Personal Injury

Birth Injury Lawyers in Atlantic Canada

A bicycle parked inside the firm's Moncton office

Every family asks a birth injury lawyer the same question. Was the child’s condition caused by something that happened during the delivery, or by a cause no care could have changed? Most difficult births are managed properly. Some are not: fetal monitoring showing distress that nobody escalated, a caesarean ordered too late, excessive traction on a shoulder, a resuscitation that was delayed. The firm investigates the labour record minute by minute with obstetric experts before any claim is pleaded, because the record either shows the failure or it does not.

The Injuries These Claims Are About

Oxygen deprivation during labour can cause hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and cerebral palsy. A shoulder caught during delivery can stretch or tear the brachial plexus nerves, leaving Erb’s palsy. Delay in treating newborn jaundice or infection can injure the brain. Each has natural causes too, which is why causation is the contested ground in nearly every one of these cases, and why the fetal monitoring strips, the labour chart and the cord gases matter more than any account after the fact.

The Claim Belongs to the Child, and Time Works Differently for a Child

In all four Atlantic provinces the ordinary limitation period is two years, but a claim belonging to a child is generally postponed while the child is a minor. The parents’ own claims, for their losses, run on the ordinary clock. The practical rule is not to wait: the monitoring strips and the memories of the delivery room are best obtained early, and the child’s needs start immediately. The provincial pages below carry each statute.

The Lifetime Cost of Care Is the Centre of the Claim

A child with cerebral palsy may need therapy, equipment, attendant care, home modification and educational support for life, and may never earn an income. The claim is built by care experts, therapists and economists who cost that future in full. It also includes the parents’ losses and the value of the care they provide themselves. No figure is quoted on a page like this one, because the number is the child’s actual future, costed item by item. The related work of proving a lasting brain injury is described at brain injury lawyers.

The Investigation Comes Before the Pleading

The complete maternal and newborn charts, the fetal monitoring strips and the cord blood results are requested first. Obstetric, neonatal and often neuroradiology experts review them. If the experts conclude the delivery was managed reasonably, the family is told plainly and owes nothing. If the opinions support the claim, it is pleaded on them. These cases run against the Canadian Medical Protective Association and hospital insurers, and are defended hard. Nothing about the outcome is promised at any stage.

Each Province Has Its Own Birth Injury Page

The general law of claims against physicians and hospitals is on the medical malpractice page. Every Atlantic province gives two years, but they do not all start the clock the same way. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador write discoverability into their statutes; New Brunswick’s is the Limitation of Actions Act, SNB 2009, c L-8.5. Prince Edward Island’s Statute of Limitations, RSPEI 1988, c S-7 does not, so an Island claim is treated as running from the delivery.

We Were Told It Was Just a Difficult Birth.

Sometimes that is true. The monitoring strips and the chart answer it, and you are entitled to them. An expert review tells you whether the explanation holds.

What a Birth Injury Lawyer Charges

No fee unless the claim resolves. The firm carries the cost of the records and the experts while the claim runs, and the first review of your child’s records costs nothing to start. Contact the firm, and the records requests go out first.