In New York, parents have until their child's 10th birthday to file a birth injury lawsuit under the state's medical malpractice statute, under CPLR Section 208, and a jury can award the full lifetime cost of care with no cap on damages. Birth injury settlements in New York range from several hundred thousand dollars for moderate injuries to $10 million or more when a child requires lifelong medical care, therapy, and support. Porter Law Group has recovered over $500 million for injured New Yorkers across our offices in Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, and Syracuse. Call 833-PORTER9 for a free, confidential case review, available 24/7.
Did your child suffer a birth injury that you believe could have been prevented? Porter Law Group can review the medical records and help your family understand whether negligence may have played a role. Contact us today for a free consultation.
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When a child is born with a serious injury, parents are often told it was unavoidable, an unfortunate complication of a difficult delivery. Sometimes that is true. But in many cases, the injury was preventable, and the difference between an honest assessment and a deflection requires independent medical review by experts who were not involved in the delivery.
A birth injury attorney investigates what happened by obtaining and analyzing the full labor and delivery record, including fetal monitoring strips, nursing notes, operative reports, and Apgar scores. Board-certified medical experts in obstetrics, neonatology, and pediatric neurology review those records against the accepted standards of care to determine whether the providers acted appropriately or fell short in a way that caused or contributed to the injury.
When negligence is found, a lawsuit can pursue compensation for a lifetime of medical care, therapy, equipment, home modifications, and the financial impact on the child's future, as well as damages for pain and suffering and the emotional toll on the entire family.
Porter Law Group handles birth injury cases across New York State on a contingency-fee basis. There are no upfront costs, and you only pay if we win.
This distinction matters before anything else, because it determines whether a legal claim exists.
A birth defect develops during pregnancy, typically as a result of genetic factors, chromosomal abnormalities, or conditions that arise before labor begins. These are generally not caused by anything that happened in the delivery room, and they typically do not support a malpractice claim.
A birth injury is physical harm that occurs during labor, delivery, or the immediate period after birth, often because of something a medical provider did or failed to do. Oxygen deprivation caused by a delay in performing a necessary C-section, nerve damage from improper use of forceps or excessive pulling during delivery, and brain damage caused by failure to monitor and respond to signs of fetal distress are all examples of birth injuries that may have been preventable.
Not every difficult birth outcome is the result of negligence. But when a provider deviated from accepted medical standards in a way that caused your child harm, your family may have grounds for a claim. The only way to know with confidence is through a thorough review of the medical records by independent experts.
Porter Law Group represents families whose children have suffered a wide range of birth injuries caused by medical negligence during pregnancy, labor, or delivery.
HIE is brain damage caused by a lack of oxygen and blood flow to a baby's brain around the time of birth. It is one of the most serious and legally significant birth injuries because it can lead to cerebral palsy, epilepsy, developmental delays, and cognitive impairment. HIE cases often arise from failure to recognize fetal distress, delayed C-section delivery, or improper management of labor complications. Our dedicated HIE attorney page covers this condition in detail.
Cerebral palsy is a group of conditions that affect a child's movement, muscle control, and posture. When it results from oxygen deprivation or trauma during delivery, it may be connected to medical negligence. Children with cerebral palsy often need lifelong physical therapy, occupational therapy, specialized equipment, and around-the-clock care. Our attorneys regularly handle cerebral palsy cases for families throughout New York State.
The brachial plexus is the network of nerves that runs from the spinal cord through the neck and into the arm. During a difficult delivery, particularly when shoulder dystocia occurs and the baby's shoulder becomes stuck, excessive force or improper technique can stretch or tear these nerves. The result is weakness or paralysis in the baby's arm and shoulder. Our attorneys handle Erb's palsy cases across New York and can evaluate whether the delivery team followed accepted protocols for managing shoulder dystocia.
Bleeding in or around the brain can occur during traumatic deliveries, particularly when forceps or vacuum extraction is used improperly or when prolonged labor causes excessive pressure on the baby's skull. These injuries can cause seizures, neurological damage, and long-term developmental problems.
When fetal monitoring strips show signs of distress that require immediate delivery, providers are expected to act quickly. A delay in ordering or performing a C-section can allow oxygen deprivation to progress to the point of permanent brain injury.
These tools can be necessary in certain deliveries, but they require precise skill and judgment. When applied incorrectly or with too much force, they can cause skull fractures, nerve damage, and brain injury.
Birth injury cases are a specific type of medical malpractice claim. Like all malpractice claims, they require proof of four things.
First, a doctor-patient relationship existed. The provider owed your child and family a professional duty of care.
Second, the provider departed from the accepted standard of care. The standard of care is what a reasonably skilled obstetrician, midwife, or nurse would have done in the same situation. This is established through testimony from independent medical experts who review the records and compare the provider's actions against published guidelines and clinical protocols.
Third, that departure directly caused your child's injury. This is often the most contested element in birth injury cases, because medical providers routinely argue that the injury would have occurred regardless of what they did. Expert testimony connecting the specific failure to the specific injury is essential.
Fourth, the injury resulted in real, documentable losses. Medical expenses, the cost of therapy and support services, and the financial impact on the child's future are all calculated by economists and life care planners who project the full scope of lifetime need.
New York does not cap damages in medical malpractice cases. A jury can award the full amount that reflects a child's lifetime medical costs, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering.
Most birth injury pages list conditions. This section explains what parents often observe during labor and delivery that later turns out to be legally significant.
A non-reassuring fetal heart rate on the monitor, referred to as late decelerations or variable decelerations, is one of the clearest signals that a baby is not tolerating labor well. Providers are trained to recognize these patterns and respond, including by changing the mother's position, administering oxygen, stopping labor-inducing medications, or proceeding to emergency C-section. When those responses are delayed or absent, that inaction may be the basis of a claim.
