Fort Lauderdale Birth Injury Lawyer
You were told the delivery went normally, and months later your child is missing milestones and nobody will explain why. We can take it from here. Call 954-522-5800 for a free consultation. You pay us nothing unless we win. Our Fort Lauderdale personal injury lawyers have taken these cases across Broward County since 1993.
Birth Injury claims in Fort Lauderdale
The explanation you were given does not match what you remember, and the delivery records are held by the people who wrote them. Meanwhile you are booking specialists, taking time off you do not have, and trying to work out what a lifetime of care costs. Reading those records properly is what we do, from the first call.
Florida runs a statutory compensation plan, NICA, for birth-related neurological injuries, and it pays without regard to who was at fault. Where it applies it is the exclusive remedy, which means no lawsuit at all against the participating physician or hospital. It applies only within narrow limits: an injury to the brain or spinal cord caused by oxygen deprivation or mechanical injury during labor, delivery or immediately afterward in a hospital, a live infant of a minimum birth weight, and a participating physician. Participation varies across the Broward delivery hospitals, and hospitals are required to give obstetric patients notice of it. Whether that notice was actually given is itself frequently disputed and can decide the case.
The first question in a Broward birth injury case is whether the injury falls inside Florida’s NICA plan, because where it applies there is no lawsuit at all. That is answered from the delivery record and from whether the provider gave the notice the statute requires. Waiting to see how a child develops is the most common way a valid claim is lost.
What to do after a birth injury in Fort Lauderdale
- Ask for the complete delivery record, and name the strips. A request for records produces a discharge summary and a narrative, which is not the evidence. Ask in writing for the fetal monitoring tracings themselves, the nursing notes, the physician orders, the anesthesia record, the medication administration record and the neonatal resuscitation record. Those documents were made minute by minute during the labor, and they are what a reconstruction is built from.
- Keep every pediatric record as it accumulates. The developmental picture is built from what comes afterward: pediatric visits, referrals, early intervention assessments, therapy notes and eventually school evaluations. Keep them as they arrive rather than gathering them later. They establish both the extent of the injury and, where it matters, when a family could first reasonably have known something was wrong.
- Write down what you remember of the labor. Times, who was in the room, when the monitor was watched and when it was not, what you were told and what you asked for. Do it now rather than later. A parent’s account does not decide these cases and it frequently points at the half hour in the record where the answer is, which is worth a great deal when a chart runs to several hundred pages.
- Do not sign anything broad. Requests for records are routine. Broad authorizations, arbitration agreements and anything resembling a release are not, and they are sometimes handed over with ordinary paperwork. Bring the document to somebody before signing it. Reading it costs nothing, and an arbitration agreement signed at a bedside can decide a case before it starts.
- Ask early, because a child’s deadline is narrower than parents expect. The most common reason a valid birth injury claim is lost is a family waiting to see how a child develops. That instinct is entirely understandable and it is the wrong one, because the outer limit runs from the delivery rather than from the diagnosis. Having the records reviewed commits you to nothing and it preserves the option.
Where these happen in Fort Lauderdale
Two facts shape these cases in Broward: most deliveries here happen in one of two public hospital systems, and a compromised newborn is generally moved to a higher level of care, which spreads the record across institutions.
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The notice the plan requires
A participating provider has to tell an obstetrical patient that it participates, and whether it actually did is a documentary question.
- The notice form itself, signed or not, which sits in the prenatal or admission file
- When it was given, since notice at the point of delivery may not satisfy the requirement
- Whether the delivering physician was a participant at all, which is checkable
- Where the notice was not properly given, the plan’s exclusivity can fail
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Public hospital systems
Broward Health and Memorial are public districts rather than private companies, which changes what a claim outside the plan is worth.
- Sovereign immunity, and a statutory cap on recovery from a public entity
- A written notice of claim to the agency, which is a precondition of suing at all
- Physicians who may be employed by contracted groups rather than by the district
- That distinction, which can decide whether a claim is capped or not
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Transfer to a higher level of neonatal care
A compromised newborn is moved, and that produces a second record made by people who were not in the delivery room.
- The transport record, with timings, which is written at the time and unusually candid
- Cord blood gases and the first hours of neonatal assessment
- Two institutions holding two parts of one story, neither complete on its own
- What was communicated at handover, which is frequently where the picture forms
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The developmental record afterward
The extent of the injury, and sometimes the date a family could first have known, are established by what came later.
