The 8-Year Deadline: Do You Have A Birth Injury Case That Qualifies?
Caring for a healthy infant takes time and energy. Caring for an infant with birth injuries can be overwhelming and exhausting at a different level, making it difficult to find time for self care, let alone the time and energy to find an expert birth injury lawyer or legal team. However, seeking legal help with a birth injury case can offer many benefits, including ensuring fair financial compensation for what lies ahead for both child and family. Not to mention justice.
But what if you don’t realize your infant has a birth injury due to physician medical malpractice negligence? Or your child’s birth injury becomes evident years later? Congenital heart defects and brain-related defects in particular may be detected years after birth.
Research has shown that delayed recognition of congenital heart disease in children often results from physician negligence.1 Further, it uncovers the fact that available clinical cardiac findings alert physicians to likely heart defects in newborns, though sadly such findings are often ignored. According to the CDC, congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect.2
The Florida Statute of Limitations (Chapter 95, Florida Statutes), allows only two years from the date medical malpractice negligence — including malpractice that involves birth injuries — is discovered, or should have been discovered, with the exercise of due diligence.3 However, the statute also states that in no event can a legal action be commenced later than 4 years from the date of the incident or occurrence out of which the cause of action accrued, with the exception that the 4-year period will not restrict an action brought on behalf of a minor on or before the child’s eighth birthday.3
Many legal steps must be taken to enable attorneys and legal teams to develop solid birth injury lawsuits in provable cases of birth injury medical malpractice negligence in order to maximize the justice and compensation a child, mother, and/or family receives.
And while provable birth injury medical malpractice negligence lawsuits generally take between several months and a few years to settle, record-breaking Miami birth injury attorney Richard “Bo” Sharp of Mallard & Sharp, P.A. advises against approaching a doctor or hospital directly in an attempt to save time. According to Sharp, contacting the negligent party or parties directly is unlikely to produce the results needed to ensure adequate financial compensation to provide care for your birth-injured infant’s or child’s needs now and into the future.
“If you think your baby was the victim of medical negligence, do not expect the doctor or hospital who caused your child’s injury to admit fault and take responsibility for their actions…they won’t. In nearly all cases where a baby is the victim of medical malpractice, the child and family will never be compensated for their injuries unless they hire an attorney,” states Sharp.
Richard “Bo” Sharp, Esq. and Mallard & Sharp, P.A.’s goal is to obtain justice for families whose infant has been the victim of birth injury medical malpractice negligence. Mallard & Sharp, P.A. is dedicated to providing all clients with the path to justice and financial recovery. The firm is highly noted for handling cases that involve infant or maternal birth injuries, medical malpractice, and negligent security, as well as any other acts of provable negligence that have caused catastrophic injuries or wrongful death to individuals.
For additional information, or to inquire about expert legal representation for a potential medical malpractice negligence birth injury lawsuit case within the statute of limitations, contact Mallard & Sharp, P.A. at 305-461-4800.