St. Louis Birth Injury Attorneys

Once you’ve scheduled a meeting to come in and talk with an attorney regarding your potential case, what you should bring is any notes. You may have medical records, calendars with important dates, videos, or photos that you think may show the injury that your child is suffering.

If you aren’t able to get a copy of your own medical records or your child’s medical records, don’t worry about it. We are able to get those ourselves. Sometimes parents will order them just because they want to go through them. And if you have them, it certainly makes a quicker review for us. But if it’s not something you can immediately get, we have the capability of ordering them too.

If you have a baby who has suffered injury during delivery and continues to have problems, that baby is the actual plaintiff. If a lawsuit is filed, however, obviously you as their parent or guardian will be in control of that litigation. Your job will be to do everything that is in the best interest of that child. That’s also my job. We share that responsibility for that baby. And we take it very seriously. We will walk you through every step of the way every, we will walk you through every step, not only of the investigation, but of the lawsuit. And if it comes to it to the trial of this matter, a lot of clients tell me they can’t go through a trial. A lot of clients say, Amy, I’m just terrified of this. And I say, you have been through the most terrifying part of this walk with me and we will hold these people responsible for the entries to your baby. You can do it and we’ll do it together.

If a settlement or verdict is reached a concern that everyone has is where is that money going to go and how is it going to be protected for my child’s benefit? And the answer to that is there are laws in place to ensure that the money, any child receives is properly protected in a trust and our office will work with you to ensure that that trust is properly set up and protected for your child’s benefit.

I know that parents worry about their babies all the time. Especially if they’ve suffered an injury and need a lot of care. During the investigation stage, it’s very helpful for us to meet your baby in our office or in your home or whatever is the most comfortable for you. AMY GUNN 35:24 It’s possible during the litigation that the attorneys for the hospital or the doctors will want to meet your baby. Don’t worry. We will be there throughout the entire process to protect your child’s rights. Nothing will happen to your baby on our watch.

During litigation. You should submit all of your child’s medical bills to their insurance provider. If you don’t have insurance, give us a call and we’ll talk about options. Always keep a copy of all the medical bills that you get so we can review them and make sure we are accounting for all the providers that your child has seen throughout their care.

A lot of times clients will ask, should I continue seeing my doctor even after I have a concern and that’s a really important question and we’re here to answer those questions for you. Every case is different. Every circumstance is different. And so if you have a question like that, I encourage you to pick up the phone and call us so we can discuss it.

A lot of times clients will ask if they can or should continue posting photos of their baby on social media. And I always tell clients, you just need to be aware that anything you’re posting on social media could potentially be used in later litigation down the line. And if you have any specific questions about that, I just encourage you to pick up the phone and give us a call so we can talk about it.

At the Simon law firm, we work on a contingency fee basis, which means that at no point in time, do you owe me or the firm any money for the time that we’ve spent or for the expenses that we’ve incurred during the investigation or the litigation.

A contingency fee means if we are successful in this litigation, then we get a percentage of the verdict or of the settlement. If there is one and we are reimbursed our expenses, but if we are not successful at the trial or not successful receiving a settlement, you will not be receiving. You will not be receiving a bill for any work that we’ve done or any of the expenses that we’ve incurred, the financial risks going forward is all ours.

The goal of the investigation is to determine who’s at fault and whether that person should be held financially responsible for their mistakes. And that’s what we intend to do. We start at the beginning investigating what happened, who was responsible, who did what during the labor and delivery. And after the baby was born, who made the mistake that caused this harm. And once we’re able to determine who made the mistake and that it caused harm, we can pursue the litigation. We can file the lawsuit. And ultimately the goal of that is to hold that person accountable for their wrongdoings, for their injuries, that they’ve caused you. All you want to do….. And I know this because I’m a mom. All you want to do is take care of that child. And as a mom, you’re constantly advocating for your baby, whether it’s at school, whether it’s at daycare, whether it’s in your home, at any point, you’re never going to not advocate for that child. Let us help you do that in what could be the most important advocacy of your child’s life to determine who is at fault for these injuries and to hold them accountable.

One thing about the Simon law firm is our resources. We have wonderful women attorneys litigating these types of cases. We have staff who are top-notch and responsive to any requests that you may have.

Unfortunately, investigations of this magnitude do take time. Patience is essential and we appreciate it very much throughout this course, but please know that if you ever have any questions or concerns either now or in the future, you can always reach out and we’ll do our very best to get back to you as soon as possible.

