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Florida birth injury
lawyers.
If a hospital told you “these things just happen” — read this page first. We prove birth injuries with fetal-monitoring strips, cord gases, and the decision-to-incision timeline. Not adjectives.
The hospital said nothing was wrong. Tick what’s actually in the chart.
Each item below is a documented finding that signals a perinatal injury — the kind a board-certified physician reviewer is trained to look for. You do not need to interpret. Just check.
A Florida birth injury case, defined.
A birth-injury malpractice case is a § 766.102 claim that a labor-and-delivery team — obstetrician, nurse-midwife, anesthesiologist, hospital nursing staff — failed to meet the prevailing professional standard of care, and that failure caused permanent injury to the infant or mother during labor, delivery, or the immediate post-delivery period.
The most common diagnoses we litigate: hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), cerebral palsy caused by intrapartum hypoxia, brachial plexus injuries (Erb’s palsy, Klumpke’s palsy) from shoulder dystocia, intracranial hemorrhage from instrumented delivery, kernicterus from missed neonatal jaundice, and maternal injury or death from preeclampsia, hemorrhage, or anesthesia error.
A bad outcome alone is not malpractice. The four elements — duty, breach, causation, damages — apply here exactly as they do in any other Florida malpractice case. The difference is the medicine. Birth-injury medicine is its own discipline.
NICA — and when it does not apply.
Florida’s Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Association is a no-fault administrative program. If your child qualifies for NICA, you generally cannot also sue in civil court. So the first question on every Florida birth-injury case is: does NICA apply?
We know “NICA” was probably the first scary acronym someone used to tell you no. It is not a wall — it is a checklist with very specific holes. Here are the holes.
- 01Live infant, weight ≥ 2,500 g at birth (≥ 2,000 g for multiples)
- 02Delivered in a Florida hospital by a NICA-participating physician
- 03Substantial mental AND physical impairment
- 04Injury caused by oxygen deprivation or mechanical injury during labor, delivery, or immediate post-delivery
- 01Genetic or congenital abnormality (not caused by labor)
- 02Stillbirth or neonatal death without permanent impairment
- 03Doctor was not a NICA-participating physician (check the registry)
- 04Injury occurred before labor began (prenatal) or after the infant left the delivery room
- 05Maternal injury or maternal death — NICA only covers the infant
- 06Brachial plexus / Erb’s palsy alone (not “substantial” enough on its own)
A one-time $250,000 award + lifetime medically-necessary care + $10,000 funeral benefit if the child dies. No pain & suffering. No punitive damages. No civil lawsuit.
Civil malpractice verdicts in severe, well-documented HIE cases can reach $8M–$25M+ in lifetime care alone, plus non-economic damages. The first thing we do on every Florida birth-injury call is run your facts through this checklist — so you don’t accidentally give up a civil lawsuit you’re still allowed to file.
We run your case through this checklist on the first call — before you file anything with NICA — so you don’t accidentally surrender a civil lawsuit you’re still allowed to pursue.
The medical evidence,
line by line.
“We handle birth injuries” is a claim. These are the actual records and findings that translate a parent’s intuition into a § 766.203 affidavit. Read the row that matches your situation.
If you’re staring at a chart and don’t speak this language, that’s normal. It’s our job to translate your baby’s records into answers.
A paper printout of your baby’s heart rate during labor. If it dropped repeatedly and stayed worrying, the team should have moved you to a C-section.
A blood sample taken from the umbilical cord at birth. Two specific numbers tell us whether your baby was starved of oxygen during delivery.
From the moment the doctor said “we need a C-section now” to the moment they actually started cutting. National standard is 30 minutes. We can prove it minute-by-minute.
A 0–10 score given at 1 and 5 minutes after birth. Persistently low scores plus aggressive resuscitation (chest compressions, breathing tube) means your baby was in serious trouble at delivery.
A brain scan in the first two weeks of life. The pattern of injury tells radiologists exactly when the damage happened — including whether it happened during birth.
If the NICU put your baby on a cooling blanket or cooling cap, the hospital itself documented that the brain injury happened during birth. They cannot now claim otherwise.
We obtain every record above under HIPAA on the day you sign the engagement letter. Evidence disappears faster than the deadline. EFM strips, in particular, are routinely lost or “unavailable” the longer you wait.
Pull my records →Why other firms told you “no.”
If two or three personal-injury firms turned you away, you likely concluded you don’t have a case. That conclusion is usually wrong. Here are the five real reasons general PI firms decline Florida birth-injury work — none of which mean your child was not injured by negligence.
Being told “no” three times in a row when your child is hurt is its own kind of trauma. It is also misleading. The reasons below are about firms — not about you, and not about your baby.
We accept roughly 1 in 10 birth-injury inquiries — and obtain a recovery on roughly 9 of 10 we accept. We front the full expert cost. We pull the affidavit before we file. The medicine has to hold up before the law is invoked.
Five sentences hospitals say.
None survive cross-examination.
If you’ve had this conversation with the hospital, you’ve heard at least one of these. They are designed to end the conversation, not to be defended in front of a Florida jury.
The lifetime care math they don’t
want you to do.
Florida’s $750K cap applies only to non-economic damages — pain and suffering. Economic damages are uncapped. A representative life-care plan for severe HIE / cerebral palsy with a 50-year horizon:
Figures are representative of accepted Florida birth-injury cases involving severe HIE or cerebral palsy with full-time care needs and a 50-year life expectancy. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome and individual case values vary.
