A Parent’s Guide to Filing a Birth Injury Claim in Pennsylvania

August 20, 2025

If your child was injured during birth in Pennsylvania, you have the right to seek compensation, but strict legal rules apply.

To bring a claim, you must show that a doctor, nurse, or hospital made a preventable mistake that directly caused your child’s injury.

The law sets firm deadlines: most families must file a claim before the child turns 20. Pennsylvania also requires you to provide a special document called a “Certificate of Merit,” signed by a medical expert, within 60 days of starting your case. This shows that a qualified doctor believes a mistake was likely made.

Don’t ignore your gut feeling. If you think your child’s injury was caused by a medical error, you deserve to get answers. Call Wapner Newman at (215) 569-0900 for a free consultation. We are here to help you understand your rights and next steps.

The Difference Between a Complication and Negligence

Not every injury that occurs during childbirth is the result of a mistake. Some births involve complications that even the most skilled medical team cannot prevent. And even with the highest standard of care, mistakes still happen, but that doesn’t mean you can automatically sue them because of it.

The core of a successful birth injury claim rests on proving what the law calls “medical malpractice.”

This means showing two things:

A Deviation from the Standard of Care: We must demonstrate that the doctor, nurse, or hospital failed to act as a reasonably prudent healthcare provider would have under similar circumstances.
Causation: We must then prove that this failure, or deviation from the standard of care, was a direct cause of your child’s injury.

Determining if this standard was breached requires a deep investigation into the events of the labor and delivery. Our firm works with medical professionals to scrutinize every detail. Some of the situations we investigate include:

Delayed C-Section: A failure to perform a timely cesarean section in the face of fetal distress can lead to oxygen deprivation and permanent brain injury.
Mismanagement of Fetal Distress: Fetal monitoring strips provide a second-by-second account of a baby’s well-being. Ignoring or misinterpreting signs of distress, like a concerning heart rate pattern, is a common factor in birth injury cases.
Improper Use of Forceps or Vacuum: When used incorrectly, these delivery-assisting tools can exert too much force on a baby’s head and neck, leading to skull fractures, brain bleeds, or nerve damage like Erb’s Palsy.
Oxygen Deprivation (Hypoxia): Many of the most severe birth injuries, such as Cerebral Palsy, are caused by a lack of oxygen to the brain. This can result from umbilical cord compression, placental abruption, or other errors in managing the delivery.
Communication Breakdowns: A hospital delivery room is a team environment. When doctors, nurses, and technicians fail to communicate effectively, information can be missed.

You Don’t Have to Prove It Alone: Our Investigation Process

The thought of proving medical negligence might feel impossible for parents already coping with a child’s diagnosis. That is not your burden to carry. It is ours.

The first thing we do is listen. We need to hear your story, in your own words. Your recollections of the pregnancy, the labor, and the moments after delivery provide the narrative framework. The medical records provide the technical script, and we need both to see the full picture.

Gathering the Records

After you hire us, we immediately move to obtain and meticulously review every page of the relevant medical records. This includes your prenatal charts, all labor and delivery notes, the electronic fetal monitoring strips, and your child’s pediatric and specialist records. We are looking for inconsistencies, deviations from established protocols, and the specific moments where a different action could have led to a different outcome.

Consulting Medical Professionals

The next step is a formal legal requirement in Pennsylvania known as the Certificate of Merit.

What this is: Under Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 1042.3, a birth injury lawsuit cannot proceed without a formal statement from a qualified medical professional. This professional must review the records and confirm that there is a reasonable probability that the care provided fell below the accepted standard of care and caused the injury.
Our Role: We maintain a network of trusted, board-certified medical professionals in obstetrics, neonatology, and other relevant fields. We handle the entire process of finding the right professional to review your case and provide this necessary certification.
The 60-Day Deadline: This certificate must be filed within 60 days of filing the initial legal complaint. This deadline is one that our legal team manages as a core part of our strategy. It is not something you need to worry about.

What Does a Claim Actually Cover?

The goal of a birth injury claim is to provide for a lifetime of care. These cases typically result in some of the highest settlements and verdicts in personal injury law precisely because the financial needs are so immense and long-lasting.

We build a case designed to account for every current and future need your child may have. This is a comprehensive plan for their life, and it includes compensation for:

Medical Care: This covers everything from initial surgeries and hospitalizations to ongoing doctor visits and prescription medications for conditions like seizures or spasticity.
Long-Term Therapies: Many children with birth injuries require years of physical, occupational, and speech therapy to maximize their potential.
Mobility Aids & Assistive Technology: This can include wheelchairs, walkers, braces, and specialized computer systems that help with communication and learning.
Home Modifications: To ensure safety and accessibility, your home may need modifications like ramps, widened doorways, and accessible bathrooms.
In-Home Nursing Care: For children with the most severe injuries, round-the-clock skilled nursing care may be necessary, a cost that can quickly deplete a family’s resources.
Lost Earning Capacity: The injury may impact your child’s ability to hold a job and earn a living as an adult. A claim seeks to compensate for this future lost income.
Pain and Suffering: This acknowledges the profound physical pain, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life that your child and your family have endured.

