If you are facing a birth injury lawsuit, you are probably wondering what to expect. The first thing that will happen is the initial meeting with the attorney. This meeting is designed to determine whether or not your case is a good candidate to go to court. It is important for parents to remember that not all birth injuries are candidates for the court system, because there are several times when a birth injury could not be avoided, no matter how devastating it might be. If, for example, the child has the umbilical cord around her neck at birth, there is not much the doctor can do to keep the child from suffering from a lack of oxygen.

Most likely, your attorney will discuss your case with a qualified medical expert. He does this to figure out if the doctor handling your deliver is at fault. They will look over the details of the birth and the injury to determine whether or not the doctor could have done something else to keep the injury from happening. Medically speaking, if there was a sign that the child was in jeopardy that the doctor ignored, the attorney will agree to take on your case.

Before you start worrying about your wallet, a birth injury lawsuit is typically done on a contingency basis. This means that you do not pay anything upfront for the lawsuit. The attorney is confident enough in his ability to win your case that he will do all of the legwork at the beginning for free. He is only paid an agreed percentage of the winnings if he successfully wins your case. And remember, this fee is worth it because most parents end up taking much more money home when they use an attorney than when they settle out of court.

Most birth injury lawsuits sue for many types of damages. Remember, the child who is injured during birth faces a lifetime of suffering. Because of this, the awards are generally quite high. The economic damages are the most obvious. These are the costs of the medical care and special therapies that the child needs. Also considered in economic damages are wages the child would lose as an adult.

The less obvious are the non-economic damages. These are the pain and suffering on behalf of the child. This is especially important in birth injury lawsuits that result from a child being severely disfigured. A child who has cerebral palsy, for example, will not be able to enjoy life to its fullest.

The doctor who is found to be in severe error is often charged punitive damages, which are the fees designed to punish the doctor for his error. However, this is not easy to win in a birth injury case, because these injuries are often the result of an unavoidable accident. Your attorney would have to prove that the child’s needs were absolutely ignored during the birth.

Many states have limits as to the highest amount of each of these types of damages that you can sue for. Be sure to check with your attorney about the limits in your state. Also, ask your attorney about special damages that birth injuries are liable for. For example, if you are going to have to hire a nanny to care for other children because of your injured child’s ongoing health problems, you could be compensated for this expense. Or, if you will need to quit your job to care for your injured child, you might be compensated for lost earnings.

If you win the birth injury lawsuit, the doctors who are owed for your child’s medical needs will be paid, and the lawyer will also be paid. In some states, the money then goes to the child, sometimes through the parents, and sometimes by having the money placed in a special account that is blocked to only allow the parents to use the money for the child’s benefit. This limits parents from using the money for their own desires. If the parents are awarded damages for their pain and suffering, this money would go to the parents directly.