Florida deadlines for a child’s
birth-injury claim.
Florida § 95.11 carves out a special extension for minors. A child’s own claim can survive longer than an adult’s — but the parents’ derivative claim runs on the standard malpractice clock. Evidence disappears faster than the deadline does. EFM strips, audit logs, and witness memory degrade within months.
The 72-hour action plan.
Whether or not you call us, do these five things in the next three days. They preserve evidence, prevent the hospital from controlling the narrative, and put you in a position to make a real decision later.
Free 15 minutes. Confidential. Bilingual.
We’ll listen, ask the medical questions only an MD reviewer would, and tell you whether the records are worth pulling. If they are, we pull them at our cost. If they’re not, we tell you why and route you to the right kind of help.
Questions parents actually ask.
01Does Florida’s NICA program prevent me from suing for my child’s birth injury?+
Not necessarily. NICA only applies if the child meets every one of its strict criteria: live birth, minimum weight, NICA-participating physician, hospital delivery, AND substantial mental and physical impairment caused by oxygen deprivation or mechanical injury at birth. If any element is missing — for example, the doctor wasn’t in NICA, or the impairment is purely physical (like brachial-plexus injury alone), or the injury was prenatal — the family retains the right to a civil malpractice suit. We run the NICA analysis on the first call.
02What is the deadline to file a Florida birth injury lawsuit?+
The parents’ own claim runs on the standard two-year malpractice SOL from incident or reasonable discovery, with a four-year statute of repose. The child’s own claim for their injuries can be brought up to the child’s 8th birthday under § 95.11(4)(b), provided the injury was not reasonably discoverable earlier. Sovereign-immunity claims against public hospitals require notice within three years. The deadline is not your only enemy — evidence (especially fetal-monitoring strips) disappears far faster than the statute runs.
03What evidence proves a birth injury was caused by malpractice and not natural causes?+
The strongest combination is: (1) a Category II or III electronic fetal-monitoring tracing for 30+ minutes before delivery, (2) umbilical cord blood gases with arterial pH < 7.0 and base deficit ≥ 12, (3) Apgar scores of 0–3 at 5 minutes, (4) initiation of therapeutic hypothermia (head cooling), and (5) a neonatal MRI within 10 days showing a perinatal pattern of injury. Together these establish acute intrapartum hypoxic-ischemic injury and rule out genetic and congenital causes.
04What is therapeutic hypothermia and why does it matter for my case?+
Therapeutic hypothermia (head cooling or whole-body cooling) is a NICU treatment for newborns with moderate-to-severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. To start cooling, the baby must meet formal eligibility criteria — including evidence of a perinatal hypoxic event. If your baby was placed on a cooling protocol, the hospital itself documented that the injury occurred during birth. That eligibility checklist is one of the most powerful pieces of evidence in any HIE case.
05How much does a Florida birth injury lawsuit cost?+
Nothing upfront. We work on contingency: 33⅓% before lawsuit filing, 40% after. We front every dollar of expert witness fees ($75,000–$250,000+ on a complex case), depositions, court reporters, MRI re-reads, and life-care planners. If we don’t recover, you owe us zero.
06What can a Florida birth injury settlement cover?+
Two categories: (a) economic damages — uncapped — including 24/7 skilled nursing, lifetime therapies, adaptive equipment, home modifications, future medical care, lost earning capacity, and the parent caregiver’s own lost wages; and (b) non-economic damages — capped at $750,000 per claimant under Florida’s 2025 statute, except for catastrophic-injury carve-outs that often apply in birth cases. Lifetime care for severe, well-documented HIE or cerebral palsy cases can reach $8M–$25M+, depending on severity and life expectancy.
07Why did three other firms turn down my birth injury case?+
Three reasons, usually. First, expert costs: a complete birth-injury workup runs $75K–$250K, and most PI firms can’t front it. Second, timeline: presuit + discovery + mediation runs two to four years before any fee comes in. Third, presuit complexity: Florida’s § 766.203 affidavit requirement weeds out firms without a deep specialist bench. Rejection from a general PI firm is not the same as your case being weak. We accept roughly 1 in 10 inquiries — and win roughly 9 of 10 we accept.
08Is “the cord was around the neck” a real defense?+
Almost never. Nuchal cords occur in approximately 25% of normal deliveries and the vast majority cause no injury whatsoever. A nuchal cord identified on the strip imposes a heightened duty to monitor, not a license to delay delivery. Defense counsel raise it because it sounds dramatic to a jury — not because the medicine supports it.
09Can I sue for shoulder dystocia and brachial plexus / Erb’s palsy?+
Yes — but the analysis is different from HIE. Brachial plexus injuries result from excessive lateral traction during the maneuvers used to resolve shoulder dystocia. The standard of care includes recognizing risk factors (gestational diabetes, suspected macrosomia, prior shoulder dystocia), having a clear maneuver protocol (McRoberts, suprapubic pressure, Wood’s screw, Rubin’s, delivery of posterior arm), and avoiding excessive traction at any step. Brachial-plexus cases generally do not qualify for NICA on their own.
10What if my child also has a genetic condition?+
A pre-existing genetic condition does not bar a malpractice case. Florida’s “eggshell plaintiff” rule means the defendant takes you as you are — if substandard care during labor caused additional brain injury on top of an underlying condition, that incremental injury is compensable. Neuroimaging and developmental testing distinguish the contributions.