When medical errors transform the joy of childbirth into a lifetime of medical challenges, Annapolis families need skilled legal representation. A birth injury lawyer serves as your family’s advocate when healthcare providers fail to uphold proper medical standards during pregnancy, labor, or delivery.

At Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A., our attorneys blend medical knowledge with vigorous legal representation to secure financial resources for families affected by preventable birth trauma. 

We investigate medical records, collaborate with renowned experts, and apply a thorough understanding of Maryland’s unique medical malpractice laws to build persuasive cases for maximum compensation.

Major Types of Birth Injuries in Annapolis

Birth injuries range from temporary conditions to permanent, life-altering disabilities. Understanding the specific nature of your child’s injury helps establish potential liability and compensation needs.

Cerebral Palsy (CP)

Cerebral palsy encompasses a group of permanent movement disorders that affect muscle tone, posture, and motor control. The condition typically results from brain damage during fetal development or birth, often from preventable oxygen deprivation or physical trauma.

Medical negligence frequently contributes to CP development through:

  • Failure to Respond to Fetal Distress: Electronic monitoring during labor provides moment-by-moment data about the baby’s condition. When Annapolis healthcare providers misinterpret concerning patterns or delay appropriate intervention, even brief oxygen deprivation can cause permanent brain damage.
  • Delayed Cesarean Sections: Undue delay in performing cesarean sections substantially increases the risks of neurological damage. In Anne Arundel County hospitals, preventable delays sometimes occur due to communication breakdowns, staffing shortages, or improper risk assessment.
  • Improper Use of Delivery Tools: Forceps and vacuum extractors, while valuable in appropriate situations, require precise application. Misuse can cause direct brain trauma or blood vessel compression that restricts oxygen flow, potentially leading to cerebral palsy.

Brachial Plexus Injuries (Erb’s Palsy)

Brachial plexus injuries affect the network of nerves controlling the shoulders, arms, and hands. Erb’s palsy, the most common form, causes weakness or paralysis in the affected arm, often resulting from excessive force during delivery.

These injuries typically occur during difficult births involving:

  • Mismanaged Shoulder Dystocia: This obstetric emergency occurs when the baby’s shoulder becomes lodged behind the mother’s pubic bone after the head emerges. When Annapolis physicians respond with inappropriate pulling or twisting, nerve damage frequently results.
  • Excessive Traction During Delivery: Even in deliveries without shoulder dystocia, improper force application can stretch or tear the brachial plexus nerves. Medical standards require careful technique when assisting difficult deliveries—standards sometimes unmet in Anne Arundel medical facilities.

While some brachial plexus injuries resolve naturally, more severe cases require surgery and result in permanent disability. 

Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)

HIE refers to brain damage from insufficient oxygen and blood flow during birth. This serious condition can cause seizures, developmental delays, cognitive impairments, cerebral palsy, and other permanent neurological problems.

Preventable causes include:

  • Unrecognized Fetal Distress: Proper monitoring should detect signs of oxygen deprivation, allowing medical staff to intervene quickly. When Annapolis healthcare providers miss these warning signs or delay appropriate response, the resulting oxygen deprivation can cause permanent brain damage within minutes.
  • Delayed Medical Intervention: Once fetal distress is identified, immediate action becomes necessary. Depending on the specific situation, this may include emergency cesarean delivery, changing the mother’s position, administering oxygen, or other interventions. Delays in implementing these measures frequently lead to preventable brain injuries.

Negligence and Liability in Birth Injury Cases

Medical Negligence and Standard of Care

Medical negligence occurs when healthcare providers fail to deliver care meeting the accepted professional standard—defined as the level of care that a reasonably competent provider with similar training would deliver under comparable circumstances.

Essential Elements to Prove Negligence

Successfully establishing medical negligence in Maryland birth injury cases requires proving four specific elements:

  • Duty of Care: The healthcare provider had a professional obligation to deliver appropriate care to the mother and baby. This element is typically straightforward in birth injury cases, as the provider-patient relationship creates this duty automatically.
  • Breach of Duty: The provider failed to meet the accepted standard of care—either by doing something incorrectly or failing to do something necessary. This breach requires expert testimony explaining what proper care would have entailed and how the provider’s actions fell short.
  • Causation: The provider’s breach directly caused the specific birth injury. This critical element often requires sophisticated medical evidence linking substandard care to particular physical or neurological damage.
  • Damages: The birth injury resulted in actual harm requiring compensation. This includes both economic costs (medical expenses, therapy needs) and non-economic impacts (pain, suffering, diminished quality of life).

Potentially Liable Parties

Birth injury claims frequently involve multiple responsible parties:

  • Physicians: Obstetricians, family practitioners, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, and neonatologists who provide substandard care may bear primary responsibility for resulting injuries.
  • Nurses and Midwives: Labor and delivery nurses play vital roles in monitoring maternal and fetal wellbeing, administering medications, and communicating concerns to physicians. When they fail to meet these responsibilities, they may share liability for birth injuries.
  • Hospitals and Birth Centers: Healthcare facilities bear responsibility for maintaining proper equipment, establishing safety protocols, and ensuring adequate staffing. They may face direct liability for organizational failures or vicarious liability for employee negligence under the principle of respondeat superior.
  • Medical Device Manufacturers: When defective medical devices—such as malfunctioning fetal monitors, flawed forceps, or dangerous vacuum extractors—contribute to birth injuries, manufacturers may face product liability claims.

