Rockland County Birth Injury Lawyers

Rockland County Birth Injury Lawyers

When a child is unexpectedly injured before, during, or shortly after the birthing process, the consequences can devastate the child’s future and their family, causing significant emotional and financial strain. At Birth Injury Center, we offer compassionate legal help and resources for Rockland County, NY families suffering from the consequences of a birth injury.

Some birth injuries are preventable with proper prenatal care and management of complications during delivery. A birth injury only provides grounds for legal action when it directly resulted from a medical provider’s negligence or mistakes.

A birth injury lawsuit is a type of medical malpractice claim. To prove your claim, you must establish four elements of negligence: duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages.

  • Duty of care: You must establish that a doctor-patient relationship existed, creating a legal duty of care.
  • Breach of accepted medical standards: You must demonstrate that the health care provider failed to provide the accepted standard of medical care, breaching that duty.
  • Causation: You must show that the health care provider’s negligence caused your child to suffer an injury.
  • Damages: You must demonstrate that your child’s injuries caused financial, physical, or emotional damages.

Who Can File a Birth Injury Lawsuit in Rockland County?

In Rockland County and across New York, parents and legal guardians can file birth injury lawsuits on behalf of their injured children. If the birth injury has resulted in the child’s death, they may be entitled to file a wrongful death lawsuit.

Birth Injury? We Can Help

At Birth Injury Center, we partner with lawyers who know what it takes to win birth injury cases, and get you the justice you deserve.

Mathew Shooshtary
Associate Attorney at The Sanders Law Firm

jay margolis headshot

Jay Kenneth Margolis
Senior Partner at The Sanders Law Firm

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Rockland County Birth Injury Lawsuit Statute of Limitations

In New York, the statute of limitations for a medical malpractice lawsuit is generally 2.5 years from the date of the malpractice. State law pauses the filing period for minors until they reach age 18, but also imposes a hard cap of 10 years from the incident for medical malpractice claims on behalf of minors. Thus, families typically have until the child’s 10th birthday to file a birth injury lawsuit. If the birth injury has led to the wrongful death of your child, the time limit to file a lawsuit is two years from the date of death.

It’s important to act quickly to gather evidence before it disappears, as medical records can become more difficult to access over time, and witnesses’ memories may fade.

What Compensation Is Available in a Rockland County Birth Injury Case?

In a successful birth injury case, you may receive compensation through a settlement or a jury verdict. When you file a birth injury lawsuit, you may seek two types of damages: economic and non-economic. Economic damages aim to compensate you for the quantifiable monetary losses caused by the injury, while non-economic damages compensate you for subjective losses, such as emotional and physical suffering.

In a birth injury lawsuit, you generally can pursue compensation for the following damages:

  • Future medical care
  • Therapy & rehabilitation
  • Assistive devices & mobility aids
  • Home/vehicle modifications
  • Lost earning capacity and educational opportunities
  • Pain and suffering
  • Emotional distress
  • Loss of quality or enjoyment of life

How Much Does a Rockland County Birth Injury Lawyer Cost?

Birth Injury Center partners with The Sanders Law Firm to provide legal assistance to families struggling with the aftermath of birth injuries in Rockland County. The firm’s birth injury attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, so you won’t pay any upfront costs. Instead, your legal team will receive a portion of the compensation you recover if they obtain a successful settlement or verdict for you.

While there are no set costs to hire a Rockland County birth injury lawyer, New York law does limit the amount medical malpractice attorneys can charge. New York law imposes a “sliding scale” for attorneys’ fees in medical malpractice cases, adjusting the fees proportionally to the total amount of compensation. The compensation recoverable in a birth injury case depends on several factors, including the case’s complexity and whether it settles or goes to trial.

Common Birth Injuries in Rockland County Cases

Birth injuries occur when an infant suffers an injury during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or shortly after birth. These injuries can cause serious physical and neurological conditions that significantly impact a child’s health. While not all birth injuries are preventable, many result from the negligence of health care providers, giving rise to a cause of action.

Some of the most common types of birth injuries in Rockland County include the following:

Major Hospitals in Rockland County

Rockland County has three major birthing hospitals – Montefiore Nyack Hospital, Good Samaritan Hospital, and Refuah Health Center. Two of these hospitals have faced medical malpractice or birth injury lawsuits in the past for their handling of complex labor issues.

  • Montefiore Nyack Hospital – Nyack (Overall Medicare star rating: 2)

    Montefiore Nyack Hospital offers 24/7 midwives and obstetricians, an intermediate care nursery, and a prenatal center in its Jacobs Family Maternity Center. In 2021, a Rockland County jury found the hospital’s head of orthopedic surgery liable for medical malpractice. The jury awarded 52-year-old John Antonucci a $2.3 million verdict for permanent injuries he suffered due to an untreated bacterial infection while in the hospital’s care.

  • Good Samaritan Hospital – Suffern (Overall Medicare star rating: 2)

    Good Samaritan Hospital, a member of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, is a 286-bed hospital that provides emergency, medical, surgical, obstetrical/gynecological, and acute care services to Rockland County. In 2020, A deceased woman’s family filed a lawsuit against Good Samaritan and several doctors after suffering an amniotic fluid embolism that led to her death.

  • Refuah Health Center – Spring Valley (Not rated by Medicare)

    Refuah Health Center is a full-service, multi-specialty health care organization with four service sites and a fleet of mobile medical units. The facility uses a patient-centered model of care and recently opened a new birthing center in response to COVID-19.

Why Choose Birth Injury Center?

Working with a local attorney is crucial for a successful birth injury lawsuit in Rockland County. Local attorneys have experience in Rockland County courtrooms, familiarity with state and local laws, and access to respected medical experts to provide testimony.

We partner with The Sanders Law Firm, which provides personalized communication and case strategies. The experienced birth injury attorneys at The Sanders Firm take a compassionate approach to every case, listening to your family’s story and working with you to determine the best path forward. In addition, they offer free consultations with no pressure to sign.

FAQ

A birth injury lawsuit in Rockland County can take anywhere from months to years to resolve, depending on a variety of factors like the complexity of the case, the amount of evidence, and whether the case settles or goes to trial.

While most birth injury lawsuits in New York settle out of court, some proceed to trial before a judge or jury.

New York’s statute of limitations for birth injury lawsuits gives families 10 years from the date of a birth injury to file a lawsuit. Thus, even if the symptoms aren’t immediately apparent or the condition goes undiagnosed for some time, you may still be eligible to file.

You can sue a hospital that contributed to your child’s birth injury in Rockland County if its negligence was a direct cause of the injury or if it employed a negligent health care provider.

There is no guaranteed value for Rockland County birth injury lawsuits, though many settle for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, depending on the severity of the injury and other factors.

Speak With a Rockland County Birth Injury Lawyer

If your child experienced a birth injury in Rockland County due to a medical provider’s errors or negligence, you may be entitled to compensation. At Birth Injury Center, we can connect you with an experienced attorney who can fight to hold those responsible accountable.

Contact us today for a free consultation.

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Medically Reviewed by
Natalie Speer
RNC-OB
+8 years of experience in labor & delivery, women's health, postpartum care & more.
Birth Injury? We Can Help