If your child was injured at birth, the records will say why.
Cerebral palsy, HIE, Erb's palsy, a delivery that went wrong — attorney Peter Anderson reviews Maryland birth injury cases personally, for free. And because Maryland pauses the clock for injured children, it is probably not too late to ask.
- Free case review
- Confidential
- No fee unless we win
- Peter reads every inquiry himself
Your child's claim is probably still alive — even years after delivery.
Most malpractice deadlines are brutally short. Birth injury claims are the exception: for a child injured at birth, Maryland's medical malpractice clock generally does not begin to run until the child's eleventh birthday. Families are routinely told — or assume — that a three-year-old's case is long dead when it is nothing of the sort.
The exceptions cut both ways, and waiting has real costs: records get purged, witnesses scatter, and the deadline analysis itself takes time. If you have ever wondered whether your child's delivery was handled properly, the free review answers the deadline question first.
Birth injuries Peter reviews.
Cerebral palsy
When oxygen deprivation or trauma during labor and delivery contributes to a cerebral palsy diagnosis, the delivery records often hold the answer to whether it was preventable.
HIE (hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy)
Fetal monitoring exists to catch oxygen distress in time to act. An HIE diagnosis raises the question of whether warning signs on the monitor strips were missed or acted on too slowly.
Erb's palsy & brachial plexus injuries
Nerve injuries to the shoulder and arm frequently trace to excessive traction during a difficult delivery, particularly with shoulder dystocia.
Delayed C-section
When labor stops progressing or the fetal heart rate deteriorates, minutes matter. Many of the most serious birth injuries happen in the gap between when a C-section was called for and when it was performed.
Kernicterus & untreated jaundice
Severe newborn jaundice is treatable. Brain damage from untreated bilirubin is one of the most preventable — and most litigated — newborn injuries.
NICU and medication errors
Dosing errors, missed infections, and monitoring failures in the NICU can compound an already fragile start.
A trial lawyer, not an intake department.
Peter Anderson has spent more than 15 years building and trying medical negligence cases, with more than $15M recovered for patients and families. He is licensed in Maryland, D.C., and Virginia, and reads every inquiry himself — the person evaluating your child's records is the person who would stand up in court.
Birth injury cases are records cases: fetal monitor strips, delivery notes, timing entries, NICU charts. Maryland requires a Certificate of Qualified Expert before a malpractice claim can proceed, so every serious review involves physicians in the right specialty — retained and paid by the firm, never by you.
Delivered at a military or federal facility? Those births fall under the Federal Tort Claims Act — a system with its own deadlines and procedures that most injury firms decline. Peter handles FTCA cases nationwide.
Maryland birth injury cases: common questions
How long do I have to file a birth injury lawsuit in Maryland?
- Longer than most malpractice claims, but the analysis is technical. Maryland generally allows five years from the injury or three years from discovery — whichever is earlier — but for a child injured at birth, the clock generally does not begin to run until the child's eleventh birthday. That means many families who assume they waited too long still have a live claim. The rules have exceptions in both directions, so the only safe answer is to have your specific dates reviewed — the review is free.
Do I have a birth injury case?
- A difficult birth or a serious diagnosis is not by itself malpractice. A case generally requires showing that the providers deviated from the accepted standard of care — in fetal monitoring, in the timing of an intervention, in how a complication was managed — and that the deviation caused the injury. That determination lives in the medical records: the monitor strips, the delivery notes, the timing entries. You don't need to make that judgment yourself; describing what happened is enough to start a records-level review.
What is a birth injury case worth?
- These are among the largest cases in medical malpractice because damages are measured over a lifetime: future medical care, therapy, adaptive equipment, lost earning capacity, and the extraordinary costs of raising a child with a permanent injury. A life-care plan built by experts, not a guess, sets the number. Maryland caps non-economic damages, but economic damages — the lifetime care costs that dominate these cases — are not capped.
What does it cost to hire a birth injury lawyer?
- Nothing up front, and nothing ever unless the case recovers money. Birth injury cases are handled on contingency, and the firm advances the case costs — including the medical expert review Maryland requires (a Certificate of Qualified Expert) before a malpractice claim can proceed.
My child was born at a military or federal hospital. Is that different?
- Yes — and it is a difference many firms won't touch. Births at federal facilities, such as military treatment facilities in Maryland, fall under the Federal Tort Claims Act rather than state court: an administrative claim must be presented first, deadlines run differently, and the case is tried to a judge. Peter handles FTCA cases nationwide and has resolved several into seven figures.
Tell Peter what happened.
A few sentences in your own words is enough to start. Usually answered within one business day.