When giving birth, you put your trust in medical professionals to take good care of you and your child. Sadly, mistakes can happen. When they do, the results can be devastating.
If you or your baby have experienced an injury during childbirth, our expert medical negligence solicitors can support you with making a birth injury claim. This can secure the funds you need to pay for the very best treatment and support.
We understand that a mother or baby experiencing a birth injury can be incredibly traumatic. When people contact us, they are often feeling emotionally drained, stressed and unsure of what to do. At Ashtons Legal, we approach our work with empathy and compassion, whilst also taking the pragmatic steps necessary to secure our clients the maximum compensation.
Birth injury compensation can’t reverse the suffering experienced and the potential ongoing health implications. However, it can help parents to improve their child’s quality of life and that of the whole family. It can also be instrumental in allowing you to move forward in the aftermath of such a distressing event.
Our birth injury solicitors can offer you:
- Free initial consultation on your claim
- No win no fee or Legal Aid funding
- A negotiation-led approach that means most claims are settled out of court
- Independently accredited expertise you can trust
- A very high track record of successful claims
- A sensitive, personal service to support you during this difficult time
- A free rehabilitation service to aid your child’s or your recovery.
Contact Our Birth Injury Claims Solicitors
To make a birth injury claim, please contact our experienced birth injury solicitors. You will be offered a free initial consultation to sensitively discuss the particulars of your case and plan the potential next steps.
You can get in touch by calling 0330 404 0749, emailing enquiries@ashtonslegal.co.uk or filling in the enquiry form on the right-hand side of our contact page.
Ashtons Legal Medical Negligence Team
Ashtons’ medical negligence solicitors have plenty of experience supporting clients with a wide range of birth injury claims. We have excellent success rates and a knowledgeable team with a full understanding of the nuances and complexities of such cases.
When you choose Ashtons Legal, you’ll be working with passionate and approachable legal professionals with specialist accreditations. Senior members of our team are recognised by APIL as either Senior Fellows or Senior Litigators, they are on the Law Society Clinical Negligence panel and Sharon Allison, our Head of Medical Negligence, also belongs to the AvMA Clinical Negligence Panel.
What Constitutes a Birth Injury?
Our specialist lawyers at Ashtons Legal can assist clients with birth injury compensation claims such as:
Birth injuries to babies:
- Brain injury at birth
- Cerebral palsy
- Erb’s palsy
- Umbilical cord complications
- Jaundice and untreated jaundice complications – kernicterus
- Facial palsy
- Missed issues during foetal abnormality scanning
- Group B strep
- IVF mix-ups
- Wrongful/unlawful birth
- Stillbirth
- Result of teratogenic drugs
- Broken bones
- Birth asphyxia & hypoxia
- Birth trauma
- Brachial plexus injuries
- Epilepsy claims
- Meningitis claims
Birth injuries to mothers:
- Caesarean injuries
- Fissures
- Failing to manage or identify pregnancy complications
- Vaginal tears
- Inappropriate use of Oxytocin
- Episiotomy
- Problems with anaesthetics
- Ectopic pregnancy
- Obstetric cholestasis
- Ruptured placenta/placenta previa
Birth Injury Claims Case Studies
- Hospital admits that negligent care resulted in young man’s cerebral palsy
- £4.9 million obtained for birth injury resulting in cerebral palsy
- £250,000 settlement for a first-time mother following negligent surgery to repair a 4th degree tear
- £25,000 settlement obtained for woman who suffered avoidable stillbirth
- Hospital Trust admits that baby’s death could have been prevented
- £17,000 obtained for woman who suffered psychiatric injury during labour
How To Make a Birth Injury Claim
Our birth injury solicitors at Ashtons Legal can guide you through the entire process from start to finish. We’ll take care of everything, providing a seamless process and ensuring that you don’t need to go anywhere else for support.
Our birth injury compensation claims service includes:
- Assessing your birth injury claim and arranging funding via a ‘no win no fee’ agreement or Legal Aid if appropriate
- Building your birth injury medical negligence case including access to experienced medical experts to support your claim
- Drafting and submitting a Letter of Claim to the defendant
- Mediation processes to reach a settlement
- Representing you in Court if necessary
- Access to our free rehabilitation service for ongoing health support
To make a birth injury claim, get in touch with our solicitors at Ashtons Legal. Below you can find more information about the specific processes involved.
Our Birth Injury Claims Compensation Service
Assessing your birth injury claim
When you contact our medical negligence lawyers, we’ll start off by assessing the details of the birth injury. You’ll be invited to share what happened and how the incident has affected you and your child. We use this initial discussion to assess the merits of any potential claim and, if we consider that the claim does have reasonable prospects of success, we’ll explain the options available to you for funding your claim including how our ‘no win no fee’ agreement works and whether your claim is suitable for legal aid funding.
Building your birth injury medical negligence case
Our solicitors will build your case by gathering evidence and witness statements, reviewing your medical records and liaising with medical experts. Our processes allow us to gain a full picture of what occurred, the circumstances, the injuries sustained and the impact on your health or the health of your child.
Submitting the Letter of Claim
If the medical records and the expert opinions obtained support a claim for negligence, we’ll put together a Letter of Claim and send it to the defendant. The Letter of Claim will set out the allegations of negligence being made and how, but for the negligence, the injury would have been avoided. The Defendant will then have four months to respond and will either accept their wrongdoing or deny that wrongdoing occurred.