- Pediatric visits and the milestone a physician first recorded as missed
- Early intervention assessments and therapy notes
- Referrals to pediatric neurology and the imaging that followed
- School evaluations, once a child reaches that stage
What causes them
- Fetal distress visible on the monitor that nobody escalated to somebody able to act on it
- Delay between the decision to proceed to caesarean section and the delivery itself
- Forceps or vacuum used improperly, for too long, or when they should not have been used at all
- Shoulder dystocia managed badly, which is where most brachial plexus injuries come from
- Labor-inducing medication given at doses that overstimulated the uterus and cut off oxygen
The injuries we see, and what each one turns on
Oxygen deprivation and cerebral palsy
A period without adequate oxygen during labor or delivery can cause permanent brain injury, and where it does the consequences are lifelong. It has to be said plainly that cerebral palsy has many causes and most of them are nobody’s fault. Establishing that a particular injury was caused by a departure from the standard of care requires the records and a qualified physician review, and it is answered from the monitoring strip and the timings rather than from the diagnosis alone.
Brachial plexus injury
Damage to the nerves controlling the arm and hand, usually arising where a shoulder became stuck during delivery. Some recover with therapy and some do not, and the ones that do not need surgery and a lifetime of adaptation. The record of how the dystocia was managed, and which maneuvers were used in what order, is what the case turns on.
Skull fracture and bleeding inside the head
Associated with instrument deliveries, and with prolonged or difficult ones. The imaging exists and the question is usually not whether the injury happened but whether the instrument should have been used, for how long, and what should have happened when it was not working.
What Florida law requires you to prove
The NICA question has to be answered before anything else
Florida runs a statutory plan, NICA, which compensates a defined category of birth-related neurological injury without regard to fault under Fla. Stat. § 766.303. Where it applies it is the exclusive remedy against those involved in labor, delivery and immediate resuscitation, so there is no lawsuit. It reaches only injuries to the brain or spinal cord caused by oxygen deprivation or mechanical injury, occurring in the course of labor, delivery or immediate postdelivery resuscitation in a hospital, resulting in permanent and substantial impairment, and the plan carries further defined limits that have to be checked against the actual record rather than assumed.
The notice requirement, which is the part nobody mentions
A participating provider has to give an obstetrical patient notice that it participates in the plan, under Fla. Stat. § 766.316. Where that notice was not properly given, the plan’s exclusivity can fail and an ordinary civil claim survives. Whether it was given is a documentary question rather than a matter of recollection, and it is one of the first things worth checking. Separately, the statute preserves a civil action where there is clear and convincing evidence of bad faith, malicious purpose or willful and wanton disregard.
The deadlines, which are not what parents assume
A claim outside the plan is medical negligence and runs on those rules under Fla. Stat. § 95.11: generally two years from when the injury was discovered or should have been discovered, and an outer limit of four years from the incident, with a separate and narrow provision for young children. The Chapter 766 presuit requirements apply as well, which means records, a corroborating written opinion from a physician in the relevant specialty and 90 days notice before anything can be filed. All of that has to happen inside the deadline, which is why waiting to see how a child develops is the most expensive decision available.
The full statutory detail, and the parts that differ by claim type, sit on our statewide birth injury page rather than being restated in every market.
How we prove it in Broward County
A birth injury case is a reconstruction of one shift, minute by minute, and the documents that allow it were made during the labor rather than written about it afterward.
- The fetal monitoring tracings themselves, rather than a summary or a narrative of them
- Nursing notes, physician orders, the anesthesia record and the medication administration record
- The interval between a concerning tracing and the response to it, measured to the minute
- The unit’s own protocols for escalation and for the decision to proceed to caesarean section
- Cord blood gases, Apgar scores and the neonatal resuscitation record
- The transport record where the baby was moved, which carries written at the time timings
- The NICA notice documentation, and whether the delivering physician was a participant
- The electronic record audit trail, showing access, timing and anything added after the fact
All of it goes to a physician in the relevant specialty for a written review before anything is filed, at the firm’s expense. Where that review does not support a claim, we say so, including where the honest answer is that the injury had a cause nobody could have prevented.
Who would handle your case
Being hurt in Fort Lauderdale is hard enough without working out the legal side on your own. The trial lawyers below have handled birth injury claims across Florida since 1993, and one of them will take yours from the first call to the last check. They will tell you what your case is worth and why, and they will be straight with you about the parts that are hard.
