The birth of a child should be one of life’s most joyful moments, but when medical negligence causes a preventable injury, families face devastating consequences that can last a lifetime. Birth injuries often result from mistakes during prenatal care, labor, or delivery that could have been avoided with proper medical attention and decision-making. These injuries can range from minor complications that resolve quickly to severe conditions like cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, or brain damage that require lifelong care and support.
Georgia families dealing with birth injuries need experienced legal representation to hold negligent medical providers accountable and secure the compensation necessary for their child’s future care. A Smyrna birth injury lawyer understands the complex medical and legal issues involved in these cases and can investigate what went wrong during your child’s delivery. Birth injury cases require attorneys who work with medical experts, understand hospital protocols, and know how to prove that a healthcare provider’s actions fell below the accepted standard of care.
If your child suffered a birth injury in Smyrna or anywhere in Cobb County, Wetherington Law Firm has the experience and resources to fight for your family’s rights. Our Smyrna birth injury lawyers have successfully represented families whose children were harmed by medical negligence during childbirth, securing compensation for medical expenses, therapy costs, adaptive equipment, and lifelong care needs. Call us today at (404) 888-4444 or complete our online form to schedule a free consultation and learn how we can help your family move forward.
What Constitutes a Birth Injury
A birth injury is any harm a baby suffers during pregnancy, labor, or delivery that results from medical negligence or substandard care. These injuries differ from birth defects, which are genetic or developmental conditions that occur naturally without anyone’s fault. Birth injuries are preventable harm caused by a healthcare provider’s failure to meet the standard of care expected in obstetrics and neonatal medicine.
Medical professionals have a duty to monitor both mother and baby throughout pregnancy and delivery, recognizing warning signs of complications and responding appropriately. When doctors, nurses, or hospital staff fail to identify fetal distress, delay necessary interventions like emergency cesarean sections, or use excessive force during delivery, they can cause serious injuries. These injuries may not always be immediately apparent but can reveal themselves over months or years as developmental delays, physical disabilities, or cognitive impairments become evident.
Georgia law recognizes birth injuries as a form of medical malpractice under O.C.G.A. § 51-1-27, which holds healthcare providers liable when their negligence causes harm to patients. Families have the right to pursue compensation when a preventable birth injury occurs, but these cases require proving that the medical provider’s actions directly caused the injury and that the injury resulted in measurable damages. Working with a Smyrna birth injury lawyer ensures that families understand their legal rights and can build a strong case supported by medical evidence and expert testimony.
Common Types of Birth Injuries in Smyrna Cases
Birth injuries can affect different parts of a baby’s body and vary widely in severity, from temporary nerve damage that heals within weeks to permanent disabilities requiring lifelong medical intervention. Understanding the specific types of injuries that commonly result from medical negligence helps families recognize when they may have grounds for a legal claim.
Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy is a neurological disorder that affects muscle control, movement, and posture due to brain damage before, during, or shortly after birth. This condition often results from oxygen deprivation during labor and delivery when medical providers fail to recognize fetal distress or delay performing an emergency cesarean section. Children with cerebral palsy may experience difficulties with walking, coordination, speech, and fine motor skills that require extensive physical therapy, occupational therapy, and assistive devices.
The severity of cerebral palsy ranges from mild cases where children can walk independently with minor coordination issues to severe cases requiring wheelchairs, feeding tubes, and round-the-clock care. When cerebral palsy results from a preventable birth injury rather than a natural cause, families can pursue compensation for the lifetime of care their child will need. Medical experts can determine whether oxygen deprivation occurred during delivery and whether the medical team responded appropriately to warning signs like abnormal fetal heart rate patterns.
Erb’s Palsy and Brachial Plexus Injuries
Erb’s palsy occurs when the brachial plexus nerves in a baby’s shoulder are stretched, torn, or damaged during delivery, typically from excessive force or improper techniques when the baby’s shoulder becomes stuck behind the mother’s pelvic bone. This condition causes weakness or paralysis in the affected arm, limiting the child’s ability to move their shoulder, elbow, or hand. Doctors who use excessive traction on the baby’s head and neck during shoulder dystocia deliveries can cause these preventable nerve injuries.