An unusually long pushing stage, a birth that required sudden emergency intervention after appearing to progress normally, low Apgar scores at birth, a need for resuscitation or oxygen in the delivery room, admission to the NICU immediately after delivery, or a diagnosis of seizures or cooling treatment in the first days of life are all circumstances that parents sometimes recall and that later prove relevant to a birth injury review.
You do not need to have been a medical expert in the room to pursue a claim. What you experienced and observed, combined with the medical records, is the starting point for every birth injury investigation.
Birth injury cases produce some of the largest recoveries in all of personal injury law because the child's lifetime care needs can span 70 or 80 years. Compensation is organized into two primary categories.
Economic damages are the calculable financial costs. These include all past and future medical bills, the lifetime cost of physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, specialized educational programs, durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs and communication devices, home modifications, in-home nursing or attendant care, and the child's lost earning capacity over a lifetime. Life care planners and forensic economists calculate these figures and present them to juries in a structured format.
Non-economic damages cover the human costs that cannot be measured on a spreadsheet. Pain and suffering, the loss of the life the child would have had, emotional distress for the child and the family, and the loss of normal developmental milestones are all recoverable. New York does not impose a statutory limit on non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases, which means juries can award the full amount they believe reflects the child's loss.
The deadline rules for birth injury cases are among the most misunderstood in New York law, and the consequences of missing them are permanent.
The general medical malpractice statute of limitations in New York is two and a half years from the date of the negligent act, under CPLR Section 214-a. For children, CPLR Section 208 pauses that clock during the child's infancy. However, the New York Legislature has capped that pause at 10 years from the date of the malpractice. In practical terms, this means most birth injury cases must be filed before the child's 10th birthday, not the child's 18th birthday as many parents assume.
If the birth occurred at a public hospital or facility operated by a government entity, a Notice of Claim must be filed within 90 days of the injury. That 90-day deadline is not extended by the child's age. Missing it typically ends the case against that facility.
Parents' own derivative claims, such as compensation for the emotional distress and financial burden the parents have personally suffered, carry their own 2.5-year deadline that runs from the date of the malpractice and is not paused at all.
Because multiple deadlines apply simultaneously and none of them are tolled uniformly, speaking with a birth injury attorney early is the only safe approach.
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Porter Law Group represents birth injury families across all of New York State from offices in Albany, Buffalo, New York City, Rochester, and Syracuse. Our attorneys have secured recoveries for children with cerebral palsy, HIE, Erb's palsy, and other serious birth injuries, contributing to over $500 million recovered for injured New Yorkers.
No fee unless we win. All birth injury cases are handled on a contingency basis. You pay nothing out of pocket, and our fee is collected only if we win.
Free consultations, available 24/7. We come to you when you cannot travel, with hospital and home visits available statewide.
Direct attorney access. You will speak with the attorney handling your case. Meet our team on the Attorneys and Staff page, read client experiences on the Testimonials page, and review case outcomes on our Results page.
The only way to know is through an independent review of the labor and delivery records by qualified medical experts. Signs that are worth investigating include a prolonged or difficult delivery, emergency C-section after apparent fetal distress, low Apgar scores at birth, resuscitation in the delivery room, admission to the NICU, a diagnosis of HIE or cooling treatment, or subsequent diagnosis of cerebral palsy or developmental delays. Porter Law Group reviews cases at no cost and will tell you honestly whether the records support a claim.
HIE stands for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. It is a form of brain damage that occurs when a baby's brain is deprived of oxygen and blood flow around the time of birth. HIE exists on a spectrum. Mild cases may resolve without lasting consequences. Moderate to severe HIE can cause cerebral palsy, epilepsy, cognitive impairment, and developmental delays. Not every child with HIE develops cerebral palsy, and not every child with cerebral palsy had HIE. When the two are connected and the HIE was caused by a provider's failure to respond to fetal distress in time, a malpractice claim may exist.
No. In New York, the filing deadline for a birth injury claim involving a child is generally 10 years from the date of delivery, not the date the child turns 10. If your child was born three years ago, you are still within the window. However, waiting creates risk. Evidence can become harder to obtain, medical records may be incomplete or missing, and expert witnesses may no longer be available. Speaking with an attorney as soon as you have concerns is always the right move.
You may be able to file a claim, but you must act very quickly. Claims against a public hospital, a city-operated facility, or any government health agency require a Notice of Claim to be filed within 90 days of the injury. That deadline applies to the parents and is not extended by the child's age. If you believe your child was injured at a public hospital, contact an attorney immediately.
Porter Law Group handles birth injury cases on a contingency-fee basis. You pay nothing upfront. Our fee is a percentage of the recovery, collected only if we win. If we do not recover compensation for your family, you owe nothing.
Founder and managing partner of Porter Law Group. Harvard University (B.A., 1994), Syracuse University College of Law (J.D., 1997). Former U.S. Army JAG Corps Captain, Airborne Training School graduate. Super Lawyers 14 consecutive years, 10.0 Superb on Avvo, Distinguished rating from Martindale-Hubbell. Over 20 years of trial experience and $500 million in recoveries.
Reviewed by Michael S. Porter, J.D. | Last updated: [April, 2026]
Porter Law Group represents birth injury families throughout New York State from five offices.
For a full list of areas we serve, visit our Locations page.
If your child suffered a birth injury anywhere in New York that you believe may have been caused by medical negligence, Porter Law Group is ready to help. We will review the records, explain what the evidence shows, and outline your family's legal options. There is no cost and no obligation to retain our firm.
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