No one expects their newborn child to suffer a birth injury. The news may leave you feeling shocked, confused, and worried about the long-term impacts on your child’s life. As painful as it may feel, the best way to minimize the effects of a birth injury is to take action immediately.
On this page, Valent Legal’s trusted medical malpractice lawyers discuss the steps to take to determine your legal options, begin building a claim, and protect your child’s future after a birth injury in Nova Scotia.
- Following a birth injury, prioritize your child’s health and seek immediate medical intervention above all else.
- Thoroughly document your child’s care and your experiences to help determine what happened and show how it’s impacted your family.
- A trusted birth injury lawyer can evaluate whether your child’s birth injury was preventable, explain your legal options, and help you access key resources and support available in Nova Scotia.
Prioritize Your Child’s Medical Care
Your child’s health always comes first. Before considering any legal questions, it’s important to pursue treatments and medical interventions for your newborn as quickly as possible. Early care can significantly improve long-term outcomes for conditions like cerebral palsy that often result from birth injuries.
Have your child promptly evaluated by a specialist, keep up with any recommended follow-up testing, and explore any referrals for therapies and treatments.
Start Documenting Everything
Your own observations about your child’s condition and its impacts can form the backbone of your birth injury claim, helping you build a legal claim while also protecting your child’s future. However, trauma and stress can cloud your memory, so it’s important to start taking written notes of as many details as you can.
Key pieces of information to document include your child’s symptoms and diagnoses, the effects on their development and growth, timelines of key events, the names of staff you interact with, summaries of conversations with them, and any other relevant details.
Request and Secure Necessary Medical Records
Parents in Nova Scotia have the right to access and obtain their child’s medical records, which can be critical for preserving the factual record and establishing what truly happened surrounding a birth injury.
To start building your claim, request copies of your child’s files from any health care providers they saw in relation to their birth injury, especially those relating to prenatal, labor, delivery, NICU, or similar care.
Track the Long-Term Impact on Your Child and Family
Most symptoms of birth injuries won’t be immediately obvious. Some impacts may take years to appear. To build a full and thorough historical record of the birth injury, make sure to keep track of your child’s therapy needs, necessary home modifications and equipment, and other treatment plans.
Recording the real-life consequences of the birth injury and your child’s treatment on your family is also key to establishing the extent of your damages. Take notes on the time you or other family members missed at work to help care for your child, the physical and emotional strains of caregiving, and any financial impacts you’ve suffered.
Speak With a Nova Scotia Birth Injury Lawyer
Not every birth injury gives rise to a legal claim. However, many are preventable and result from health care providers’ negligence.
Consulting with a birth injury attorney is your first step toward getting answers about what happened to your child and clarity about your legal options. An experienced lawyer can analyze the circumstances of your case and evaluate whether your child’s birth injury was preventable.
If your attorney determines that you may have a valid medical malpractice claim, they can start building a strong case and pursue legal action against those responsible for the birth injury.
Know Your Legal Rights in Nova Scotia
Under Nova Scotia law, you and your family have the right to pursue damages for birth injuries caused by medical malpractice or negligence. The compensation you receive from a birth injury settlement can help fund your child’s long-term care and provide lasting stability for your family as you navigate their future together.
While Nova Scotia’s Limitation of Actions Act generally sets a two-year deadline to file personal injury claims, birth injury cases can benefit from a notable exception for minor victims. That exception pauses the filing deadline until the victim’s 19th birthday, giving your child the opportunity to file a claim until they turn 21—or potentially even longer, if they are incapacitated.
Even with a greatly extended filing period, the best option for protecting your child’s rights and maximizing your chances of success is to take legal action as soon as possible.
Are There Support Resources for Families of Children With Birth Injuries Like HIE or Cerebral Palsy?
Direct Family Support for Children, or DFSC, can provide up to $2,800 a month to Nova Scotia residents to help cover care costs for children with developmental or physical disabilities, as well as an additional $2,000 per month in “enhanced respite funding” for those with particularly significant, costly, or disruptive care needs. To apply, call 1-877-424-1177 or visit your local Opportunities and Social Development office during business hours.
Nova Scotia Public Health’s “Early Years” programs help families access support for feeding their child, guidance from nurses, home visits from professionals, and more. Click here to view contact information for local Early Years programs and more details on all available services.
By texting “Baby” to 12323, you can sign up for the free SmartParent program, which provides informational text messages to help guide you through your child’s infancy. You can also call 211 Nova Scotia for free, confidential referrals to other helpful programs and services in your community.
What if You're Not Sure Whether to Pursue a Claim?
Many parents are hesitant to consider taking legal action against medical professionals after a birth injury, worrying they could be blaming trusted doctors and nurses for an unavoidable outcome. However, wanting to fully understand what happened to your child—and prevent the same thing from happening to other families—does not make you combative, adversarial, or unreasonable.
It’s natural to want answers when your child suffers a birth injury. A skilled lawyer in Nova Scotia can help you find clarity without forcing you to pursue litigation if you don’t want to.
Take the First Step Toward Protecting Your Child’s Future
A successful birth injury claim requires a thorough investigation and can potentially take years to resolve. Acting early is the best way to protect your family’s rights and preserve your child’s future.
If your child suffered a birth injury in Nova Scotia that you believe may have been preventable, the Valent Legal team is ready to provide the trusted legal guidance and compassionate care you and your family deserve.
Contact us online or call (902) 443-4488 today to explore your legal options through a free consultation with our knowledgeable attorneys.