Your Child Was Diagnosed With Cerebral Palsy. Now What?

When parents come to our firm and schedule on appointment, they’ve gotten to us by a couple of different ways. They’ve been referred by a lawyer who they know and trust, or they found out about us and our firm through our reputation in the legal community, or maybe they’ve read about some of the results that we’ve had on behalf of families of children with CP. When they get to us, they are often in the very early stages of coming to terms, and understanding how to deal with a child who has CP. If we can determine for them that their child’s injury, the brain injury that has led to the motor dysfunction, the gross motor dysfunction, the fine motor dysfunction, the oral dysfunction, the cognitive development issues and delays, and the seizures.

If we can connect that for them, the child’s condition, the brain injury, with errors, decisions, choices, negligence, during the labor and delivery process, then we’re able to take on those cases and move forward with them against the doctors, the midwives, hospitals, labor and delivery teams, to try to recover a care plan for this child. Enough money. Not be enough to equal what the child will go through in their life, but enough to take care of the child, to hopefully bring the child the very highest level of care that exists in medicine. Those are the kinds of cases that we are able to go forward on. That’s the kind of result that we hope for, and strive for, and get for families.

When parents come to us, even once we put those pieces together, “Okay, we know our child has CP. Okay, you’re telling us that it’s connected to choices and mistakes that occurred during labor and delivery. What do we do now?” Here’s what I tell a new parent struggling with all of those things. I tell them that, “You’ve come to the right place. This is what we do. We fight for justice and recovery for families and children, where the child has suffered a brain injury during labor and delivery.” I tell them essentially, “Leave the work to us. There will be very little required of you as a family member, as a parent of a child with CP. Once we are signed on to represent you, the heavy lifting is done by us.” That’s what lawyers do in general. We stand between the client and the problem.

We have been doing this long enough, and we’ve developed enough of an expertise to know how to chart this course. We will keep you informed all the way through. You will have questions, and we will be able to answer them, usually. Most of the work, 90% of it will be done by us. There will be a role for the parents and family and friends in litigation. We will need to prepare you for being asked questions by the defense about what happened during mom’s prenatal period, what happened during mom’s pregnancy. Were there complications? What happened during mom’s office visits? What happened during labor and delivery? Anyone with information about those things will give sworn testimony. We’ll prepare you for that. We’ll learn everything that you remember. We’ll help you focus on that period of time in your life.

Often I have clients tell me that, “I’m now remembering the details because I haven’t focused on this in a long time.” We’ll prepare you for all of that. We will hold your hand through the litigation, and let you know, and prepare you for everything we will call on you to do, or everything the litigation process calls on you to do. What else? what else do you do? Mostly, you take care of your child. You will be doing that long before you get to us. What we’ve found is, because of our expertise in this field, because of the experts that we involved in areas of child development, children with cerebral palsy, we work with heads of departments at Scottish Rite and Children’s Hospital, we work with life care planners.

We work with pediatric neurologists who are the best in the country, and who can bring their expertise not only to the litigation and the case that we’re prosecuting, but to the family. The most important thing, once we’ve been signed on to represent you and your family, is for you to take care of your child. You’re going to find that you have more resources to do that, because of being involved with the experts that we employ. Lastly, what do you do? You get on with your life. Not just your child, but you get on with your life. You have your hands full with a child with developmental delays and with CP. There will be sleepless nights, and emergency room visits, and lots of fear and uncertainty. Let us handle the heavy lifting. This is what we know how to do.

You continue to live your life on happiness and joy and peace. This will be a long road, and we will walk it with you, but it is a long long road from start to finish, to prosecute a lawsuit for birth injury. That is my answer when parents ask us what can we do. That’s what I tell them. I hope that helps.