There may be certain scenarios where negligent medical care has resulted in you having a baby that you may not have had. The term wrongful birth is used where babies are born with life-altering injuries or disabilities that could or should have been detected by medical professionals during the pregnancy and parents weren’t informed. This denies parents’ choice to consider whether to continue with the pregnancy or not. If you believe this applies to your situation, you may be able to make what is called a wrongful birth claim.
If you have had a birth you would not have chosen if you were provided with sufficient information in order to make a decision to either continue the pregnancy, or the difficult decision to end the pregnancy, our team can support you in pursuing wrongful birth compensation.
At Ashtons Legal, our wrongful birth solicitors understand how distressing it can be to learn that medical mistakes were made that led to a birth that you may not otherwise have chosen. When people contact us, they are unsure of what steps they can take and where to turn. We, therefore, always approach our work with compassion while also taking the necessary steps to ensure our clients receive the maximum possible compensation.
Often parents worry about how people may react to their child being called a wrongful birth, but in fact, it is simply a legal term where the parent’s choice was taken away from them.
Making a claim for wrongful birth damages won’t put right the mistakes that have already been made, but it can help to improve your quality of life and compensate for any financial losses you have experienced. As well as ensure all of your and your child’s future needs are met.
Our wrongful birth solicitors can offer you:
- A free initial consultation on your claim
- No win, no fee funding
- A negotiation-led approach that means most claims are settled out of court
- Independently accredited expertise you can trust
- A very high track record of successful claims
- A sensitive, personal service to support you during this difficult time
- A free rehabilitation service to aid your child’s or your recovery.
Have a question about wrongful birth claims? Please take a look at our Frequently Asked Questions About Wrongful Birth Claims or get in touch and we will be happy to guide you.
Contact our Wrongful Birth Claims Solicitors
To make a wrongful birth claim, please contact our experienced wrongful birth solicitors. You will be offered a free initial consultation to sensitively discuss the particulars of your case and plan the potential next steps.
You can get in touch by calling 0330 191 4774, emailing enquiries@ashtonslegal.co.uk or filling in the enquiry form on the right-hand side of our contact page.
Ashtons Legal Medical Negligence team
At Ashtons Legal, our medical negligence solicitors have developed substantial experience and expertise in handling a wide range of claims, including those related to wrongful birth claims. As such, we have an excellent success rate and understand the various complexities that often come with these types of cases.
When serving our clients, we avoid legal jargon and ensure that we communicate our procedures in a language you’ll understand. We appreciate that when clients come to us, they are often feeling stressed and quite vulnerable and that what they need is a supportive, empathetic and caring legal team to explain their options in simple terms.
Ashtons Legal is an industry-leading law firm. We are recognised by top client guides the Legal 500 and Chambers and Partners, and also hold many specialist accreditations, including Lexcel, AvMa, Brain Injury Group, APIL, and many more.
Senior members of our team are recognised by the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) as either Senior Fellows or Senior Litigators. They are on the Law Society Clinical Negligence Panel and Sharon Allison, our Head of Medical Negligence, also belongs to the Action Against Medical Accidents (AvMA) Clinical Negligence Panel.
Wrongful Birth Claims Examples
In pregnancy there are multiple opportunities for tests to be carried out that focus on the health of the baby. Commonly there will be scans at around 12 and 20 weeks which form antenatal tests.
There are other tests that are commonly carried out which are designed to pick up the most commonly detected health concerns that a baby may have or may be at risk of developing if the pregnancy continues.
Such tests can show that the baby’s health is concerning and there is a risk to the baby that they may have developing health conditions which could affect them when they are born, such as spina bifida, Edwards Syndrome and Patau’s syndrome and other genetic conditions. Some of these conditions are life-limiting and survival rates are low, yet they should be identified in routine antenatal tests.
How To Make a Wrongful Birth Compensation Claim
Our wrongful birth solicitors at Ashtons Legal will be able to guide you through the entire process of making a wrongful birth compensation claim from start to finish. When instructed, we can take care of everything involved in making a claim, ensuring that you do not need to turn anywhere else for support.
Our wrongful birth claims service includes:
- Assessing your wrongful birth claim
- No win, no fee funding
- Building your wrongful birth medical negligence case, including access to experienced medical experts to support your claim
- Drafting and submitting a Letter of Claim to the defendant
- Mediation processes to reach a settlement
- Representing you in Court if necessary
- Access to our free rehabilitation service for ongoing health support.
To make a wrongful birth claim, get in touch with our solicitors at Ashtons Legal. Below you can find more information about the specific processes involved.
Our Wrongful Birth Claims Compensation Service
Assessing Your Wrongful Birth Claim
When you first contact our medical negligence solicitors for support, we will start by assessing the details of your case and whether you have indeed experienced a wrongful birth. This is by having a discussion with you.
