How long a birth injury lawsuit takes really depends on a number of factors.
One, it depends on the age of the child at the time that a lawsuits filed, because you only get one settlement. You want to make sure that that settlement is in the best interests of the child.
And what I see on a regular basis is that families come to me really early. They come, let’s say within a year of the child’s birth, and they know that that child’s impaired. And they’re being told by neonatologists that the outcome is likely going to be a negative one, but the fact is that you’re not able to quantify a lifetime’s worth of losses until that child develops a little more. We need that child to get to a point in his or her development that experts are able to provide a reasonable opinion on a likely future prognosis, and that usually takes until a child is at least 6 to 8 years old.
How long a birth injury case takes will also depend on the strength of the case. You need to prove that there’s a breach of the standard of care, and then you have to prove that the outcome would have been different had the standard of care been met, and that’s oftentimes easier said than done. A birth injury has a huge impact on that child’s life and his or her loved ones. We want to make a meaningful difference in that child’s life and the life of their family, and we recognize you have one shot at this, one shot to make that child’s life the best it can possibly be in the face of a difficult situation. And for families who put their trust in us, in this one shot, you know, we take that trust very seriously. We work hard every day to make the best of a bad situation in a compassionate but aggressive way.
