Long Beach Birth Injury Claims

Why this matters

Long Beach Birth Injury Claims

Long Beach is home to a major regional NICU and women’s hospital that handles the sickest newborns from across the area, so high-risk deliveries and neonatal care are concentrated here, and a birth-injury claim follows special professional-negligence rules from the outset. A birth injury is medical professional negligence: the family must show that a provider fell below the accepted standard of care — for example, failing to recognise or respond to fetal distress, an unreasonably delayed cesarean, or improper use of forceps or a vacuum — and that the breach caused the harm, such as a hypoxic brain injury, cerebral palsy, or a brachial-plexus (Erb’s palsy) injury. Expert review is required to establish both the breach and causation. A birth-injury claim is governed by California’s Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA), which caps non-economic damages — a cap set by statute that rises on a fixed annual schedule — while leaving economic damages such as lifelong medical care uncapped. MICRA also requires a 90-day notice of intent to sue before filing (Code of Civil Procedure section 364) and sets special deadlines (Code of Civil Procedure section 340.5). The deadline for a child’s birth-injury claim is special. Under Code of Civil Procedure section 340.5, a minor’s claim must generally be brought within three years of the injury, except that a child under six has until the later of three years or the child’s eighth birthday. A parent’s own related claim can run on a different, shorter clock — so both must be assessed early rather than assumed to share a deadline. Because nearby deliveries can also occur at an LA County public hospital such as Harbor-UCLA, identifying whether the hospital was private or public matters. A crucial first question is whether the delivery hospital was public. A county hospital, or a University of California medical center run by the Regents, is a public entity, so on top of the MICRA rules a written claim must generally be presented within six months under the Government Claims Act — a much shorter clock than the special minor deadline. A federal or military hospital instead runs under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Identifying the hospital type at the outset can be decisive. Birth-injury cases are built on specialised records: the electronic fetal-monitoring (EFM) strips, the labor-and-delivery and nursing notes, the anesthesia and cesarean records, and the newborn’s cord-blood gases and Apgar scores — all reviewed by qualified experts. Where the child needs lifelong care, a life-care plan quantifying future medical needs is central, and requesting the complete record early is essential. Private civil cases are filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court after the required notice.