Rest assured that we are working behind the scenes every day on your child’s behalf. And if you have any questions or you have any concerns, just reach out and we will always get back to you.

The type of lawsuit that will be filed is a medical negligence case. A lot of people hear the word “negligence” and think that it must be from neglect that someone or some doctor or nurse must’ve neglected you or your child. And that’s not always the case. Medical errors happen, whether they are from someone not doing something or from someone doing something incorrectly. And that’s what we look into. I have been involved in medical malpractice cases for over 20 years. It is my passion. I spend a lot of time looking into these cases on behalf of clients. I know a lot about medicine, but I have had a lot of opportunity to read lots of medical records and there are answers in those records. And that’s the first step of our investigation is to fully gather all of the records involved in your prenatal care and the labor and delivery. We need those fetal monitoring strips and all post care for your baby to fully understand what happened, what went wrong, whose fault it is and how it affects your baby.

The depth of our experience in birth injury cases is so significant because we have a working knowledge of all potential issues that might come up in your case, not just on the legal side, but on the medical side, a huge part of what a huge aspect of birth injury cases involves knowledge of various facets of the medical field most of the time. A lot of times clients might ask you’re a lawyer at a law firm. How can you have a working understanding of nuances of the medical aspect of the case? And that’s where our experience comes in. We’ve handled so many of these cases that we have a working knowledge of the medicine. And we do that not only by learning, not only by learning independently, but also working with medical experts who explain the medicine to us and teach it to us so we are able to successfully apply it to your case.

Something that many parents say to me when they’re calling in regarding their child’s case is I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing. I don’t, if it is a good thing or not to call a lawyer. And my response to that is it is the correct thing. If you think your child has been hurt, it is always the right thing to at least ask questions and investigate. And it is our job. Once you have come to us to try to get you answers, if there is a case there, we’ll let you know and we’ll begin the litigation process. But if there isn’t a case there, we’ll give you an answer and explanation for what happened. And hopefully at least provide you some peace of mind that you have done everything you can to advocate on behalf of your child.

An important part of litigation is sitting for deposition, and that is where the opposing counsel, the opposing attorneys will have an opportunity to ask you questions about your child’s case and about your child’s injuries. That can be a very daunting experience. Obviously many people don’t have experienced sitting for depositions until they are in a situation like this. It is my job to make sure that my clients feel 100% prepared for their deposition. And that means meeting with you before the deposition and telling you how it’s going to work, what questions to expect and what my role as well as your role will be during the deposition.

The litigation process begins once we file a petition and that is filing with the court and informing the defendants that we are bringing this action against them. After that, there goes a process of written discovery, which our office will work with you to complete and return to the defendants. Following written discovery, you may be asked to sit for a deposition and talk about your child’s injuries and what led up to your child’s injuries. Following that, most of the work focuses on taking the depositions of the defendants in the case, and then our experts in the case. Your job will pretty much be done up until going to trial after that. And through every step of the way where we will need your direct involvement, we prepare you for that. We take the time to make sure that you know what to expect and that you have as much information possible before you sit for a deposition before you sit for trial, we want to make sure, you know, what’s going on at every step of the way.

When we look at the potential compensation for your child, we’re not just looking at what is their current injury or what have they suffered in the past, but we try to make predictions on what they may expect in the future. Future medical needs, medications, therapies, home modifications. And the way that we do that is by retaining a specific expert called a life care planner. And that life care planner will meet with you and your child oftentimes in your home so that they can get a full scope of what are the child’s needs and what may the child need as he or she gets older, that life care planner then takes all of that information and puts it into a multi page report that we can then submit at trial to show a jury what exactly your child is going to need in the future, and to ensure that any future care is compensated for.

While social media is something that we use to stay connected with family and friends. It can be a potential danger in litigation. And oftentimes parents ask me, well, am I still allowed to be on Facebook and Instagram and take, talk or Twitter and share the important updates in my life, especially about my child. And we certainly understand that social media provides a quick and easy Avenue for staying connected with loved ones, but we just caution families to be careful about what you may post online, because anything that is publicly available could potentially be used in litigation against you or your child. So don’t feel like you have to get off of it, but be careful.

A life care plan is a document that we put together with the help of a medical expert. So we’re able to tell the jury at trial, what it’s going to cost to care for your child for the rest of their life. Our medical expert looks at your child’s medical records and pays attention to your child’s specific injury to make sure that their future is provided for.