Birth injuries occur when preventable harm comes to infants or mothers during pregnancy, labor, or delivery. These injuries can range from temporary conditions to permanent disabilities requiring lifelong care. For Ellicott City families, such injuries transform what should be life’s most joyful moment into a time of uncertainty and worry.
Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A. provides dedicated legal representation for those affected by birth injuries. Our attorneys combine medical knowledge with legal acumen to build strong cases while offering personal support throughout this difficult time.
Why You Need an Experienced Birth Injury Lawyer in Ellicott City
Compassionate Guidance Through Difficult Decisions
Birth injury cases involve both emotional pain and financial hardships. An Ellicott City birth injury attorney provides supportive guidance as you consider your legal options. We explain the legal process in clear terms, answer your questions honestly, and help you make informed decisions without adding stress during this already difficult time.
Thorough Investigation of Medical Negligence
Proving that a birth injury resulted from medical negligence requires a detailed investigation. Your attorney will secure and analyze all relevant medical records, including prenatal care notes, labor and delivery documentation, and fetal monitoring strips.
We work with respected medical experts who review these records and provide professional opinions about whether care has met accepted standards. These experts help establish exactly how and why your child’s injury occurred and who bears responsibility.
Managing Insurance Companies and Legal Procedures
Healthcare providers and hospitals have powerful insurance companies and legal teams protecting their interests. These insurers often attempt to minimize claims or avoid liability entirely. Your Ellicott City birth injury lawyer serves as your advocate against these well-resourced opponents.
Maryland’s medical malpractice laws include specific procedural requirements that differ from other injury claims. Your attorney manages these technical aspects while you focus on your child’s care.
Pursuing Maximum Compensation for Your Child
Birth injuries often require extensive care throughout childhood and potentially into adulthood. Your attorney works to secure compensation, covering both current and future needs.
This includes calculating lifetime care costs with help from medical economists and life care planners who project expenses for treatments, therapies, equipment, education, and support services.
Understanding Birth Injuries and Negligence in Maryland
What Constitutes a Birth Injury
Birth injuries differ from birth defects. Birth injuries result from events during pregnancy, labor, or delivery—often due to medical negligence. Birth defects typically develop during pregnancy due to genetic factors or other influences unrelated to medical care.
Common birth injuries seen in Ellicott City cases include brain damage from oxygen deprivation, brachial plexus injuries affecting arm function, bone fractures during delivery, and cerebral palsy linked to birth trauma.
Not every birth complication indicates negligence. A legitimate medical malpractice claim requires showing that the injury resulted from care falling below accepted medical standards.
Medical Negligence Standards in Maryland
Healthcare providers in Maryland must meet the “standard of care,” defined as what a reasonably prudent medical professional with similar training would do under similar circumstances. When providers deviate from these standards through action or inaction, and injury results, they may be liable for medical negligence.
Common Causes of Birth Injuries in Ellicott City Hospitals
Delayed Cesarean Section
Emergency C-sections become necessary when complications threaten the mother or baby. When Howard County hospitals or physicians delay necessary C-sections, babies may suffer oxygen deprivation, leading to permanent brain damage.
Failure to Monitor Fetal Distress
Proper fetal monitoring during labor is fundamental to safe childbirth. Electronic monitoring tracks the baby’s heart rate and can identify potential oxygen deprivation before permanent damage occurs. Medical staff must correctly interpret monitoring data and respond appropriately to warning signs.
Improper Use of Delivery Tools
When labor progress slows, physicians sometimes employ forceps or vacuum extractors to assist. While useful when used correctly, these instruments require proper training and technique. Misuse can cause serious injuries, including skull fractures, brain hemorrhages, facial nerve damage, or scalp injuries.
Excessive Force or Mismanaged Shoulder Dystocia
Shoulder dystocia—when a baby’s shoulder becomes lodged behind the mother’s pubic bone during delivery—requires specific, gentle maneuvers to resolve safely. Using excessive force or improper techniques can damage the brachial plexus nerves controlling arm function, resulting in Erb’s palsy or other nerve injuries.
