United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Hello everyone!
My son Ryan had a birth injury two years ago. He's had two surgeries and has very limited use of his left hand and arm. I have two lawyers that are possibly representing me. One lawyer, Kent Buckingham, is wonderful, the other, Stephen Pruzan, I don't know yet. If anyone has won a case, would you let me in on it? Feel free to e-mail me at: dedawn@emailaccount.com.
I almost didn't pursue a law suit, because many others told me they lost. Some doctors stick together, I hear. Thanks!
Dawn

We have a lawsuit and have not won it yet, however, I do not feel that it is about winning or losing however I prefer to win, I believe that it is about making a doctor rezalize that they a accountable for their actions. Maybe just maybe, if we can prevent one injury from happening, our lawsuit is worth it..I think we have a great chance at winning, but we never know how a jury is going to sway....look at the OJ Simpson case....for example. Another issue, I wanted to tell my son as ne gets older that I did evrything I could to make his arm perfect, that is why we went to see the surgeon instead of " waiting to see" . IT is just me, I have older children too and I know how unappreciative they can be late in life and I wanted to make sure I did all I could to let him know that I tried everything to make his life the best it could be. Sorry for rambling !!!

Of course Drs stick together...but if he/she did something wrong, there is always someone outside of the area that can and will testify against another dr. We won our case, but it was a LONG process...

Hey everyone,
I just thought I pop in and tell you about the legal situation in the UK - I like to give you an idea of life over here!
Many families take legal action - we are lucky it is funded by a fund called the Legal services Comission which is funded by central government ( via taxes no doubt) so to take a case for a child costs parents nothing as long as the child has no income of their own. At each stage of the claim, you have to prove that your case is likely to succeed- usually in the form of an expert witness report stating the reasons why your care was negligent. Once you fulfill another stage of the case, more funds are released to the lawyer to obtain the next report, and so on.
Most cases are settled out of court - that's a reported 92% of cases - being offered an appropriate settlement before going into court.
If your case does go to court, it it heard by a Judge only - not a jury - I am not sure if that is better or worse than having a jury of peers.
We have a high number of successful cases over here, with approximately 80% of our memebership pursuing legal claims.
If your cases goes to court and fails, the costs are normally borne by the legal services commission, and it is virtually unheard of that a plaintiff would have costs awarded against them.
Reported damages vary between about £50,000 and £235,000 depending on the severity of the injury etc.
I wish you all very success in your claims, and hope you don't mind me sharing a slice of life from across the water with you.
Karen

Thank you so much for writing me. Don't worry, I didn't think you were rambling, I often feel I do. I would like to know how it goes for you. My lawyer is charging me 40%, but another lawyer told me it's only 33%/ or 1/3. What about you?
Thanks again!
Dawn

In Finland we have a very different situation, almost noboby goes to court because we have another system for malpractse claims.

Right now I do not remember any words that would explain the system ) but usually people do not win in here because OBPI is considered something that is very hard to predict before birth.

Usually they just check if the risk could have been seen before or during the birth. They do not pay attention to the way that the baby was helped out... And that is very unforunate for many parents..

We won our case, a small miracle in here! The money is not much, but we have almost free medical care etc. (of course we all pay high taxes....)I think the compensation will be propably between 30 000-60 000 dollars.

We live in Pennsylvania. My daughter sustained a severe injury at birth. We waited almost a year before we sought legal action (hoping it would get better I guess). Anyway, it took approx. 4 years, but we settled right before it went to Court. Hope this helps.

Thank you so much for replying. Ryan is almost 2 and a half, and my lawyers are almost ready to put in a lawsuit. I'm so nervous! Dawn

Has anyone won a case in the Missouri area?

We won our case in Ohio last August. Our lawyers were very knowledgeable regarding the law and bpi. They had most of the doctors expert witnesses testimony thrown out because it was not based on fact or scientific evidence. That was a monumental moment in our case and could help alot of other bpi cases. Our trial lasted 5 days with the jury deliberating over 2 days. We won!!!! Feel free to email me if you want further info.
Good luck with your case.
Beth