Many cases of Erb’s palsy improve with physical therapy over several months, but severe nerve damage may be permanent and require surgical intervention to restore some function. Children with permanent brachial plexus injuries face limitations in their ability to participate in sports, perform everyday tasks, and may require ongoing therapy throughout childhood. A Smyrna birth injury lawyer can investigate whether the delivery team used proper techniques to resolve shoulder dystocia and whether they should have anticipated complications based on risk factors like maternal diabetes or a large baby.
Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy
Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation and reduced blood flow to the baby’s brain during labor and delivery. This serious condition occurs when medical providers fail to recognize signs of fetal distress on monitoring equipment or delay performing an emergency cesarean section when the umbilical cord becomes compressed or the placenta detaches prematurely. Babies with HIE may experience seizures shortly after birth, feeding difficulties, breathing problems, and developmental delays.
The long-term effects of HIE depend on the severity and duration of oxygen deprivation, ranging from mild learning disabilities to severe intellectual disabilities, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and vision or hearing impairments. Early intervention with therapeutic hypothermia can sometimes reduce brain damage if started within six hours of birth, but prevention through proper monitoring and timely delivery remains the best approach. Medical records and fetal monitoring strips provide crucial evidence showing when fetal distress began and how quickly the medical team responded.
Facial Nerve Damage
Facial nerve injuries occur when excessive pressure on a baby’s face during delivery damages the seventh cranial nerve, causing temporary or permanent weakness or paralysis on one side of the face. This injury commonly results from improper use of forceps or vacuum extractors during assisted deliveries when doctors apply instruments incorrectly or use excessive force. Babies with facial nerve damage may have difficulty closing one eye, moving one side of their mouth, or making facial expressions.
Most facial nerve injuries are temporary and resolve within a few weeks as the nerve heals, but some cases involve permanent damage requiring surgical repair or ongoing therapy. Doctors should only use assisted delivery instruments when medically necessary and must apply them correctly to minimize injury risk. When facial nerve damage results from improper forceps or vacuum use, families may have grounds for a birth injury claim based on the provider’s failure to use these tools safely.
Fractures and Physical Trauma
Bone fractures during delivery most commonly affect the clavicle or collarbone when doctors use excessive force pulling the baby through the birth canal or during shoulder dystocia complications. Skull fractures can occur from improper forceps application or when the baby’s head strikes the mother’s pelvic bones due to mismanaged delivery. While many clavicle fractures heal completely within weeks with minimal intervention, skull fractures can lead to brain damage, bleeding, and long-term complications.
Physical trauma during birth is often preventable with proper delivery techniques and appropriate use of assisted delivery tools. Doctors must assess whether vaginal delivery is safe based on the baby’s size and position, and they should perform cesarean sections when vaginal delivery poses excessive risks. A Smyrna birth injury lawyer can review medical records to determine whether the delivery team used appropriate techniques and whether they should have chosen a different delivery method to avoid traumatic injuries.
How Medical Negligence Causes Birth Injuries
Medical negligence during pregnancy, labor, and delivery takes many forms, but all cases share a common element—healthcare providers failed to meet the accepted standard of care, and that failure directly caused harm to the mother or baby. Understanding how negligence occurs helps families recognize when they have valid legal claims.
Failure to Monitor Fetal Distress
Continuous fetal monitoring during labor allows medical staff to track the baby’s heart rate and identify patterns indicating the baby is not tolerating labor well. Normal fetal heart rates range between 110 and 160 beats per minute with appropriate variability and accelerations. When monitoring strips show concerning patterns like late decelerations, minimal variability, or prolonged bradycardia, these signs indicate the baby may not be getting enough oxygen and requires immediate intervention.
