Our Wrongful Birth claims expertise
Wrongful birth is the term used by the courts to describe a
claim that arises out of the birth of a child who wouldn’t have
been born without negligent treatment. A wrongful birth claim is
generally taken by the parents.
Wrongful birth claims fall into two main
categories:
- Failed sterilisation/vasectomy
- Failure to warn about a specific
disability
Failed Sterilisation/Vasectomy
You may have a wrongful birth claim if a
vasectomy or sterilisation hasn’t been successful, resulting in an
unplanned pregnancy. Your legal claim is for the birth of a child
that otherwise wouldn’t have been conceived.
The wrongful birth claim will provide damages
for the physical and emotional pain, distress of an unwanted
pregnancy and labour and any additional re-sterilisation procedure.
You may also be compensated if you choose to terminate the
pregnancy.
In addition, you can claim for loss of earnings
and any other financial losses resulting from the unwanted
pregnancy. However, following decisions in the House of Lords, you
will not be compensated for the cost of bringing up any child born
as a result of the failed sterilisation unless that child is
disabled.
Failure to warn about specific disabilities
The second category of wrongful birth claim
arises where parents have not been warned that a child will be born
with a specific disability, and if they had been warned would have
terminated the pregnancy.
There are many different birth defects a baby can have such as:
- spina bifida
- club feet
- holes in the heart
- Down's syndrome.
If your healthcare professional fails to diagnose a birth defect
which should have been easy to diagnose (perhaps due to a faulty
scanning machine or lack of staff training) then you may be able to
make a wrongful birth claim. In situations like this, damages often
provide for the costs associated with the welfare and healthcare of
the disabled child.
Legal Claim
For further information or if you believe that
you have a medical negligence
claim for wrongful birth, call our
medical negligence team on
freephone 0800 358 3848, email personalinjury@ffw.com or
complete our short enquiry form.
All enquiries are completely free of charge
and we will investigate all funding options for you including
legal aid and no win, no fee.