Medication or Anesthesia Errors
Medication mistakes during labor and delivery can harm both mother and baby. Improper Pitocin administration can cause abnormally strong contractions restricting fetal oxygen. Epidural errors can cause maternal blood pressure drops, affecting fetal blood flow.
Negligent Prenatal Care
Some birth injuries develop from problems that could have been identified and addressed with proper prenatal care, such as failure to diagnose maternal conditions like preeclampsia or gestational diabetes or inadequate monitoring of high-risk pregnancies.
Proving Liability in a Birth Injury Case
Potentially Responsible Parties
Birth injury cases may involve multiple liable parties, including doctors and obstetricians, nurses and medical staff, hospitals and medical facilities, anesthesiologists and specialists, and occasionally medical equipment manufacturers.
Your Ellicott City birth injury attorney will identify all potentially liable parties to maximize available compensation for your child.
Legal Requirements for Proving Negligence
Successful birth injury claims in Maryland require establishing four elements:
- Duty of Care: The healthcare provider had a professional obligation to the patient
- Breach of Duty: The provider failed to meet accepted medical standards
- Causation: This failure directly caused the specific birth injury
- Damages: The injury resulted in actual harm requiring compensation
Medical expert testimony plays a central role in establishing these elements. Maryland law requires a Certificate of Qualified Expert attesting that care violated applicable standards and caused injury.
Maryland Laws and Deadlines for Birth Injury Claims
Statute of Limitations
Maryland imposes strict timelines for filing birth injury claims. For adult patients (mothers), claims must be filed within the earlier of five years from when the injury occurred or three years from when the injury was reasonably discovered.
For children injured at birth, Maryland extends the deadline until the child’s 11th birthday in most cases. Wrongful death claims arising from birth injuries must generally be filed within three years of the date of death.
Pre-Lawsuit Requirements
Maryland has specific procedural requirements for medical malpractice claims:
- Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office (HCADRO) filing is mandatory before proceeding to court.
- Certificate of Qualified Expert must be filed within 90 days of the HCADRO filing, attesting that the healthcare provider violated the standard of care and this violation caused the injury.
Damage Caps in Maryland
Maryland law limits non-economic damages (pain and suffering) in medical malpractice cases. For 2025, this cap is approximately $905,000 for most cases, with annual adjustments for inflation.
However, Maryland places no cap on economic damages like medical expenses, care costs, and lost income. This allows full recovery for the often substantial financial costs associated with birth injuries.
Compensation Available in Maryland Birth Injury Cases
Economic Damages
Economic damages cover tangible financial losses resulting from the birth injury:
- Medical Expenses include current and future costs for treatments, surgeries, hospitalizations, medications, and therapy.
- Rehabilitation and Care Costs cover physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, specialized education, adaptive equipment, and possibly residential care facilities.
- Lost Income addresses both parents’ missed work during the child’s care and the child’s potentially reduced future earning capacity due to disability.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages address subjective, non-monetary losses, including pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of normal life experiences. While these damages are capped under Maryland law, they remain an important component of just compensation for birth injury victims.
Birth Injury Case Types We Handle
Our practice encompasses a wide range of birth injury cases, such as cerebral palsy cases, Erb’s palsy and nerve damage cases, maternal birth injury and death, delayed diagnosis of newborn distress, and birth injuries from improper prenatal care.
Committed to Your Family’s Future
Birth injuries create unique challenges for Ellicott City families. When these injuries result from medical negligence, Maryland law provides a path to compensation, addressing both current and future needs. A qualified birth injury attorney serves as your advocate throughout this process, handling legal matters while you focus on your child’s care and well-being.
Contact Us for a Free Consultation
Schochor, Staton, Goldberg and Cardea, P.A. offers free, confidential consultations to discuss your potential birth injury claim.
Our firm handles birth injury cases on a contingency fee basis—you pay no legal fees unless we secure compensation for your family. Contact us today to begin the process of securing the compensation your child deserves.