Medical providers who fail to properly interpret monitoring strips, ignore warning signs, or delay responding to clear evidence of fetal distress allow oxygen deprivation to continue, causing brain damage and other serious injuries. Nurses have a duty to notify physicians immediately when fetal monitoring shows distress patterns, and doctors must respond quickly with interventions like repositioning the mother, administering oxygen, reducing labor medications, or performing an emergency cesarean section. Delayed responses of even 20 to 30 minutes can result in permanent brain damage when a baby is experiencing severe distress.
Medication Errors During Labor
Pitocin is a synthetic form of oxytocin used to induce or strengthen labor contractions, but excessive doses or improper administration can cause dangerously strong contractions that occur too frequently. When contractions come too close together, the uterus does not relax sufficiently between contractions, reducing blood flow and oxygen delivery to the baby. Medical staff must carefully monitor both the frequency and strength of contractions when using Pitocin and adjust or stop the medication if fetal distress develops.
Other medication errors include administering drugs that are contraindicated during pregnancy, using incorrect dosages of pain medications that affect the baby’s breathing or heart rate, or failing to recognize maternal allergies or adverse drug reactions. Every medication given during pregnancy and labor carries potential risks that must be weighed against benefits, and providers must obtain informed consent before administering drugs. When medication errors cause birth injuries, families can hold both individual providers and hospitals liable under Georgia law.
Improper Use of Delivery Instruments
Forceps and vacuum extractors assist difficult deliveries when the baby is in distress and needs to be delivered quickly or when the mother is too exhausted to continue pushing effectively. However, these instruments carry significant injury risks when used incorrectly, applied at the wrong angle, or used with excessive force. Forceps can cause skull fractures, facial nerve damage, and brain bleeds when positioned improperly around the baby’s head, while vacuum extractors can cause scalp lacerations, subgaleal hemorrhages, and skull fractures when excessive suction is applied or the device is pulled too hard.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has established guidelines for safe assisted delivery instrument use, including proper positioning, appropriate force levels, and limits on the number of attempts before abandoning the assisted delivery and performing a cesarean section. Doctors who attempt multiple forceps or vacuum applications despite failed attempts, who combine both instruments in the same delivery, or who continue using instruments when the baby is not descending increase the risk of serious injuries. Medical records documenting instrument application attempts and the time spent using instruments provide important evidence in birth injury cases involving improper instrument use.
Delayed Cesarean Section Decisions
Emergency cesarean sections save lives when vaginal delivery becomes unsafe due to fetal distress, labor complications, or maternal health emergencies. The standard of care requires doctors to recognize when a cesarean section is necessary and perform the surgery within 30 minutes of the decision, known as the decision-to-incision time. Delays beyond this window when clear evidence of fetal distress exists can result in permanent brain damage or death from prolonged oxygen deprivation.
Common scenarios requiring emergency cesarean sections include umbilical cord prolapse where the cord drops into the birth canal ahead of the baby, placental abruption where the placenta detaches from the uterine wall cutting off the baby’s oxygen supply, and failure to progress in labor when the baby is too large to fit through the birth canal despite hours of labor. Doctors who delay cesarean section decisions hoping for vaginal delivery despite clear warning signs, who fail to have operating rooms and staff ready for emergencies, or who do not recognize complications requiring immediate surgical intervention can be held liable for resulting birth injuries.
The Legal Process for Birth Injury Claims in Georgia
Pursuing a birth injury claim in Georgia involves multiple steps that require careful attention to legal deadlines, procedural requirements, and evidentiary standards. Understanding this process helps families know what to expect as their case moves forward.
Initial Case Evaluation and Investigation
Your journey begins with a free consultation with a Smyrna birth injury lawyer who will review what happened during your child’s delivery and assess whether you have grounds for a legal claim. During this meeting, you will discuss the circumstances of the birth, your child’s injuries and diagnosis, and any concerns about the medical care provided. The attorney will request copies of all medical records including prenatal care records, labor and delivery notes, fetal monitoring strips, and your child’s medical records showing the injuries and treatments received.
