The birth of a child is supposed to be one of the happiest moments of a family's life. When something goes wrong—when a preventable error during pregnancy, labor, or delivery leaves a baby with a serious injury—the joy can turn to fear, grief, and a thousand unanswered questions. Parents are often left wondering whether their child's condition could have been avoided, and how they will provide the lifetime of care their child may now need.
At Gilman & Bedigian, we represent families whose children were harmed by birth injuries, and we do so with deep compassion for what those families are going through. We are nationally recognized birth injury trial attorneys, and we have secured some of the largest birth injury verdicts in the country. If you believe negligence caused your child's injury, we are here to listen, to explain your options in plain language, and to help you secure the resources your child will need.
You don't have to face this alone. Call 1-800-529-6162 (phones answered 24/7) or request a free, confidential consultation online. There is no fee unless we win your case.
What Is a Birth Injury?
A birth injury is harm to a baby (or mother) caused before, during, or shortly after delivery. While some complications are unavoidable, many birth injuries result from preventable negligence—a failure to monitor, a delayed response to fetal distress, a mismanaged delivery, or inadequate newborn care. When a healthcare provider's failure to meet the accepted standard of care causes a child's injury, the law allows families to seek accountability and the resources their child needs.
Birth injury litigation is among the most complex and consequential areas of law. These cases require proving sophisticated obstetric and neonatal medicine, establishing that negligence caused the injury, and quantifying decades of future care. They are also among the most important: the outcome can determine whether a child has access to the lifelong care, therapy, and support that will define their quality of life.
Birth Injuries We Handle
We focus on serious, life-altering birth injuries, including the following.
Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE)
HIE is a type of brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen and blood flow to a baby's brain around the time of birth. It is one of the most serious birth injuries and a leading cause of long-term neurological disability. HIE can result from preventable failures such as delayed responses to fetal distress, mismanaged complications, or delayed delivery. Time-sensitive treatments, including therapeutic cooling (hypothermia therapy), exist precisely because early intervention matters—making delays especially consequential.
Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy is a group of disorders affecting movement, muscle tone, and posture, often caused by brain injury or abnormal brain development around the time of birth. While not all cerebral palsy is the result of negligence, some cases trace back to preventable oxygen deprivation or birth trauma. Children with cerebral palsy may require lifelong therapy, assistive devices, and care.
Brachial Plexus Injuries (Erb's Palsy)
The brachial plexus is the network of nerves controlling the arm and hand. These nerves can be stretched or torn during a difficult delivery, resulting in weakness or paralysis of the arm—a condition often called Erb's palsy. Some cases resolve, while others cause permanent impairment requiring surgery and therapy.
Shoulder Dystocia
Shoulder dystocia occurs when a baby's shoulder becomes lodged behind the mother's pelvic bone during delivery. It is an obstetric emergency that, if not recognized and managed properly, can cause brachial plexus injuries, oxygen deprivation, and other serious harm. How a provider responds in those critical moments can make all the difference.
Fetal Monitoring Failures
Electronic fetal monitoring is used to track a baby's heart rate and detect signs of distress during labor. When providers fail to monitor appropriately, misread the tracings, or fail to act on signs that a baby is in trouble, the opportunity to prevent serious injury can be lost. Failures of fetal monitoring are at the heart of many birth injury cases.
Delayed C-Sections
When a baby is in distress or a vaginal delivery becomes dangerous, a timely cesarean section can be life-saving. An unreasonable delay in performing a necessary C-section can deprive a baby of oxygen and cause permanent injury. These cases often turn on the timeline—how long it took to recognize the need and to act.
NICU Injuries
The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) cares for the most fragile newborns. Negligence in the NICU—medication errors, infections, failure to monitor, or mismanagement of a newborn's condition—can cause or worsen serious injury. We address these cases as part of our birth injury practice.
If your child experienced any of these injuries, you deserve answers. Speak with an experienced birth injury attorney at no cost. Call 1-800-529-6162 or request a consultation.
