Questions to Ask a Birth Injury Attorney in Phoenix

Birth injury attorney questions are likely something you never thought you would have to consider. But a birth injury is not just a medical problem, it is a legal, financial, and lifelong family issue. When your child suffers an injury during birth, knowing the right questions to ask an attorney can help ensure you are making the best decision for your child and your family.

Preventable birth injuries, such as oxygen deprivation, dystocia injuries, brachial plexus/Erb’s palsy, and untreated medical complications, can all point back to medical negligence during pregnancy, labor, or delivery. Many of these cases arise because a provider failed to follow accepted standards of care, failed to monitor, misused delivery tools, or did not react to fetal distress quickly enough. Holding these providers accountable often requires legal action.

At the Phoenix office of Burg Simpson, our birth injury lawyers have decades of experience holding negligent healthcare providers accountable for their actions. Bring us your birth injury attorney questions, and we will provide straightforward answers and actionable advice to help you determine the best way to move forward with your case.

Birth Injury Attorney Questions? Talk to Burg Simpson for FREE

To schedule a FREE and confidential consultation with one of the experienced birth injury attorneys at Burg Simpson, call our Phoenix office at 602-777-7000 today. We help families living throughout Arizona seek justice through swift and aggressive legal action.

What Are Some Good Birth Injury Attorney Questions?

It is a good idea to write down questions as they arise. This helps to ensure you receive answers to all of the questions for your birth injury attorney that are weighing on your mind. While you should absolutely come to your free case review with your own questions, some you may want to add to your list include:

What experience do you have with Arizona birth injury and pediatric malpractice cases?

Ask specifically about Arizona, because every state treats medical malpractice differently. A qualified Phoenix birth injury lawyer can help you understand Arizona’s specific medical malpractice laws, the investigative process, and what you can expect as your case progresses. Make sure your potential lawyer has sufficient experience handling birth injury cases in Arizona.

Do you believe my child’s injury was preventable?

A good lawyer will start by comparing what happened against accepted obstetric and neonatal standards. They will look for things like failure to monitor fetal heart rate, delayed C-section, misuse of forceps and vacuums, or failure to manage fetal distress. If the medical team could have avoided the outcome by following the standard of care, you are entitled to seek compensation for the damage they have done.

How long do I have to file a birth injury claim in Arizona?

In Arizona, the statute of limitations for most medical malpractice claims is two years. However, for injuries sustained during infancy or childhood, the clock does not start ticking until the victim has turned 18. The statute may also be extended for families filing a claim before that time through the discovery rule, which can push the start date to when you reasonably discovered the injury. For infants with conditions such as hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) or cerebral palsy that become clearer over time, the deadline can look different.

Who can be held liable for my child’s injury?

Births involve teams. Liability could be placed on the obstetrician, a resident, the labor-and-delivery nurses, the anesthesiologist, or the hospital that failed to supervise or train its staff. Your birth injury attorney can explain how, in Arizona, you are allowed to pursue damages from every party whose negligence contributed to your child’s injury.

How do you prove negligence in a birth injury case?

Arizona medical malpractice claims almost always require medical experts. Your lawyer should talk about how they obtain labor and delivery records, fetal monitoring strips, neonatal records, and mom’s prenatal chart. They should also talk about any OB/GYN, neonatology, or nursing experts they work with who can analyze these records to determine exactly how the injury occurred.

What types of compensation can my family seek?

A solid birth injury attorney will consider economic damages, such as current and future medical care, therapy and assistive devices, in-home care, special education, lost earning capacity, and the parents’ and child’s non-economic damages, like pain, suffering, and emotional distress. This may require working with life-care planners, pediatric rehabilitation specialists, economists, and vocational experts who can price out decades of medical equipment, therapies, surgeries, transportation, schooling, and housing needs. These actions can help to clearly establish how much your birth injury claim may be worth.

How much will a birth injury lawsuit cost me upfront?

Most birth injury lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. This means that you only pay for legal services after a settlement or verdict has been reached on your behalf. If your attorney does not win your case, you do not have to pay for their legal services. If they win, you will pay them a percentage of your recovery.

Birth injury attorney questions to ask regarding contingency fees include:

• Do you charge interest on money fronted for legal services?
• What percentage of my total recovery will you require if we win?
• What will I be required to pay out-of-pocket?

Will my birth injury case go to court, or will it settle before trial?

A majority of personal injury claims, including birth injury claims, settle before they go to trial. However, the best birth injury lawyers prepare every case as if it were going to be tried in front of a judge or jury.

Not all birth injury lawyers have experience in the courtroom. When selecting a lawyer, be sure to choose one with sufficient trial experience to effectively represent you should settlement negotiations fail.

Will you be the lawyer handling my case, or will I be passed to someone else?

It is important to know if the birth injury lawyer you meet with is the same one who will represent you, or if you will be passed around to others. You want a lawyer who is licensed to practice in Arizona, has experience both in and out of the courtroom, and who will stand by your side from your initial consultation through the resolution of your case. The lawyer you meet with and trust with your family’s story should be the same one who is with you until the end.

What results have you obtained for families in similar situations?

You should know the types of verdicts, settlements, and outcomes your lawyer has secured in other birth injury cases. Taking on large hospitals and medical providers can be extremely challenging. You want a birth injury attorney with a history of securing substantial recoveries for families in Arizona.

Why Choose Burg Simpson for Your Phoenix Birth Injury Claim?

At Burg Simpson, we answer birth injury attorney questions honestly, openly, and with the intent of making sure you feel confident and cared for. As part of a national team of trial lawyers, our Arizona birth injury attorneys have access to substantial resources. This includes outside experts and specialists who can assist with building your case. However, we will not pass you off to another firm. When you choose us, we stick with you, stand by your side, and fight directly for the fair and full compensation you deserve.

Our firm has recovered more than $2 billion in verdicts and settlements, many of those for families dealing with the consequences of birth injury. With attorneys recognized by Best Lawyers®, Super Lawyers®, the National Trial Lawyers Association, and more, you can rest assured that, when you trust your case to our firm, you are placing it in the hands of legal professionals with a proven track record, high rate of client satisfaction, and the dedication to see complex cases through to the end. If your child has suffered from medical negligence, we are here to hold the responsible parties accountable and help you pursue the compensation you will need to give your child the best care possible.

We Will Answer All of Your Birth Injury Attorney Questions for FREE

You have birth injury attorney questions. We have candid answers that can help you decide the best path forward. Contact us online or call our Phoenix office today to schedule your cost- and obligation-free consultation and let us help you start the process of seeking justice. From Phoenix to Glendale and Mesa, Scottsdale to Tempe, and up through Prescott, Sedona, and Kingman, we stand with families living throughout Arizona.