Jonathan Schochor and Kerry Staton are nationally respected birth-injury trial lawyers who have helped families for more than thirty-five years. We have secured well over a billion dollars in recoveries, including record-setting verdicts for brachial plexus and cerebral palsy injuries. Our Essex Erb’s Palsy lawyers combine courtroom skill with genuine compassion, and we personally manage every significant decision on your case.
Our Baltimore-based practice, Schochor, Staton, Goldberg & Cardea, P.A., represents families throughout Maryland, across the United States, and, through UK partner firms, families in Essex who need an experienced advocate. We build every claim in consultation with obstetric, neurologic, and life-care experts so juries understand both the medicine and the life-long cost of a preventable injury.
What Is Erb’s Palsy, and How Does It Occur?
Erb’s Palsy is a birth injury that damages the upper brachial plexus nerves controlling a baby’s shoulder and arm. The condition affects roughly 2-3 infants per 1,000 births and can leave a child with lasting weakness, limited range of motion, or complete paralysis.
Most cases arise when excessive traction, forceps, or vacuum devices are used to free a baby’s shoulder during shoulder dystocia. Timely cesarean delivery or gentle obstetric maneuvers usually prevent the injury. Because proper care avoids undue nerve stretching, many instances of Erb’s Palsy stem from medical negligence.
Early treatment, physical therapy, Botox, or surgery, helps about 80-90 percent of infants recover considerable function. Permanent cases, however, require a lifetime of therapy, adaptive devices, and vocational support.
What Birth Injuries (Common and Uncommon) Can Lead to a Claim?
Erb’s Palsy rarely exists in isolation. The Essex brachial plexus injury lawyer team at our firm often sees related or concurrent injuries:
- Brachial plexus injury (general) – stretching or tearing of neck-to-arm nerves.
- Cerebral palsy – brain damage from oxygen deprivation during labor.
- Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) – severe oxygen loss causing cognitive delay.
- Fractures of the clavicle or humerus – frequently accompany shoulder dystocia.
Less common but equally serious errors include:
- Cephalohematoma – scalp bleeding linked to forceps or vacuum use.
- Caput succedaneum – diffuse head swelling from prolonged labor.
- Horner’s syndrome – facial droop from cervical nerve trauma.
- Spinal cord injury – rare but devastating vertical extraction error.
- Klumpke’s Palsy – lower brachial plexus injury causing hand paralysis.
Mentioning these rare outcomes shows the breadth of our medical-legal insight and underscores why families benefit from seasoned Essex birth-injury attorneys at Schochor, Staton, Goldberg & Cardea.
How Can an Essex Erb’s Palsy Lawyer Help My Family?
A skilled lawyer provides immediate clarity and long-term strategy. We collect prenatal charts, fetal heart tracings, delivery notes, and neonatal assessments to determine whether caregivers deviated from accepted standards. Our in-house nurses synthesize thousands of pages of data, while independent obstetricians, pediatric neurologists, and life-care planners translate complex science into clear testimony.
Essex Erb’s Palsy attorney Jonathan Schochor then builds a liability narrative, identifying doctors, midwives, or hospital trusts responsible, while Essex Erb’s Palsy attorney Kerry Staton quantifies full economic and non-economic losses. Families receive emotional support as well as legal counsel; we shoulder the paperwork, insurance negotiations, and expert costs so parents can focus on their child’s therapy.
When UK clients qualify, we coordinate with solicitors to offer “no win, no fee” funding, ensuring families are never out-of-pocket for pursuing justice.