How Birth Injuries Happen
Behind many birth injuries is a preventable failure of care. Common examples include failing to monitor the mother and baby appropriately; failing to recognize and respond to fetal distress; delaying a necessary C-section; mismanaging a difficult delivery, including shoulder dystocia; improperly using delivery tools such as forceps or vacuum extractors; failing to diagnose and manage maternal conditions like preeclampsia or infections; medication errors; and negligent newborn or NICU care. In each case, the question is whether a reasonably careful provider would have acted differently—and whether that failure caused the child's injury.
A Lifetime of Needs: Why These Cases Are About the Future
What makes birth injury litigation unique is that it is not only about what has already happened—it is about the decades to come. A child injured at birth may need care, therapy, and support for the rest of their life. Securing that future is the central purpose of these cases, and it is where experienced advocacy matters most.
Lifetime care needs
Depending on the injury, a child may require physical, occupational, and speech therapy; medications and medical equipment; assistive technology and mobility devices; modifications to the family home; specialized education; and, in many cases, around-the-clock attendant care. These needs evolve as a child grows and can extend across an entire lifetime.
Future medical expenses
The cost of caring for a child with a serious birth injury can reach into the millions of dollars over a lifetime. To capture these costs accurately, we work with life-care planners—specialists who project, in detail, the care a child will need at each stage of life—and with economists who translate those needs into present-day values that a settlement or verdict must account for. Getting this right is essential; a result that falls short can leave a family without the resources their child needs decades from now.
Family impact
A birth injury affects the entire family. Parents may need to leave jobs or reduce work to provide care. Siblings, finances, and family life are all touched. The emotional toll is profound. We recognize that these cases are about far more than medicine and money—they are about a family's ability to care for their child and hold together through an unimaginable challenge.
Long-term planning
Beyond the litigation itself, families must plan for the long term—how funds will be managed and preserved, how care will be coordinated, and how to protect a child's eligibility for benefits and services. We help families think through these questions and connect them with appropriate resources, so that a recovery actually serves its purpose over a lifetime.
Securing your child's future is the heart of what we do. Let us help you understand what is possible. Call 1-800-529-6162 or contact us online.
Who May Be Responsible for a Birth Injury?
Depending on the facts, responsibility may extend to obstetricians and delivering physicians; nurses and labor-and-delivery staff; midwives; anesthesiologists; neonatologists and NICU staff; and the hospital or healthcare system, which may be responsible for the conduct of its employees and for institutional failures such as understaffing or inadequate policies. Identifying every responsible party requires a careful review of the prenatal, labor, delivery, and newborn records—work that experienced birth injury attorneys, supported by qualified medical experts, are equipped to do.
How a Birth Injury Case Is Investigated
A credible birth injury claim is built on evidence and expert analysis. The investigation focuses on the core elements of any malpractice claim: the duty of care owed to mother and baby; whether the care breached the standard of care, as evaluated by qualified experts in obstetrics, maternal-fetal medicine, neonatology, and nursing; whether that breach caused the injury—often the most complex and contested question in these cases, requiring careful analysis of the medical timeline and the science of how the injury occurred; and the full scope of damages, including a lifetime of future needs.
The medical records—prenatal records, fetal monitoring strips, labor and delivery notes, and newborn and NICU records—are central, often supplemented by hospital policies and staffing data. The right expert witnesses then establish what should have happened and how the failure changed a child's life. This is demanding, resource-intensive work, and it is exactly the work we are prepared to do.
Time Limits for Birth Injury Claims
Birth injury claims are subject to a statute of limitations that varies by state. Importantly, many states have special rules for claims involving children, which can extend the time to file beyond the deadline that would apply to an adult—but these rules vary widely and have important exceptions, and claims involving public hospitals can carry shorter deadlines and notice requirements. Because the deadlines are complex and the consequences of missing them are severe, it is important to consult an attorney as soon as you suspect something went wrong. Acting early also helps preserve the records and evidence these cases depend on.
