For Referring Attorneys and For Families: Two Paths, One Mission
If you are a referring attorney: You have a birth injury case that demands trial capability, medical expert coordination, and the willingness to go to verdict against a hospital system or insurer that will not settle fairly. We are the co-counsel partner built for exactly that. We protect your client relationship, advance case expenses, and try these cases when settlement mills walk away.
If you are a family: Your child was injured during labor or delivery because someone responsible for that birth failed to do their job. You deserve an attorney who will investigate every detail, fight every lowball offer, and take your case to trial if that is what justice requires. No fee unless we win. Schedule a free consultation below.
Birth Injury Lawyers for Medical Negligence During Labor and Delivery
The birth of a child should be the beginning of everything. Instead, you are sitting with a diagnosis, a stack of medical bills, and a future that looks nothing like what you planned. Your child's injury was not random. It was the result of someone who had a duty of care and failed to meet it.
Birth injuries caused by medical negligence during labor and delivery are among the most devastating outcomes in personal injury law. They are also among the most legally complex. The injuries are severe. The defendants are well-funded. The insurance companies are aggressive. And the damages extend across a lifetime.
At The Law Offices of Haytham Faraj, we take birth injury cases because we are built to fight them. We have the trial experience, the expert witness network, and the financial resources to develop these cases fully and take them to verdict when insurers refuse to offer fair value. We serve families in Los Angeles, Chicago, and throughout California and Illinois.
What Is a Birth Injury — and Why It Matters Legally
A birth injury is harm sustained by an infant during labor, delivery, or the immediate postnatal period as a result of medical negligence or improper care. This is a critical legal distinction.
Birth defects are congenital — they develop during pregnancy and are typically genetic in origin. They are not actionable. Birth injuries are different. They happen to otherwise healthy babies when the medical team responsible for delivery makes errors that fall below the accepted standard of care. Those errors are actionable.
According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, nearly 157,700 injuries to babies and mothers could have been prevented. Five out of every 1,000 babies born in the United States suffer some type of birth injury. These are not unavoidable outcomes. They are the consequences of decisions made — or not made — in the delivery room.
If your child sustained an injury during birth because of what a doctor, nurse, or hospital did or failed to do, you may have a legal claim. The question is whether you have an attorney who knows how to build and try it.
Common Birth Injuries We Handle
Birth injuries range from those that heal with treatment to those that permanently alter a child's life. We handle the full spectrum, with particular focus on catastrophic and life-altering injuries that require sophisticated damages analysis and long-term care planning.
● Oxygen deprivation during delivery leading to brain damage (perinatal asphyxia)● Cerebral palsy — a group of disorders affecting balance, movement, and muscle tone, often caused by oxygen deprivation or trauma during delivery● Erb's palsy or Klumpke's palsy — nerve damage in the neck and shoulder area affecting arm function● Spinal cord injuries● Facial nerve injuries● Fetal stroke● Skull fractures● Bleeding under the bones of the skull● Broken or fractured limbs● Collarbone or clavicle fracture● Bruising or swelling of the head● Seizures
What Causes Birth Injuries: The Negligence Behind the Harm
Most birth injuries are preventable. They happen when the medical team makes decisions — or fails to make them — that a competent provider would not. Common causes include:
1- Attempting a vaginal delivery for a baby too large for the mother's pelvis without appropriate intervention
2- Failure to recognize or respond to abnormal fetal positioning — feet first, face first, or shoulder first presentations
3- Improper use of forceps or vacuum extractors during a difficult delivery, which significantly increases the risk of cerebral palsy and nerve injuries
4- Failure to perform a timely Cesarean section when clinical indicators made one necessary
5- Premature delivery mismanagement — failure to account for the increased fragility of infants born before 37 weeks
6- Improper use of labor-inducing drugs such as misoprostol or oxytocin without appropriate monitoring
7- Failure to diagnose medical conditions in the mother or baby prior to or during delivery
8- Failure to detect fetal distress — including fetal tachycardia and other warning signs — during labor or delivery monitoring
How We Handle a Birth Injury Case
When you contact us about a birth injury, we do not start with disclaimers. We start with your story. Here is what happens from that point forward.
Step 1: Case Investigation We obtain your medical records from pregnancy through delivery and postnatal care. We identify every decision that was made — and every one that was not. We look for witnesses, documentation gaps, and evidence that must be preserved before it disappears. Spoliation letters go out immediately to prevent the destruction of critical records.
Step 2: Expert Medical Review We work with independent medical experts — obstetricians, neonatologists, neurologists, and others depending on the injury — who review the specifics of your case and render opinions on whether the standard of care was met. Their analysis determines whether the case is viable and shapes the liability theory.
Step 3: Damages Calculation and Demand For catastrophic birth injuries, calculating damages is not a simple exercise. We work with life care planners to project lifetime medical costs, with economists to calculate lost earning capacity, and with medical specialists to establish permanency and causation. Once the full picture of damages is documented, we make a comprehensive demand to the responsible parties and their insurers.
Step 4: Lawsuit Filing and Discovery Insurance companies defending hospitals and physicians are not passive. If they do not offer fair value, we file. Discovery gives us access to internal records, communications, and personnel files that often reveal systemic failures beyond the individual incident.
Step 5: Trial We go to trial. This is not a threat — it is our practice. Attorney Haytham Faraj has tried more than 80 jury and bench trials across military, federal, and state courts. Insurance companies know that a low offer will not settle this case. That credibility is what drives fair outcomes, whether at the negotiating table or in front of a jury.
What Compensation Is Available in a Birth Injury Case
Birth injury claims involve significant compensation amounts because the harm is significant. When a child sustains a permanent disability at birth, the damages extend across decades. The compensation we pursue includes:
Economic Damages:● All past and future medical expenses related to the birth injury, including emergency care, hospitalization, surgeries, medications, rehabilitation, and ongoing treatment● Costs of specialized care made necessary by the injury● Home modification costs — ramps, hospital beds, accessibility equipment● Lost income for parents who cannot work while providing care● Lifetime lost earning capacity for the child, calculated through retirement age
Non-Economic Damages:● Shortened life expectancy or loss of quality of life● Physical pain and emotional suffering● Loss of enjoyment of life● Emotional trauma experienced by the family
In cases involving gross negligence or egregious conduct, punitive damages may also be available to hold the responsible parties accountable beyond the immediate harm.These are not small cases. They require attorneys with the resources to advance six-figure case expenses, the expert network to document lifetime damages, and the trial record to make insurers take the demand seriously. That is the standard we operate at.
For Referring Attorneys: Co-Counsel on Birth Injury Cases
Birth injury cases are among the most resource-intensive and legally complex in personal injury law. If you have a client whose child was injured during delivery and the case exceeds your firm's trial capacity or medical malpractice expertise, we are built to be your co-counsel partner.
What we bring to the co-counsel relationship:● Full case development from investigation through trial, with regular updates to you● Advancement of all case expenses — expert witnesses, depositions, medical records, life care planning● A medical expert network built specifically for birth injury and catastrophic injury litigation● 80+ jury and bench trials across state, federal, and military courts● Transparent referral fee arrangements paid promptly and ethically per bar rules● Your client relationship protected — we never contact your client without your knowledge
Your reputation is on the line when you refer a case. We treat that seriously.
Need a Consultation? We Are Here to Help You!
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