Cerebral Palsy Claims
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Our solicitors support people to claim compensation when a child suffers cerebral palsy due to someone else’s negligence or actions.
Cerebral palsy affects about one in 400 babies and can be genetic or unavoidable. However, in some cases it results from traumatic injury, avoidable infection or complications during birth.
In cases where cerebral palsy is the result of medical negligence or an accident for which someone else was to blame, we support people to access payments and explanations to help them cope with the challenges the diagnosis brings.
Our cerebral palsy solicitors understand the pain, worry, complexity, sadness, confusion and anger a diagnosis can bring, especially when it may be the case that it could have been avoidable.
We are experienced in helping people to find answers around what happened and access help to cope with the future faced by a child with cerebral palsy.
Do get in touch if you think we may be able to help you.
Can I make a cerebral palsy compensation claim?
If a child has cerebral palsy and their medical treatment may be to blame, there could be a valid claim.
Common valid reasons for a claim include mistakes during pregnancy or labour that led to a child’s brain injury – such as where the baby suffered reduced blood or oxygen supply (temporary asphyxiation) as a result of failures.
This may include failures to:
- deliver a baby early enough via caesarean
- monitor the baby’s heartbeat
- respond appropriately to the umbilical cord being caught around the baby’s neck
- follow medical guidelines to ensure the safety of a child
- fully inform parents about risks such as those involved in choosing to give birth away from a hospital.
Other causes that could lead to a valid compensation claim may relate to an accident that resulted in head injury to the baby before or after birth or:
- avoidable infection caught by a mother during pregnancy
- meningitis
- head injury to a baby, including during pregnancy such as due to a car crash
- other medical negligence or an accident that leads to bleeding in a baby’s brain or reduced blood or oxygen supply to their brain.
If you are unsure whether the harm to your child was avoidable or not, our team is here to help.
We’ve helped a lot of families make a cerebral palsy claim and can help you too.
Where cerebral palsy was avoidable we’ll support you to access the compensation that can make coping with your situation far easier.
We are also here to help families dealing with the tragedy of stillbirth, neonatal death or other fatality.
How to make a cerebral palsy negligence claim
Contacting a specialist solicitor for advice and guidance is a sensible first step to making a claim.
Please do contact us for a free, initial, no obligation chat.
Every person’s experience is different and we’ll take the time to hear what happened to you and help you work out whether you have a potential claim and what to do next.
We’ll give you all the information you need on covering the costs of a claim, including legal aid and no win no fee arrangements.
We’ll talk you through the process in detail and keep you informed at every stage.
The next step will likely be for us to contact those responsible for the harm to your child. Where responsibility is already accepted, we can often secure interim payments to allow you to cover the costs of any immediate help and support you need, such as the cost of carers, home adaptations or a more appropriate vehicle.
We will connect you with medical experts and charities who can assess your child and their future needs and offer you support too. We’ll help you find and access the best help to make your lives as comfortable and fulfilling as possible.
We will have ongoing discussions with the other party (such as the legal representatives of the hospital) to agree the level of payment necessary to cover the costs of your child’s needs. This is very often possible without needing to go to court.
In some cases, a court hearing is needed and when that happens we’re there to ensure you are supported throughout and are ready for what will happen.
Once a claim is settled we can help with looking after the money and the long term needs of your child, such as via deputyship and personal injury trusts.
Enable Law secured £20million in compensation for a child who suffered a serious brain injury at birth when there were delays in a necessary emergency delivery.
£20million for baby with cerebral palsy following negligence
Enable Law secured £20million in compensation for a child who suffered a serious brain injury at birth when there were delays in a necessary emergency delivery.
Nicholas* should have been delivered immediately via emergency caesarean when an abnormal CTC trace showed his heart rate kept dropping.
Delays meant Nicholas suffered a lack of oxygen (hypoxia). He now suffers from quadriplegic athetoid cerebral palsy.
Nicholas is extremely disabled with little use of his arms and legs and needs a wheelchair.