Once you retain legal representation, your attorney launches a thorough investigation gathering all available evidence and consulting with medical experts who specialize in obstetrics, neonatology, and the specific injuries your child suffered. These experts review the medical records to determine whether the healthcare providers met the standard of care or whether their actions fell below what a reasonably prudent provider would have done under similar circumstances. This investigation typically takes several months as experts analyze detailed medical documentation and prepare opinions about causation and damages.
Filing the Medical Malpractice Affidavit
Georgia law requires plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases to file an expert affidavit along with the complaint under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-9.1, declaring that a qualified expert has reviewed the case and concluded that the defendant’s conduct fell below the applicable standard of care. This affidavit must come from a medical professional in the same or similar specialty as the defendant who can testify about what proper care requires. The affidavit requirement ensures that only meritorious cases with legitimate expert support move forward in the legal system.
Your attorney will coordinate with medical experts to prepare the required affidavit and file your lawsuit in the appropriate Georgia court, typically the Superior Court in the county where the negligence occurred or where the defendant practices. The complaint will name all negligent parties as defendants, which may include individual doctors, nurses, midwives, and the hospital or medical facility where the birth occurred. Once filed, defendants have 30 days to respond to the complaint, and the discovery phase of litigation begins.
Discovery and Evidence Gathering
The discovery phase allows both sides to gather evidence through written questions called interrogatories, requests for document production, and depositions where attorneys question witnesses under oath. Your attorney will take depositions of the doctors, nurses, and other medical staff involved in your child’s delivery, questioning them about their actions, decisions, and training. These depositions create sworn testimony that can be used at trial if the case does not settle.
Defense attorneys will also depose you, your child’s other parent, and your medical experts to understand your claims and challenge your evidence. This process can feel stressful, but your Smyrna birth injury lawyer will prepare you thoroughly before any deposition and will protect your interests throughout questioning. Discovery typically takes 12 to 18 months as both sides exchange information, review evidence, and build their respective cases for trial or settlement negotiations.
Settlement Negotiations
Most birth injury cases settle before trial because both sides recognize the risks and costs of taking a case to a jury verdict. Settlement negotiations can occur at any point during litigation, but serious negotiations typically happen after discovery concludes when both sides have thoroughly evaluated the evidence. Your attorney will present a demand to the defendants outlining the evidence of negligence, the full extent of your child’s injuries, and the compensation necessary to cover past and future medical expenses, therapy costs, adaptive equipment, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering.
Insurance companies representing healthcare providers will evaluate their liability exposure and make settlement offers attempting to resolve the case for as little money as possible. Your attorney will negotiate aggressively to increase the settlement offer, using the strength of your evidence and the credibility of your experts as leverage. You always have the final decision on whether to accept a settlement or proceed to trial, and your lawyer will advise you on whether an offer fairly compensates your family for the harm your child suffered and the future expenses you will face.
Trial and Verdict
If settlement negotiations do not produce a fair offer, your case will proceed to trial where a Cobb County jury will hear evidence and decide whether the defendants are liable and what compensation is appropriate. Your attorney will present testimony from medical experts explaining how the defendants’ negligence caused your child’s injuries, testimony from life care planners and economists showing the cost of future care, and testimony from you and your family about how the birth injury has affected your lives. The defense will present their own experts arguing they met the standard of care and challenging your claims of causation and damages.
Georgia juries decide medical malpractice cases based on the preponderance of the evidence standard, meaning your attorney must prove it is more likely than not that negligence occurred and caused your child’s injuries. After both sides present their cases, the jury deliberates and returns a verdict. If the jury finds in your favor, they will award damages for economic losses like medical expenses and lost earning capacity, as well as non-economic damages for pain and suffering. While Georgia law previously capped non-economic damages at $350,000, the Georgia Supreme Court struck down this cap in 2010 in Atlanta Oculoplastic Surgery, P.C. v. Nestlehutt, allowing juries to award full compensation for non-economic losses.
