When a newborn suffers harm during childbirth due to medical carelessness, families in Catonsville face years of specialized medical care, intensive therapies, and financial pressures that no parent anticipates. The bright future once envisioned for your child suddenly changes, replaced by uncertainty and questions about how your family will provide the extraordinary care your child now requires.

At Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A., our birth injury attorneys combine medical knowledge with unwavering legal representation to help Catonsville families secure the financial resources their injured children need. We stand with Baltimore County families, fighting for justice while you focus on your child’s development and care.

Understanding Birth Injury Claims in Catonsville

Definition of Birth Injury

Birth injuries occur when newborns suffer physical trauma or medical complications during labor and delivery. Unlike birth defects that develop during pregnancy from genetic or environmental factors, birth injuries result from events during the birthing process itself, often through preventable medical oversight or improper techniques.

Common birth injuries include cerebral palsy from oxygen deprivation, brachial plexus injuries (including Erb’s palsy) from excessive force during delivery, skull fractures from improper instrument use, and brain damage from untreated jaundice or infections. These conditions frequently require lifetime medical intervention and substantially alter a child’s developmental trajectory.

Maryland Birth Injury Law

Maryland establishes particular rules governing birth injury claims that Catonsville families must understand:

  • Statute of Limitations: Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings §5-109 sets two concurrent deadlines:
    • Five years from when the injury occurred, or
    • Three years from when the injury was reasonably discovered, whichever comes first

For children, Maryland provides needed protection through exceptions that extend filing deadlines. Most birth injury claims benefit from an extension until the child’s 11th birthday, allowing families time to understand their child’s condition before legal decisions become imperative. 

These deadline extensions recognize that some neurological injuries become apparent only as developmental milestones are missed.

  • Procedural Requirements: Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings §3-2A-04 requires a Certificate of Qualified Expert within 90 days of filing with the Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office (HCADRO). This certificate must come from a medical professional with recent clinical experience in the relevant specialty and must attest that healthcare providers violated standards of care, directly causing the injury.

Proving Negligence

Successful birth injury claims must establish these fundamental elements:

  • Standard of Care Deviation: Your attorney must demonstrate that healthcare providers failed to deliver care that met the accepted medical standards and did something they shouldn’t have done or failed to do something required by good medical practice.
  • Expert Testimony Role: Birth injuries involve specialized medical knowledge beyond a typical jury’s expertise. Maryland law requires qualified medical experts to explain the appropriate standard of care, how providers violated that standard, and how this deviation directly caused your child’s specific injuries.

Baltimore County courts view this expert testimony as foundational in birth injury cases. These experts review medical records, fetal monitoring strips, and hospital protocols to identify precise moments when substandard care occurred.

Common Causes of Birth Injuries

The common causes of birth injuries in Catonsville are the following:

Failure to Monitor Fetal Distress

Continuous electronic fetal monitoring during labor provides vital information about the baby’s condition. When healthcare providers misinterpret data, ignore warning signs, or fail to communicate concerning patterns, babies may suffer oxygen deprivation, leading to permanent brain damage.

Warning signs requiring prompt response include abnormal heart rate patterns, decreased variability, and late decelerations. When Catonsville medical staff miss these indicators or respond inadequately, even brief oxygen deprivation can cause hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), cerebral palsy, or intellectual disabilities that affect the child throughout life.

Delayed C-Section Delivery

When complications arise during labor, a timely cesarean section often becomes necessary to prevent injury. Common reasons for harmful delays in Catonsville facilities include poor communication between nurses and physicians, staffing shortages during nights and weekends, operating room availability issues, and physician hesitation despite clear warning signs. These preventable delays frequently result in oxygen deprivation and permanent neurological damage.

Improper Use of Delivery Tools

When labor progresses slowly or complications develop, obstetricians sometimes employ forceps or vacuum extractors to assist delivery. These instruments require proper training, careful technique, and appropriate patient selection.

Forceps misapplication can fracture an infant’s skull, damage facial nerves, or cause intracranial bleeding. Vacuum extractors used incorrectly frequently lead to scalp injuries, subgaleal hematomas, or brain hemorrhages. In Catonsville birthing centers, these instrument-related injuries have resulted in permanent conditions, including facial paralysis, developmental delays, and lifelong physical limitations.

Medication Errors During Pregnancy or Labor

Medication mistakes during pregnancy and childbirth pose serious risks. Pitocin (synthetic oxytocin), commonly used to stimulate contractions, requires careful dosing and continuous monitoring. Excessive Pitocin can cause abnormally strong contractions that restrict fetal oxygen supply.

Similarly, improper anesthesia administration can lower maternal blood pressure, reducing placental blood flow. Medication errors occur with concerning frequency in Baltimore County hospitals, often involving calculation mistakes or failure to account for maternal-fetal physiology.

General Medical Negligence

Additional forms of negligent care include:

  • Failure to diagnose maternal conditions like preeclampsia or gestational diabetes
  • Mismanagement of high-risk pregnancies
  • Inadequate response to maternal bleeding
  • Improper resuscitation of newborns
  • Failure to recognize and treat neonatal infections

When healthcare providers miss these conditions or respond inadequately, both mothers and babies face preventable harm, sometimes with permanent consequences.