He requires help with all aspects of daily life including feeding, washing and dressing and needs support from a full-time live-in carer helped by a second carer for four additional hours a day. He also needs specially adapted housing which includes a wet room, space to get around in his wheelchair and hoists in different parts of the house.
The compensation will ensure Nicholas can access the high level of care he’ll require throughout his life.
Nicholas will be able to use the money to buy a house that can be specially adapted to his needs. He will also be able to set up a care regime for life to help him be as independent as possible. He can buy equipment to improve the quality of his life – including technology to help him communicate – and afford therapies that will ease his discomfort.
* Name changed to protect the identity of the child.
Is there a time limit for claiming cerebral palsy compensation?
In most cases, it is possible to bring a cerebral palsy negligence claim at any point up to a child’s 21st birthday and, in some cases, even beyond that.
That is because when a child is injured, the three year “limitation period” on their right to claim does not start until they are 18 (and ends when they are 21).
However, if your child has lost mental capacity (the ability to make decisions for themselves) it may be that there is no limitation period at all.
We are happy to answer your questions you may have on this – or any other – aspect of the claim process. Please do contact us.
How much compensation is typical for cerebral palsy?
The amount of compensation for severe cerebral palsy can run into millions of pounds.
This is because children who suffer severe brain damage at birth have lifelong needs, which compensation is intended to cover.
The more serious the impact on your child’s life, the larger the compensation award is likely to be.
The award will be made up of two elements: general damages and special damages. General damages are paid to compensate for pain and suffering – and the amount awarded usually closely follows set guidelines.
Special damages are paid according to the case put by your solicitor. This will outline the specific needs of your child and the costs involved in meeting those.
A specialist solicitor has a much better understanding of the vast array of needs that are likely to arise and will ensure everything is considered.
Specialist solicitors, such as those at Enable Law, keep up-to-date with breakthrough treatments and aids to help children with cerebral palsy. We want to ensure our clients are aware of those and that compensation claims are large enough to allow the opportunity to access them.
Get in touch with us for more information on how we can help and benefit from our experience of cerebral palsy claims.
If you have already instructed a less specialist solicitor and are not confident you are getting the best support possible, we may still be able to help.
Will doctors treat us differently if we seek cerebral palsy compensation?
Doctors must not treat you differently if you make a compensation claim and most would never be inclined to.
Compensation is there to help people who have suffered through no fault of their own and is intended to help them cope with the consequences of what has happened to them.
It is part of the obligation of any medical professional to always provide you and your child with the best standard of care.
It’s natural to worry about making a compensation claim and how it will be perceived, but there is really no reason to feel guilt. Medical professionals have insurance to ensure that if an error is made the people who suffer are properly looked after.
Read more on this: Will my doctor treat me differently if I bring a medical negligence claim?
Early notification scheme and cerebral palsy
We can support families whose case has been referred under the ‘early notification scheme’. In those cases independent legal support is just as valuable and justified.
The scheme was set up to try to reduce the amount of time taken to settle claims where families may have a right to compensation due to medical errors that could lead to brain injury in a baby.
Cases that should be referred to the early notification scheme include those of babies born at full term where, following labour, they:
- suffer certain levels of hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE), which is sometimes referred to as ‘asphyxia’, ‘birth asphyxia’ or perinatal asphyxia,’ and relates to reduced oxygen or blood flow around the time of birth
- needed to be therapeutically cooled
- had decreased central tone (were floppy), comatose and had seizures.
Frequently asked questions relating to cerebral palsy compensation
Does claiming compensation take money from the NHS?
You may also find the following guide useful: A client guide to birth injury claims
Who we work with - Cerebra
Cerebra are a charity whose research and support helps children with brain injuries across the UK. They offer many services to the parents of children with brain injuries, including a toy and book library, a Sleep Advice Service, downloadable guides, a legal rights service, and a dedicated Innovation Centre which is constantly finding new ways to improve the lives of people with brain injuries.
We’re proud to support the work of Cerebra through a corporate partnership.