Compensation Available in Birth Injury Cases
Families dealing with birth injuries face overwhelming financial burdens that extend decades into the future, and Georgia law allows recovery of compensation for all economic and non-economic losses resulting from medical negligence. Understanding the types of damages available helps families appreciate the full value of their claims.
Past and Future Medical Expenses – Compensation covers all medical treatment your child has received since birth and will need throughout their lifetime, including hospital stays, surgeries, doctor visits, prescription medications, medical equipment, and adaptive devices. Birth injury cases often involve life care planning experts who evaluate your child’s needs and project the total cost of medical care over their lifetime. These projections account for inflation and the increasing costs of medical care to ensure families receive sufficient funds for future expenses.
Therapy and Rehabilitation Costs – Children with birth injuries frequently require extensive therapy including physical therapy to improve mobility and strength, occupational therapy to develop daily living skills, speech therapy to address communication difficulties, and behavioral therapy to manage developmental delays or cognitive impairments. These therapies often continue for years or throughout the child’s lifetime, and compensation must cover both past therapy costs and the present value of all future therapy needs.
In-Home and Nursing Care – Severe birth injuries may require 24-hour care, medical equipment in the home, home modifications for wheelchair accessibility, and professional nursing care to manage feeding tubes, medication administration, and other medical needs. Families often must sacrifice careers to provide this care, and compensation can include the value of parental care services as well as the cost of hiring professional caregivers. Life care plans detail the level of care needed at different stages of the child’s life and calculate the total cost of providing appropriate care.
Lost Earning Capacity – When birth injuries cause permanent disabilities that will prevent a child from ever working or limit their ability to earn income, families can recover compensation for the child’s lost earning capacity over their lifetime. Economic experts calculate these damages by determining what the child would likely have earned based on family education levels and career paths, then calculating the present value of those future lost wages.
Pain and Suffering – Non-economic damages compensate for the physical pain, emotional distress, reduced quality of life, and permanent limitations birth injuries cause. Georgia juries have broad discretion to award appropriate amounts for pain and suffering based on the severity of injuries and their impact on the child’s life. These damages recognize that birth injuries affect not just financial circumstances but fundamental aspects of living, including the ability to play, learn, form relationships, and enjoy life’s experiences.
Parental Consortium Claims – Parents may also recover damages for their own losses including emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of the parent-child relationship, and the impact of caring for a severely injured child. While these damages are typically smaller than the child’s direct damages, they recognize that birth injuries devastate entire families and parents suffer genuine harm watching their children struggle with preventable disabilities.
Statute of Limitations for Birth Injury Cases in Georgia
Georgia law strictly limits the time families have to file birth injury lawsuits, and missing these deadlines means losing the right to pursue compensation forever. Understanding these time limits is crucial for protecting your legal rights.
Standard Medical Malpractice Deadline
Under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-71, medical malpractice claims generally must be filed within two years from the date the negligent act occurred or within two years of when the injury was discovered or reasonably should have been discovered. For birth injuries occurring during delivery, the two-year clock typically starts on the baby’s birth date. This statute of limitations applies to claims against doctors, nurses, hospitals, and other healthcare providers involved in prenatal care, labor, or delivery.
However, birth injuries do not always manifest immediately, and some conditions like cerebral palsy or developmental delays may not become apparent until months or years after birth. In these cases, the discovery rule may extend the filing deadline, but families still must file within two years of when they reasonably should have discovered that medical negligence caused the injury. Courts scrutinize delayed filings carefully, and waiting too long can result in dismissal of otherwise valid claims.
Statute of Repose
Georgia’s statute of repose under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-71 creates an absolute deadline regardless of when injuries were discovered—medical malpractice claims must be filed within five years of the negligent act with only limited exceptions. This deadline can bar claims even when families did not and could not have discovered the negligence within the five-year window. The statute of repose protects healthcare providers from facing claims many years after treatment when evidence has disappeared and witnesses’ memories have faded.