If the Defendant admits negligence, we will proceed to value your birth injury case and work towards agreeing a settlement. We will also arrange for interim damages to be paid by the Defendant in order to meet your immediate needs.
If the Defendant denies that their actions were unreasonable and/or denies that their actions caused the injuries, we will review those denials with you and our experts.
Provided our experts continue to support the claim we will issue proceedings on your behalf. Although proceedings will be issued at Court, we will continue to attempt to resolve the claim. Most claims will settle without the need for trial but in some circumstances, a trial might be required.
Mediation processes
In cases where the Defendant has admitted their failings, our birth injury claims solicitors will negotiate a settlement using mediation or arbitration processes. Our lawyers have ample experience in a wide range of birth injury cases and have a great success rate in securing high levels of compensation.
Court processes
If matters cannot be settled using mediation, we can represent you at trial. We work with extremely talented and knowledgeable barristers and, rest assured, we will ensure that you have outstanding representation and are adequately prepared for the process that follows.
Free rehabilitation service
At Ashtons Legal, we appreciate that clients may need specialist health care, support and rehabilitation before they have access to any interim damages. Our expert lawyers work with our rehabilitation team to provide our clients with a rehab service free of charge, regardless of whether or not your claim is successful or not.
For more information about this service, please get in touch with our medical negligence team at Ashtons legal.
Birth Injury Compensation Claims Fees
‘No win no fee’ birth injury claims
At Ashtons Legal, we offer a ‘no win no fee’ birth injury claims process. You’ll only need to contribute to your legal fees if you win your case and are awarded compensation. In this case, the majority of your costs will be paid by the Defendant. In the unfortunate event that your claim is unsuccessful, you won’t incur a fee for our legal representation.
Legal aid for birth injury claims
Legal aid refers to a type of public funding to cover legal costs. The Legal Aid Agency funding is intended to support children who suffer from brain injuries arising as a result of pregnancy or childbirth. Our law firm is able to offer legal aid as a funding option for those who are eligible as we have a franchise with the Legal Aid Agency to do so.
Our team will ensure that you understand exactly how the fees work and what to expect before your case begins.
Frequently Asked Questions About Birth Injury Claims
How much compensation could I receive for a birth injury?
It’s difficult to determine just how much you could receive for a birth injury negligence claim. There is a wide range of possible injuries that a mother or baby can experience during childbirth, and compensation amounts vary depending on the type of injury. All claims are unique, and the settlement is judged on a case-by-case basis.
Birth injury claims are based on the pain, suffering and loss of amenity that a mother and/or child have experienced, plus the costs that have been incurred as a result of their injury and the costs that are likely to be incurred in the future.
It’s not always easy to immediately establish what the long-term impact of a birth injury might be. Rest assured, our team can support clients to receive the maximum amount they are entitled to.
What can you claim for?
When making a birth injury claim, clients can claim for general damages and special damages:
General damages: Such damages will cover things like suffering, pain and any loss of amenity (not being able to carry out activities that you or your child would normally be able to).
Special damages: These damages include costs occurring as a result of the injury, for example, loss of income or loss of earnings in the future; care costs, medical and travel expenses; adjustments to the home or your vehicle (cases where birth injury has resulted in a disability).
How long do you have to make a birth injury claim?
To make a birth injury claim on behalf of your child, you can do this any time before the child reaches 18 years old. Once your child turns 18 years old, they’ll have three years to make a claim. So, in effect, proceedings must be issued at Court before your child reaches 21 years of age.
If your child does not have the mental capacity to make a claim (e.g. due to a brain injury), then there is no time limit to claim.
When making a claim for a stillbirth, the time limit is three years from the date of death.
In cases where a mother has become injured during childbirth, the mother has three years from the date of the injury to make a compensation claim.
How long does a birth injury compensation claim take?
Our birth injury solicitors at Ashtons Legal always strive to resolve our client’s claims swiftly. However, birth injury claims can be incredibly complex, and many take years to conclude. You’ll always be updated about the progress of your case and provided with realistic timeframes, so you know what to expect.
While we’re pursuing your birth injury claim, we will attempt to secure you interim birth injury compensation payments to help ease financial pressure and help you to access medical specialists before your case concludes. However, these can only be accessed once it has been established that the Defendant negligently caused the injuries.
Why Choose Ashtons Legal?
Ashtons Legal is a client-centred firm, always striving to offer a high-level bespoke service based on the needs of our clients. We trust that you’ll find our expert team to be both approachable and sensitive.
When serving our clients, we avoid legal jargon and ensure that we communicate our procedures in a language you’ll understand. We appreciate that when clients come to us, they are often feeling stressed and quite vulnerable and that what they need is a supportive legal team to explain their options in simple terms.
Ashtons Legal is an industry-leading law firm which we owe to our expertise and dedication to our clients. We have an outstanding reputation both in the legal sector and within the local communities that we serve.
We are recognised by legal commentators Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners and hold many specialist accreditations, including Lexcel, AvMa, Brain Injury Group, APIL, and many more.
Get in Touch With Our Birth Injury Solicitors
To make a birth injury claim, please contact our experienced birth injury solicitors. You will be offered a free initial consultation to sensitively discuss the particulars of your case and plan the potential next steps.
You can get in touch by calling 0330 404 0749, emailing enquiries@ashtonslegal.co.uk or filling in the enquiry form on the right-hand side of our contact page.