirement, tasks nearly impossible for a grieving family to shoulder alone.
We handle the Certificate of Qualified Expert, subpoena electronic fetal-monitoring data, and source testimony from board-certified obstetricians and pediatric neurologists. Those steps transform suspicion into courtroom-admissible proof. Without legal counsel, families often miss Maryland’s strict deadlines or accept low offers that cover only a fraction of the projected $1-$3 million lifetime expense.
Our firm works on a contingency fee, you owe nothing unless we win. That arrangement lets families focus on therapy appointments and early-intervention programs, not hourly bills or legal logistics.
Why Choose Attorneys Jonathan Schochor and Kerry Staton for Your Bethesda Cerebral Palsy Case?
Experience and proven results distinguish attorneys Jonathan Schochor and Kerry Staton from other Bethesda birth-injury lawyers. Our partners have more than 35 years of medical-malpractice litigation and have helped recover over $1 billion for injured clients throughout Maryland.
We handle every cerebral palsy claim ourselves, never handing families off to junior associates, so parents always speak with a seasoned trial lawyer who knows the stakes. National publications have honored both attorneys with top-lawyer accolades, and local judges routinely appoint us to lead complex medical-negligence cases because of our depth of knowledge.
Our firm’s investigative network includes obstetric, neonatal, and life-care experts who quantify lifetime therapy costs and adaptive-equipment needs at Bethesda rates. That precise data allows us to demand settlements that fully fund your child’s future, not just today’s hospital bills. We also know the Montgomery County court system and its juries, giving us insight into how to present medical evidence and day-in-the-life visuals that resonate locally.
“Kerry Staton and Josh Kahn handled my case extremely well. From the first contact up to the outcome, along with team (sic), they were very professional and provided great counsel.” –Laetitia March-Nulton
Attorney Bios
Jonathan Schochor
Jonathan Schochor earned his undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University and his J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law, where he served as Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. With more than 50 years in practice, he has helped recover over $1.6 billion for clients and led Maryland’s largest class-action settlement—a $190 million award for roughly 8,000 sexual-abuse victims. His litigation success has twice earned him Trial Lawyer of the Year and honors such as Influential Marylander, Maryland Lifetime Achievement, Best Lawyers in America, and perennial inclusion on the Maryland Super Lawyers list.
Kerry Staton
Kerry D. Staton earned his B.A. from Oberlin College and his J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1980, laying the foundation for a lifelong focus on medical-malpractice advocacy. Over the more than four decades since, he has secured countless multimillion-dollar verdicts and settlements—reflected in his inclusion in the Million Dollar and Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forums and recognition among the Top 25 Medical Malpractice Trial Lawyers. Staton is a four-time Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year” for Medical Malpractice Law in Baltimore (2013, 2018, 2022, 2025), a Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Society of Barristers, and a perennial member of Maryland’s Top 100 Super Lawyers list.
What If My Child’s Cerebral Palsy Wasn’t Diagnosed Right Away, or We’re Not Sure Who Is Responsible?
Birth injuries sometimes hide for months, revealing themselves only when a child misses milestones. A delayed diagnosis does not erase a hospital’s duty; Maryland’s clock for filing a claim can start when parents first discover the injury, not on the delivery date. Our attorneys obtain prenatal, delivery, and pediatric records to trace brain damage back to its cause, whether an OB-GYN, a delivery nurse, or a neonatal specialist failed your child.
If responsibility is unclear, we order independent imaging reviews and gather expert opinions that pinpoint when and how the brain injury occurred. That forensic approach often uncovers a single critical lapse, such as ignored jaundice or misread fetal strips, that links every later symptom to one preventable error. When the liable party surfaces, we move swiftly to preserve evidence and keep your claim within Maryland’s strict three- and five-year legal windows.
How Do You Get a Free Consultation in Bethesda?
Help is one phone call away. Our attorneys offer a no-cost, no-obligation case review to any Bethesda family questioning a cerebral palsy diagnosis. We can meet at our Baltimore office, via secure video, or arrange a visit closer to your home, whatever eases your schedule and your child’s care needs.
Call (410) 234-1000 or complete the brief inquiry form on this page, and Jonathan Schochor or Kerry Staton will personally evaluate your records and outline next steps. Because we work on contingency, you pay nothing unless we obtain compensation. Early action protects evidence and preserves your child’s rights, so reach out today and let us start the search for answers and justice.