For birth injury cases, this means claims involving injuries that occurred during birth must typically be filed by the child’s fifth birthday. However, Georgia law provides special protections for minors that can extend this deadline under certain circumstances, giving children more time to bring claims once they reach adulthood.
Special Rules for Minors
Georgia law under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-73 extends the statute of limitations for minors, allowing children to file medical malpractice claims until their seventh birthday or within two years of when the injury was discovered, whichever deadline is later. This extended deadline recognizes that young children cannot file lawsuits on their own behalf and that some birth injuries are not immediately apparent. However, the statute of repose’s five-year absolute deadline can still apply unless the injury was not and could not have been discovered within five years.
In practice, most birth injury cases should be filed well before the child’s fifth birthday to avoid statute of repose complications and to preserve evidence while medical staff’s memories remain fresh. However, families who discover injuries later may still have valid claims depending on when the injury became apparent and whether they acted reasonably promptly after discovery. Consulting with a Smyrna birth injury lawyer as soon as you suspect negligence ensures you do not miss critical deadlines and lose your right to compensation.
Why Birth Injury Cases Require Specialized Legal Experience
Birth injury litigation is one of the most complex areas of personal injury law, requiring attorneys with specific knowledge, resources, and experience that general practice lawyers typically do not possess. Choosing the right attorney significantly impacts your case outcome and the compensation your family ultimately receives.
Understanding Complex Medical Issues
Birth injury cases require deep understanding of obstetrics, neonatology, nursing standards, and the specific medical conditions affecting your child. Attorneys must read and interpret fetal monitoring strips showing heart rate patterns, understand labor progression and delivery techniques, recognize when medical interventions should have occurred, and comprehend complex neurological and physical injuries. This medical knowledge allows attorneys to identify negligence, challenge defense experts effectively, and present compelling evidence to juries.
Without this specialized knowledge, attorneys cannot effectively evaluate whether negligence occurred, cannot ask the right questions during depositions, and cannot counter defense arguments that the medical providers followed standard protocols. Experienced birth injury attorneys work regularly with the same medical concepts and develop expertise that allows them to spot negligence others might miss and build stronger cases than general practice lawyers can construct.
Access to Qualified Medical Experts
Proving medical malpractice requires testimony from qualified expert witnesses who can explain to juries what proper medical care requires and how the defendants’ care fell below that standard. Birth injury cases need multiple experts including obstetricians who can testify about prenatal care and delivery standards, neonatologists who can explain infant care and identify when injuries occurred, neurologists who can connect brain injuries to oxygen deprivation during labor, and life care planners who can project the lifetime cost of care. Finding, retaining, and working with these experts requires established relationships and significant financial resources.
Experienced birth injury law firms maintain networks of respected experts across medical specialties and understand which experts carry the most credibility with juries. They also have the financial resources to pay expert fees during litigation before any settlement or verdict occurs. General practice attorneys often cannot afford to retain multiple high-quality experts and may settle cases too cheaply because they lack the expert support needed to prove full damages at trial.
Resources for Lengthy Litigation
Birth injury cases take years to resolve and require substantial financial investment in expert fees, deposition costs, medical record retrieval, life care planning reports, and trial preparation expenses. Defense attorneys representing hospitals and doctors have virtually unlimited resources from insurance companies and will drag cases out hoping families run out of money or patience. Only law firms with significant financial resources can outlast defense delay tactics and take cases to trial when necessary to achieve fair compensation.
Law firms that regularly handle birth injury cases understand the long timeline involved and have the financial stability to fund cases for years before seeing any return. They also have the staff, technology, and systems needed to manage complex medical record analysis, track multiple expert reports, and prepare compelling trial presentations. Wetherington Law Firm dedicates substantial resources to every birth injury case we accept because we know achieving maximum compensation requires thorough preparation and the willingness to take cases to trial rather than accepting inadequate settlement offers.
