Medical Malpractice – FAQs

With the medical issues that happen during labor/stillbirth, who has the right to make a claim? At what point and time is there a cut off for the parents to seek a claim or investigate whether medical malpractice occurred?

From the day of the delivery, the parents have two years to pursue a malpractice case. Lawyers always urge parents not to wait one year and 10 months to reach out to them. It would help if you reached out as soon as possible because it takes much time to conduct the investigation. Attorneys want to get involved early to preserve the evidence and medical records. Once that happens, three individuals, the child, and the two parents have a claim and can recover damages. The parents have the right to recover for their expenses and the emotional impact on them. [Back to FAQs](#faqs)

Can a person who is not a US citizen pursue a medical malpractice case?

Yes. You do not need to be a US citizen to pursue a medical malpractice claim. [Back to FAQs](#faqs)

Can an unborn child that didn’t survive count as damages or wrongful death?

Some cases involve a lost pregnancy, and you can absolutely pursue a claim for that. A case involving a child that did not survive outside the womb is called a negligent stillbirth case. Another kind of case is when a child born alive passes away. The parents do not get the explanation that they deserved from the hospital or the doctor. The reason is sometimes a peace of mind as to whether it was a mistake or not. The third kind of case relates to labor and delivery, where the child is born with a brain injury. [Back to FAQs](#faqs)

Who pays to seek the costs?

Medical malpractice cases are usually taken on a contingency fee basis. The attorneys get paid if they can win the case. That means that for all the cases, the attorney requests records, hires experts, and fronts the costs. If the attorneys do not take the case, the client pays nothing. The only time that the client pays is if they win the case. The pay is deducted from the recovery, which means that there are no pocket costs for the client and no risks for the client. [Back to FAQs](#faqs)

If something happens during labor or any procedure, who do we sue?

When there is an injury, the attorney's job is to figure out who is at fault. What attorneys do is they approach this with as general impressions as they can, and then they narrow them down. They look at the entire situation. Was there bad communication between the nurse and the doctor? Whose fault was that? Sometimes they can figure it out; sometimes, they can’t. Sometimes the responsibility falls on both the doctor and the nurse. The attorney will sue the hospital, which is responsible for its employee. They will sue the doctor. Sometimes there is a nurse-midwife involved or a nurse practitioner. As the attorney works on these cases, they sometimes find a pharmacy error and then sue the hospital for the pharmacy error. Sometimes there's a delay in the hospital transfer, which might be another hospital that needs to be named. Therefore, it is not easy to answer right out of the box because the attorney needs to get the records and take them apart. That, however, is the attorney’s job. There are cases where you could have only one defendant, such as the doctor. There are also other cases where there could be 14 defendants. The reason for that is because there are different doctors and hospitals involved, and everybody has a share in the responsibility. [Back to FAQs](#faqs)

What do you think my case is worth?

This is an individualized analysis. Number one, the attorney can look at jury verdicts and settlements in the area and find out what juries tend to award in successful cases. The attorney can also look at his/her personal experiences over the years. The attorney also looks at the available insurance coverage for the doctor from the hospital because, many times, that can impact the case's evaluation. If a lawyer tells you what your case is worth at the first meeting, you should run in the other direction. There is no way a lawyer could say to you the value of your case in one sitting because it takes time. [Back to FAQs](#faqs)