Identifying all potentially responsible parties ensures maximum compensation for affected Annapolis families.

Compensation for Birth Injury Victims in Maryland

Economic Damages

Economic damages compensate for quantifiable financial losses resulting from birth injuries:

  • Medical Expenses: Birth injuries often require immediate intensive care followed by ongoing specialist treatment. Recoverable expenses include hospital stays, surgeries, medications, therapeutic interventions, assistive devices, and projected future medical needs.

The state places no cap on economic damages, allowing recovery of all necessary medical expenses regardless of amount.

  • Specialized Education and Adaptive Equipment: Children with birth injuries often require:
    • Customized educational programs and interventions
    • Communication devices for those with speech impairments
    • Mobility equipment like wheelchairs or braces
    • Home modifications for accessibility
    • Specialized transportation accommodations
  • Loss of Future Earning Capacity: Children with permanent disabilities face diminished or eliminated earning potential. Economic experts calculate this loss by projecting the difference between typical lifetime earnings and the reduced capacity resulting from birth injuries.
  • Parental Expenses and Lost Income: Parents often reduce work hours or leave employment to care for children with birth injuries. These lost wages, along with out-of-pocket expenses not covered by insurance, qualify as recoverable economic damages.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages address subjective losses that, while not financially measurable, represent real harm:

  • Pain, Suffering, and Quality of Life Impacts: These damages compensate for physical pain, emotional distress, and diminished life quality experienced by the injured child. For severe injuries, this may include the inability to participate in normal childhood activities or reach typical developmental milestones.
  • Parental Emotional Distress: Parents witnessing their child’s suffering experience significant emotional trauma. Maryland law recognizes their right to compensation for this distress when directly tied to negligent medical care.
  • Wrongful Death Damages: When birth injuries prove fatal, Maryland’s Wrongful Death Act (Courts and Judicial Proceedings §3-904) allows recovery for mental anguish, emotional pain, and loss of companionship experienced by family members.
  • Maryland’s Damage Caps: Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings §3-2A-09 limits non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. For cases arising in 2025, this cap stands at approximately $905,000 for most claims, with modest annual inflation adjustments. When birth injuries result in death, cases involving multiple beneficiaries may qualify for higher limits.

Maryland Laws and Deadlines for Birth Injury Claims

Statute of Limitations

Maryland imposes strict filing deadlines that Annapolis families must understand:

  • General Timeline: Under Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings §5-109, medical malpractice claims must typically be filed within the earlier of:
    • Five years from when the injury occurred, or
    • Three years from when the injury was reasonably discovered
  • Special Rules for Minors: While most personal injury claims accrue when minors reach age 18, medical malpractice claims follow different rules. For birth injury cases, Maryland law typically extends the filing deadline until the child’s 11th birthday. This modification recognizes that some neurological injuries become apparent only as developmental milestones are missed.
  • Wrongful Death Claims: When birth injuries result in death, Maryland’s wrongful death statute requires filing within three years of the date of death.

Missing these deadlines permanently bars recovery regardless of case merit—making prompt legal consultation imperative.

Medical Malpractice Claim Requirements

Maryland establishes specific procedural requirements for birth injury claims:

  • Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office: Under Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings §3-2A-04, medical malpractice claims must initially be filed with the Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office (HCADRO). This administrative filing precedes formal court proceedings.
  • Certificate of Qualified Expert: Within 90 days of HCADRO filing, plaintiffs must submit a certificate from a qualified medical expert attesting that:
    • Healthcare providers violated the standard of care
    • This violation directly caused the specific birth injury
    • The expert has clinical experience, provided consultation, or taught medicine in the relevant specialty within five years

If this certificate fails to meet Maryland’s requirements, courts may dismiss the case regardless of its merits.

  • Arbitration Waiver: While HCADRO filing initiates an arbitration process, either party may waive arbitration to proceed directly to the circuit court. Most birth injury cases follow this path, though the initial HCADRO filing remains mandatory.

Maryland Damage Caps and Liability Rules

  • Annual Adjustments: Maryland’s cap on non-economic damages increases annually based on a statutory formula. While this provides modest inflation protection, the cap still significantly limits recovery for non-economic harm regardless of injury severity.
  • Pure Contributory Negligence: Maryland follows a pure contributory negligence rule that bars recovery if the plaintiff contributed even minimally to the injury. In birth injury cases, this rarely affects infant claims but may impact maternal injury claims if the mother’s actions contributed to the harm.

Contact an Annapolis Birth Injury Attorney

When preventable medical errors harm your newborn, prompt legal consultation becomes imperative. 

Contact us today to speak with an attorney who understands both the medical issues and legal principles involved in birth injury cases. Your consultation costs nothing, but waiting could cost your family everything.