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Richard P. Pravato Founding & Managing Attorney Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by The Florida Bar since 2004, and by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Injury cases exclusively since 1996. Full profile → -
Brett J. Yonon Senior Trial Attorney Selected to Florida Super Lawyers in 2024 and 2025. Brett Yonon is who this firm puts on a catastrophic injury or a death in the family, and he has tried those cases to verdict. Full profile →
How insurance companies handle these claims
These files are handled by a hospital risk department and defense counsel from the day an incident is reported internally, frequently before a family has any idea anything went wrong. The obstetric defense is well resourced and well practiced.
- NICA applies, so there is nothing to discuss
- Asserted more often than it is established, and it is checkable. The plan reaches a defined category of injury and no wider, the physician has to be a participant, and the provider has to have given the required notice. A family steered into the plan when the injury falls outside it gives up a civil claim for less than it was worth, which is why this question is answered from the record first rather than accepted.
- Cerebral palsy has many causes
- True, and it is stated as though it ended the discussion. Most cerebral palsy is not caused by anything anybody did. The question is narrower: whether this child’s injury was caused by a departure from the standard of care, which is answered from the monitoring strip, the timings and the cord blood gases rather than from the diagnosis. An honest review sometimes concludes it was not, and we say so.
- The records arrive without the tracings
- What comes back is frequently a summary, a narrative and a discharge document, none of which show the half hour that matters. The fetal monitoring tracings, the nursing notes, the order history and the electronic record audit trail all have to be requested specifically. The audit trail also shows whether anything was added to the chart after the fact.
What a claim can include
The life care plan, which is the claim
Attendant care, therapy, equipment, medication, transport and the replacement schedule for all of it, across a lifetime. It is prepared by a professional and priced by an economist, and it is the difference between a number and an argument.
Medical care, past and future
Everything already billed, and the surgeries and admissions the treating physicians say are still ahead. In these cases the future dwarfs the past by an order of magnitude.
Home and vehicle modification
Ramps, lifts, bathrooms, doorways and an adapted vehicle, each of which is replaced on a schedule rather than bought once.
Why Wolf & Pravato in Fort Lauderdale
A Broward claim outside the plan is filed in the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit at the Broward County Courthouse, and this office has worked in it since 1993. These cases require records from two or three institutions and a physician review paid for months before anything is filed, which is why the first conversation is worth having early.
Richard Pravato has been Board Certified in Civil Trial law by The Florida Bar since 2004. The Bar lists 861 lawyers in the state holding it against a membership over 109,000. What it means in practice is that the other side knows the file can go in front of a jury, and files that can go to trial are priced differently from files that cannot.
The first conversation is free. We are paid out of the recovery or not at all, and if we do not think there is a claim worth bringing we will tell you that rather than take it.
Fort Lauderdale birth injury questions
What is NICA and does it stop me suing?
It is Florida’s compensation plan for certain birth-related neurological injuries, and it pays without regard to fault. Where it applies it replaces a lawsuit against the participating physician and hospital, paying medical and related expenses instead. It does not apply to every birth injury, it requires the doctor to be a participant, and the provider has to have given the required notice. Establishing which side of that line a case falls on is the first piece of work.
Nobody ever mentioned NICA to me during my pregnancy.
That is worth pursuing rather than shrugging off. A participating provider has to give an obstetrical patient notice that it takes part in the plan, and where that notice was not properly given the plan’s exclusivity can fail, which leaves an ordinary civil claim available. Whether it was given is answered from the prenatal and admission file rather than from anybody’s memory, and it is one of the first things we check.
The hospital is a public district. Does that change what we can recover?
It can, considerably. A public hospital district is protected by sovereign immunity, so recovery from it is capped and a written notice of claim has to be presented before any suit. Not everybody working inside a public system is a public employee, though: an independent physician group or a contracted specialist may carry ordinary private coverage with no cap. Establishing who employed the person who made the decision is the work that answers it.
What is NICA and does it apply to my child?
NICA is Florida’s Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Plan. It compensates a defined category of neurological injury occurring during labor, delivery or immediate postdelivery resuscitation that results in substantial mental and physical impairment, without requiring proof of negligence. Whether it applies turns on the medical records, which is the first thing we review.
If NICA applies, can we still sue?
Usually not against those directly involved in labor, delivery and immediate resuscitation, because the plan is an exclusive remedy where it applies. The statute preserves a civil action where there is clear and convincing evidence of bad faith, malicious purpose, or willful and wanton disregard, and that suit must be brought before and instead of accepting a NICA award.
The questions that come up on every kind of claim, deadlines, fees, recorded statements and fault, are answered on our Florida injury claim FAQ.
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Tell us what happened
A lawyer will listen, tell you what Florida law does with those facts, and be straight with you about whether it is worth bringing. We are at 2101 W Commercial Blvd, Suite 1500, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309.