West Palm Beach 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 833-370-8692 for a free consultation. You pay us nothing unless we win. Our West Palm Beach personal injury lawyers have taken these cases across Palm Beach County since 1993.
Birth Injury claims in West Palm Beach
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.
Palm Beach County births concentrate in a small number of hospitals with neonatal intensive care capability, and a serious injury usually means a transfer into one of them, which spreads the record across facilities. On timing: Florida's medical malpractice deadline is two years from discovery with a four-year outer limit, and while there is an extension for children it does not run until adulthood the way people expect. A parent who waits to see how a child develops can find the claim has closed. That is why we would rather review the records early and say there is nothing there than be asked six years later.
A Palm Beach County birth injury claim runs on two clocks. The NICA question decides whether a lawsuit exists at all, and the deadline for a child is narrower than parents assume: two years from discovery, with an outer limit of four years from the delivery. Waiting to see how a child develops is what most often costs a family the claim.
What to do after a birth injury in West Palm Beach
- 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 West Palm Beach
Deliveries in this county happen in a small number of hospitals with neonatal intensive care capability, so a serious injury usually means a transfer, and the record ends up in more than one place.
-
The maternal condition that was already known
Preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and infection are identified in prenatal care, which means the question is what was done about them.
- Prenatal records showing what was diagnosed and when
- Monitoring and follow-up that was ordered, and whether it happened
- The plan for delivery given a condition the unit already knew about
- Escalation when a condition worsened during labor
-
Transfer into a neonatal unit
A compromised newborn is moved, which produces a second record made at the same time made by people who were not in the room.
- The transport record, with timings, which is unusually candid
- Cord blood gases and the first hours of neonatal assessment
- What was communicated at handover, which is where a picture frequently forms
- Two institutions holding two parts of one story
-
The developmental timeline
For a child, when the injury was or should have been discovered is a question of fact, and the answer is in the pediatric record.
- The first entry recording a missed milestone or abnormal tone
- Referrals to pediatric neurology, and the imaging that followed
- Early intervention assessments and therapy notes
- The four-year outer limit, which runs from the delivery rather than from the diagnosis
-
The mother’s own injuries
Regularly left out of a claim entirely, and frequently serious in their own right.
- Hemorrhage, retained placenta and uterine rupture
- Third and fourth degree tears, and injuries during a caesarean section
- A claim the mother brings in her own right rather than on behalf of her child
- Her own treating records, which are a separate file from the baby’s
What causes them
- 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
- Maternal infection, preeclampsia or gestational diabetes not recognized or not treated
- A baby known to be large for dates delivered vaginally without the risk being addressed
The injuries we see, and what each one 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.
Kernicterus from untreated jaundice
Newborn jaundice is common, measurable and treatable, and untreated it can cause permanent brain injury. It is one of the more preventable injuries in this practice, and it frequently follows an early discharge without the bilirubin having been checked or a follow-up arranged. The readmission record is usually where the picture becomes clear.
Injuries to the mother
Regularly left out of a claim entirely. Hemorrhage, retained placenta, third and fourth degree tears, uterine rupture and injuries during a caesarean are their own harms with their own consequences, and a mother has a claim in her own right rather than only on behalf of her child.
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 Palm Beach County
These cases are reconstructions of a few hours, and the documents that allow it were written during those hours rather than about them afterward.
- The fetal monitoring tracings themselves, rather than a summary or a narrative of them
- Prenatal records, which establish what condition the unit already knew it was managing
- Nursing notes, physician orders, the anesthesia record and the medication administration record
- The interval between a concerning tracing and the response, measured to the minute
- 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
- Pediatric, early intervention and therapy records establishing the extent and the timeline
- The NICA notice documentation, and whether the delivering physician was a participant
The pediatric record does double work here. It establishes how serious the injury actually is, and where the deadline is in issue it is the evidence of when a family could first reasonably have known.
Who would handle your case
Being hurt in West Palm Beach 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.
-
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.
- 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.
- The delay was clinically reasonable
- The whole case, in one sentence. What is looked at is the interval between a concerning tracing and the response to it, measured to the minute, and what the unit’s own protocols required. A reasonable interval and an unreasonable one look identical in a narrative and different on a strip, which is exactly why the strip is requested rather than the summary.
- Blame is moved onto the mother
- Her weight, her diabetes, her infection, whether she attended appointments. Some of it is legitimately part of the clinical picture and all of it gets deployed. What the chart usually shows is what she was told, when, and what was done about a condition the unit had already identified.
What a claim can include
Home and vehicle modification
Ramps, lifts, bathrooms, doorways and an adapted vehicle, each of which is replaced on a schedule rather than bought once.
The child’s lost earning capacity
An entire working life that will not happen, calculated by an economist rather than estimated. It is one of the largest single figures in the claim and it is routinely left out of an early offer.
What the family carries
The care a parent gives that would otherwise be paid for, the work they gave up to give it, and the effect on the household. A mother injured during the delivery also has her own claim in her own right.
Why Wolf & Pravato in West Palm Beach
A Palm Beach County claim outside the plan is filed in the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in West Palm Beach, and the firm’s office on Vista Parkway is in the county. These claims require records from more than one institution and a physician review paid for well before anything is filed.
Board Certification in Civil Trial law is the Bar’s own measure of trial experience, and 861 of Florida’s 109,000-plus lawyers hold it. Richard Pravato has held it since 2004. It is the credential that changes how an adjuster reads a file, because it says the case has somewhere to go if they will not pay it.
Asking costs nothing and there is no fee unless we win. If we look at what happened and think the claim is not worth pursuing, we will say so on the first call instead of signing you up.
West Palm Beach birth injury questions
My child is still young. Can I wait and see how they develop before deciding?
That is the most common reason a valid birth injury claim is lost. Florida limits medical negligence claims to two years from when the injury was or should have been discovered, with an outer limit of four years, and the extension available for children is narrower than most parents assume. Having the records reviewed does not commit you to anything, and it preserves the option.
I was told I had preeclampsia. Does that help or hurt?
It usually helps, because it means the unit already knew what it was managing. A condition identified in prenatal care changes what should have been monitored, what the plan for delivery should have been, and what should have happened when things changed during labor. What the insurer will do is use the diagnosis to argue the outcome was inevitable, and the prenatal record is what answers that.
I was badly hurt during the delivery as well.
Then you have a claim in your own right, and it is one that gets left out of these cases constantly. Hemorrhage, uterine rupture, severe tearing and injuries during a caesarean are their own harms with their own consequences, and they are documented in your records rather than in the baby’s. It is worth raising at the first conversation rather than after the fact.
Is cerebral palsy always a birth injury?
No, and it is important to say so plainly. Cerebral palsy has many causes, a number of which have nothing to do with the care delivered. Establishing that a particular injury was caused by a departure from the standard of care requires the records and a qualified expert, not an assumption.
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.
The questions that come up on every kind of claim, deadlines, fees, recorded statements and fault, are answered on our Florida injury claim FAQ.
More in West Palm Beach
West Palm Beach Personal Injury Lawyer
Everything we handle in Palm Beach County, and where our office is.
View →West Palm Beach Bicycle Accident Lawyer
Florida bicycle accident lawyers.
View →West Palm Beach Bus Accident Lawyer
Florida bus accident lawyers.
View →West Palm Beach Construction Accident Lawyer
Florida construction accident lawyers.
View →
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 Vista Parkway, Suite 4500, West Palm Beach, FL 33411.