Here, you will have the opportunity to discuss what has happened at your own pace and the impact it has had on your life. We know that these discussions can be daunting, but we are here to support you. We can then carefully assess the potential merits of your claim and what your chances of success are likely to be if we were to proceed.
We will also explain the options available to you for pursuing a claim, including ‘no win, no fee’ agreements.
‘No Win, No Fee’ Wrongful Birth Claims
We provide ‘no win, no fee’ wrongful birth claims. This means that you will only need to contribute to your legal fees if you win your case and are awarded compensation. If your claim is not successful, you will not owe any legal fees, removing the financial risk from making a wrongful birth claim.
Even if you win your case, the majority, if not all, of your legal costs will often be covered by the defendant.
Building Your Wrongful Birth Medical Negligence Case
Our lawyers will build your case by gathering various evidence, which will include the birthing person’s medical records, we will then take a witness statement from you and anyone who is able to give a factual account of what happened. We will then obtain independent medical evidence from a medical expert. This process means that we can get a full picture of what has happened and the impact that this has had on your life, and whether the circumstances constitute a wrongful birth.
Submitting the Letter of Claim
If the evidence overwhelmingly points supports that you should have been given more information to make informed decisions and that a wrongful birth has occurred, we will proceed to draft a Letter of Claim to the defendant (the person or organisation responsible for mistakes that led to the wrongful birth). This will set out in detail the allegations of negligence, with the defendant then having four months to respond.
If the defendant admits to acting negligently, we can then proceed to value your wrongful birth damages and work towards agreeing on a settlement. We can then also arrange for interim damages to be paid by the defendant if you have any immediate needs that can be met.
If the defendant denies the allegations of negligence, we will instruct a barrister on your behalf and review the defendant’s denials in discussion with you, the medical experts and the barrister in order to assess the reasonableness of those denials and the merits of issuing court proceedings in your claim.
If we continue to support the claim, we will then issue proceedings on your behalf. While these proceedings will be issued at court, we will make every effort to reach a resolution. Most claims can be settled without the need for a trial, but in some quite rare circumstances, it may be required. It is rare that cases proceed to trial however if an appropriate settlement cannot be achieved, we will support and represent you throughout the trial.
Mediation Processes
In cases where a defendant has admitted to negligence, it may be possible to negotiate a settlement using mediation or round table meeting. Our team has substantial experience in using mediation to help secure high levels of compensation in various medical negligence cases.
Court Processes
If it is not possible to resolve a case using mediation or round table meeting, we will represent you at trial. Where this is the case, we can work alongside talented and knowledgeable barristers and make sure that you have robust representation throughout the entire process.
Free Rehabilitation Service
We appreciate that clients may require specific health care, support and rehabilitation before they access interim payments. Where this is the case, we can work with our expert solicitors to provide a free rehabilitation service, regardless of whether or not your claim is successful.
Frequently Asked Questions About Wrongful Birth Claims
What is wrongful birth?
Wrongful birth is the term used to describe any birth that would not have happened if it were not for medical negligence from a healthcare provider. Claims will often centre around children who are born with significant healthcare needs, but they can also include healthy births if a parent would not have normally chosen to proceed with the birth.
Cases are often divided into several categories:
- Foetal abnormalities – such as heart conditions, limb conditions or developmental concerns. If these are correctly detected during a pregnancy, they will influence the decision to proceed to full term.
- Genetic risks – such as Edwards Syndrome, Patau’s Syndrome and Down’s Syndrome. If these are missed, they present health risks to anyone carrying to full term.
- Failed contraception or sterilisation – where a medication or procedure has failed and a pregnant person does not appreciate that they are.
What is a wrongful birth claim?
A wrongful birth claim involves you (the claimant) pursuing compensation for experiencing a wrongful birth caused by medical negligence. The claim is brought forward against the person or organisation responsible for the wrongful birth.
What is the difference between wrongful life and wrongful birth?
Wrongful life claims are brought forward by someone who is born with a birth defect, rather than their parents – as is the case with wrongful birth claims.
How much compensation can you receive for wrongful birth?
It is not possible to say exactly how much compensation you will receive for a wrongful birth claim without knowing the full details of the case. Wrongful birth claims can be brought forward for a number of reasons, which means that every claim is unique and is judged on a case-by-case basis.
The value of a wrongful birth claim is based on the general damages for any physical injuries you suffered, emotional damages, and special damages to cover medical costs, loss of earnings and any other financial impact caused by the birth.
Contact our Wrongful Birth Claims Solicitors
To make a wrongful birth claim, please contact our experienced wrongful birth solicitors. You will be offered a free initial consultation to sensitively discuss the particulars of your case and plan the potential next steps.
You can get in touch by calling 0330 191 4774, emailing enquiries@ashtonslegal.co.uk or filling in the enquiry form on the right-hand side of our contact page.