Frequently Asked Questions About Birth Injury Claims in Smyrna
How do I know if my child’s injury was caused by medical negligence?
Not all birth injuries result from medical negligence—some occur despite proper care because complications arise that no one could have prevented. However, injuries resulting from failure to monitor fetal distress, delayed responses to clear warning signs, improper use of delivery instruments, medication errors, or failure to perform timely cesarean sections often indicate negligence. Your best approach is consulting with a Smyrna birth injury lawyer who can review your medical records and have medical experts evaluate whether the care met accepted standards.
Can I sue if I signed a consent form before my child’s delivery?
Absolutely. Consent forms acknowledge that medical procedures carry inherent risks, but they do not waive your right to sue for negligence. Signing a consent form does not give doctors permission to provide substandard care or to make negligent decisions that harm you or your baby. Consent forms are designed to ensure you understand normal risks of medical procedures, not to shield providers from liability when they fail to meet the standard of care required by their profession.
How long will my birth injury case take to resolve?
Most birth injury cases take 18 months to three years to reach resolution through either settlement or trial verdict. The timeline depends on factors including how long it takes to gather and review medical records, how many experts need to evaluate the case, how cooperative the defendants are during discovery, and whether the case settles or goes to trial. While this seems like a long time, thorough case preparation is essential for achieving maximum compensation that fully covers your child’s lifetime needs.
What if my child’s injuries were not immediately apparent after birth?
Many serious birth injuries including cerebral palsy, developmental delays, and cognitive impairments do not become apparent until months or years after delivery as children miss developmental milestones. Georgia’s discovery rule allows the statute of limitations to begin when you discovered or reasonably should have discovered the injury, but you must still file within five years of the negligent act under the statute of repose unless special exceptions apply. Consult with an attorney as soon as you suspect your child’s developmental delays or medical conditions may have resulted from problems during delivery.
Can I afford to hire a birth injury lawyer?
Birth injury attorneys work on contingency fee arrangements, meaning you pay no upfront fees or costs and the attorney only gets paid if they recover compensation for you through settlement or trial verdict. The attorney’s fee is a percentage of the recovery, typically 33-40 percent depending on whether the case settles or goes to trial. This arrangement makes experienced legal representation accessible to all families regardless of their financial circumstances and motivates attorneys to achieve the highest possible compensation.
What if multiple healthcare providers were involved in my child’s care?
Birth injury cases often involve multiple defendants including obstetricians, nurses, anesthesiologists, pediatricians, hospitals, and medical practices. Georgia law allows you to sue all negligent parties in a single lawsuit, and the jury can assign liability percentages to each defendant based on their degree of fault. Your attorney will identify all potentially liable parties during the investigation phase and ensure all responsible parties are held accountable for their roles in causing your child’s injuries.
Contact a Smyrna Birth Injury Lawyer Today
Birth injuries change families forever, creating financial burdens and emotional challenges that last decades. When medical negligence causes these preventable injuries, Georgia law gives families the right to hold responsible parties accountable and recover compensation that provides for their child’s lifetime needs. However, birth injury cases are legally and medically complex, requiring experienced attorneys with specialized knowledge, substantial resources, and the determination to fight for maximum compensation against well-funded defense teams.
Wetherington Law Firm has represented families throughout Smyrna and Cobb County whose children suffered birth injuries due to medical negligence. Our birth injury attorneys understand the devastation these cases cause and work tirelessly to secure compensation that covers medical expenses, therapy costs, adaptive equipment, in-home care, and the full impact of your child’s injuries on their quality of life. We work with leading medical experts who thoroughly analyze what happened during your child’s delivery and provide compelling testimony about how negligence caused preventable harm. Call us at (404) 888-4444 or complete our online contact form to schedule your free consultation and learn how we can help your family pursue justice and secure the resources your child needs for the future.