The Clock Starts Ticking: Why Time is a Factor

One of the most pressing realities in any legal claim is the deadlines. We touched on one earlier, but there is another known as the statute of limitations. This is the law that sets a firm deadline for filing a lawsuit. If you miss this window, your right to seek justice can be lost, no matter how strong your case is.

For most medical malpractice claims involving adults in Pennsylvania, the deadline is two years from the date the injury occurred or was discovered. However, the law acknowledges that a child cannot file a lawsuit for themselves.

For Your Child (The Tolling Provision)

Pennsylvania law pauses, or “tolls,” the two-year clock for a minor until they turn 18. This means a birth injury claim must be filed on behalf of your child before their 20th birthday. This extension provides time to understand the full extent of an injury and its long-term consequences.

The Discovery Rule: When You Couldn’t Have Known

Sometimes, the signs of a birth injury are not immediately obvious. A developmental delay or a seizure disorder may not manifest for months or even years. The discovery rule can adjust the timeline in these situations. This rule states that the two-year clock begins not on the date of the medical error, but from the moment the injury was, or reasonably should have been, discovered.

An Absolute Deadline (The Statute of Repose)

Previously, Pennsylvania had a seven-year “statute of repose,” which could bar a claim more than seven years after the negligent act, regardless of discovery. However, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down this statute as unconstitutional, removing that absolute seven-year cap on when a claim can be filed.

Concerns We Hear from Families Like Yours

Considering legal action raises many valid questions and concerns. Here are some of the most common ones we hear from parents in your situation.

“Will I have to face the doctor in court?”

Most birth injury cases are resolved through settlement negotiations long before a trial becomes necessary. Our objective is to build a case so thoroughly documented and supported by medical opinion that the hospital and its insurance provider are compelled to negotiate a fair settlement. While we prepare every case as if it will go to trial, our goal is to secure your child’s future without the added stress of a courtroom battle.

“What if suing affects my child’s medical care?”

It is illegal and a serious ethical violation for any healthcare provider to refuse or change the quality of care they provide in retaliation for a lawsuit. Your child has a right to medical treatment regardless of any legal action. If you feel uncomfortable continuing with the same providers, we can assist you in finding new, trusted medical professionals to take over your child’s care.

“We don’t have money for a lawyer.”

Wapner Newman handles all birth injury cases on a contingency fee basis. This means you pay absolutely no fees unless and until we secure a financial recovery for you. We advance all the costs required to build your case, from obtaining medical records to paying for the necessary medical professional reviews. You will never receive a bill from us.

“How do you prove the injury happened at birth and not due to something else?”

This is one of the central challenges in a birth injury claim. The defense will often argue that the injury was caused by a genetic condition or an issue that arose before labor began. We counter this by working with top-tier medical professionals who are skilled at analyzing fetal monitoring strips, blood gas levels, and other medical data to pinpoint the exact timing and cause of an injury. They help us distinguish between a congenital condition and an injury caused by a preventable error during the delivery process.

“My child was born premature. Does that affect a potential claim?”

It can add a layer of complexity, but it does not prevent a claim. Prematurity, which affected about 9.7% of births in Pennsylvania in recent years, comes with its own set of known risks. The standard of care requires doctors to anticipate and manage those risks appropriately. A claim can arise if a doctor’s negligence caused the premature birth itself, or if they failed to provide the specialized care required for a premature infant, leading to injury.

“What if the hospital is a government-run or military facility?”

Claims against government-owned facilities, such as a state university hospital or a military medical center, fall under different rules, most notably the Federal Tort Claims Act for military hospitals. These cases often have much shorter and stricter deadlines, sometimes requiring that you provide formal notice of your claim within just six months of the injury. It is incredibly important to contact a law firm immediately if a government entity was involved in your child’s birth.

Let Us Shoulder the Burden, So You Can Focus on Your Child

Your energy is a precious resource, and it is best spent on your child’s care and your family’s emotional healing. Let our firm handle the complexities of the legal process—the deadlines, the paperwork, the investigation, and the negotiations.

Call the team at Wapner Newman today at (215) 569-0900 for a confidential and compassionate conversation about your options. There is no cost and no obligation, only information.