Why Families Trust Gilman & Bedigian
Few areas of law carry higher stakes than birth injury, and few firms are better equipped to handle it. Gilman & Bedigian is a team of experienced trial attorneys, founded by Charles Gilman and Briggs Bedigian, with a national reputation in birth injury and catastrophic injury litigation. We have recovered more than $800 million for injured victims and families, including some of the largest birth injury verdicts in Maryland and Pennsylvania history—among them a $182 million verdict (the largest medical malpractice verdict in Pennsylvania history) and a $55 million verdict against Johns Hopkins Hospital. These results reflect our ability to take on major hospitals and healthcare systems and win. Our work has been recognized by the American Association for Justice, Super Lawyers, and an A-rating from the Better Business Bureau, and we have been featured by ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome; each case is different and must be evaluated on its own facts.
Just as important is how we treat the families we represent. We understand that you are caring for a child while grieving a future you imagined, and we meet you with patience, compassion, and respect. We explain everything in plain language, return calls promptly, and carry the legal burden so you can focus on your child and family. With offices in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Texas, we handle birth injury cases nationwide in cooperation with local counsel. And because we work on a contingency-fee basis, there is no fee unless we win your case.
Speak directly with an experienced birth injury attorney today. Call 1-800-529-6162 (answered 24/7) or request a free, confidential consultation. You can also review our case results and explore our nationwide birth injury resources.
Frequently Asked Questions About Birth Injury Litigation
How do I know if my child's birth injury was caused by negligence?
Many parents cannot know without a careful review of the medical records by qualified experts. Some birth complications are unavoidable; others result from preventable failures, such as not responding to fetal distress or delaying a necessary C-section. An experienced attorney working with medical experts can evaluate whether negligence likely caused your child's injury—usually at no cost to you.
Is cerebral palsy always the result of medical negligence?
No. Cerebral palsy has many possible causes, and not all cases involve negligence. However, some cases are linked to preventable oxygen deprivation or birth trauma. Determining whether negligence played a role requires expert review of the labor, delivery, and newborn records.
How much is a birth injury case worth?
There is no standard figure, because the value depends on the severity of the injury and the lifetime of care a child will need. Serious birth injury cases can involve substantial sums precisely because the future medical and care costs are so significant. We work with life-care planners and economists to document the full scope of those needs.
Who pays for my child's lifetime care?
That is exactly what a successful claim is designed to address. By documenting future medical expenses, therapy, equipment, home modifications, and attendant care, we seek a recovery intended to fund your child's care across their lifetime—rather than leaving your family to bear those costs alone.
Can I still file a claim if the birth was several years ago?
Possibly. Many states have special statute-of-limitations rules for claims involving children that can extend the deadline. These rules vary and have exceptions, and public-hospital claims may be shorter. Because the deadlines are complex, it is best to consult an attorney promptly to learn what applies to your situation.
How much does it cost to hire a birth injury lawyer?
Gilman & Bedigian handles birth injury cases on a contingency-fee basis. There are no upfront costs, and you owe no attorney's fee unless we win your case. We advance the substantial costs these cases require. Your consultation is free and confidential.
What if my baby did not survive?
We are deeply sorry for your loss. If negligence contributed to your baby's death, your family may be able to bring a wrongful death claim. We handle these cases with the greatest care and sensitivity, and we are here to support you.
Do you handle birth injury cases outside your office states?
Yes. We handle birth injury cases nationwide in cooperation with local counsel. Where you live should not prevent your family from holding a negligent provider accountable.
Your Child Deserves Every Resource. We Help You Secure It.
When a preventable birth injury changes the course of your child's life, you are left carrying an enormous responsibility—caring for your child today while planning for decades to come. You deserve to know what happened, whether it could have been prevented, and how to secure the resources your child will need for life.
Gilman & Bedigian is here to help you carry that weight. We will review your records, consult leading experts, document your child's lifetime needs, and pursue accountability with compassion and determination. There is no cost to begin and no obligation.
Speak With a Compassionate Birth Injury Attorney Today
- Free, confidential consultation
- Nationally recognized birth injury trial attorneys
- A track record of major birth injury verdicts
- No fee unless we win your case
If your child was harmed by a birth injury, contact Gilman & Bedigian. Call 1-800-529-6162 (answered 24/7) or request your free, confidential consultation.