Types of Damages Available in Catonsville Birth Injury Claims

Economic Damages

Economic damages cover quantifiable financial losses resulting from the birth injury:

  • Medical Expenses: Birth injuries often require immediate intensive care followed by years of specialized treatment. Recoverable expenses include hospital stays, surgeries, medications, therapeutic interventions, assistive devices, and ongoing doctor visits.

For Catonsville families, these costs frequently reach millions of dollars over a child’s lifetime. Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings §3-2A-09 places no cap on economic damages, allowing recovery of all necessary medical expenses regardless of amount.

  • Long-Term Care Costs: Children with permanent disabilities require specialized support:
    • Physical, occupational, and speech therapies
    • Adaptive equipment and communication devices
    • Home modifications for accessibility
    • Special education services and interventions
    • Personal care assistance

These substantial expenses continue throughout childhood and often into adulthood, creating financial burdens that most families cannot manage without legal recovery.

  • Lost Earnings: Birth injuries impact earnings in multiple ways:
    • Parents often reduce work hours or leave employment to care for injured children
    • Children with permanent disabilities face diminished or eliminated future earning capacity
    • The family’s financial stability suffers immediate and long-term harm

Economic models project these losses across the child’s expected lifetime, seeking recovery for this reduced earning potential.

Non-Economic Damages

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

  • Pain, Suffering, and Emotional Distress: These damages acknowledge the physical pain experienced by the injured child and the psychological suffering of both the child and family. Children with birth injuries may endure pain from the original trauma, discomfort from ongoing treatments, and distress from physical limitations.
  • Statutory Cap Application: The state 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 adjustments for inflation.

Unlike some states, Maryland maintains this cap regardless of injury severity or circumstances. However, economic damages, including all medical expenses and care costs, remain uncapped, allowing substantial recovery for families with injured children.

Notable Birth Injury Cases and Legal Precedents in Maryland

Record-Setting Verdicts

Maryland courts have consistently recognized the serious impact of birth injuries through substantial compensation awards:

A Baltimore jury awarded $21 million to a family whose child developed cerebral palsy after oxygen deprivation during birth. Although Maryland’s damage caps reduced the non-economic portion, the family received substantial compensation for their child’s lifetime care needs.

In another notable case, a Prince George’s County verdict of $15.6 million provided essential resources for a child who suffered preventable brain damage during delivery.

These significant verdicts demonstrate that Maryland juries understand both the medical seriousness of birth injuries and the extraordinary financial resources needed for affected children.

Impact on Current Claims

These precedents establish important benchmarks for current birth injury cases in Catonsville. They help establish:

  • Appropriate valuation of lifetime care needs
  • Recognition of healthcare providers’ duty to prevent foreseeable harm
  • Acknowledgment of specific violations that constitute medical negligence

Your attorney uses these precedents to build persuasive arguments for fair compensation in your child’s case.

Local Relevance

Baltimore County courts apply these statewide precedents while considering local factors affecting Catonsville families. The proximity to premier medical institutions creates high expectations for quality care, and jurors typically hold local providers to rigorous standards.

Medical experts familiar with Maryland practices help establish specific protocols Baltimore County healthcare providers should follow and identify precisely where care fell below acceptable standards in your child’s case.

How a Catonsville Birth Injury Lawyer Can Help

Comprehensive Investigation and Evidence Gathering

Birth injury cases require painstaking investigation:

  • Obtaining complete medical records from pregnancy through delivery and neonatal care
  • Analyzing fetal monitoring strips, medication records, and staffing information
  • Identifying specific moments when care fell below acceptable standards
  • Consulting with respected medical experts who can verify negligence and causation

Our attorneys coordinate multidisciplinary investigations to build scientifically sound, persuasive cases for Catonsville families.

Determining Liability and Valuation

Your attorney identifies every potentially responsible party—including physicians, nurses, hospitals, and healthcare corporations—to maximize available compensation. This analysis often reveals multiple contributors to preventable birth injuries, each potentially sharing liability.

Additionally, we work with economic specialists, life care planners, and medical experts to calculate your child’s lifetime needs accurately. This thorough valuation ensures we seek appropriate compensation for both immediate and future requirements.

Negotiating with Insurance Companies and Hospitals

Most birth injury claims may be resolved through negotiated settlements rather than trials. Our attorneys bring both medical knowledge and negotiation skills to these discussions:

  • Presenting compelling evidence of liability and damages
  • Countering defense arguments that seek to minimize compensation
  • Ensuring settlement offers address your child’s specific lifetime needs

When settlement discussions don’t yield fair compensation, our trial attorneys prepare thoroughly to present your case to Baltimore County jurors.

Filing Lawsuits and Courtroom Representation

Birth injury litigation follows specific procedural requirements in Maryland:

  • Filing with the HCADRO
  • Providing required expert certifications
  • Managing discovery, depositions, and motion practice
  • Preparing persuasive trial presentations that explain complex medical concepts clearly

Throughout this process, we handle all legal aspects while providing regular updates on your case’s progress.

Contact a Catonsville Birth Injury Attorney Today

When medical negligence harms your newborn, everyday matters. Maryland’s strict filing deadlines mean delaying legal consultation could permanently forfeit your family’s rights to compensation.

Our birth injury attorneys offer free, confidential consultations to evaluate your potential claim. We’ll assess your case honestly, explain your options clearly, and outline exactly how we can help secure your child’s future.

Contact us today to speak with a lawyer who understands both the medical science and legal principles involved in birth injury cases. Your child deserves proper care and financial security, and those responsible for preventable injuries must be held accountable.