Birth Injury and HIE Litigation UK

Welcome to my site, Birth Litigation UK. Having a child with a birth injury is a devastating experience for parents and the wider family. I know about the experience first hand and have met with, talked to, and corresponded with families whose children are disabled for various reasons. As a way of supporting and helping others I have joined various charities, helped fundraise and started a different website helping with an issue experienced by many disabled children.  Birth Injury Litigation is a user friendly website for parents seeking truth and justice.

On this Website I have put together information I have gathered over the years, in the hope my experience will help others navigate the difficult path ahead of them or support them if they are already in litigation. This Website is only applicable to England and Wales because devolved governments may have slightly different laws, especially Scotland. However, much of the information will have some crossover so it is vital you speak to the solicitor who is representing you.  I have used reputable sites to gain extra insight, including court papers, NHS websites, articles from top legal firms, organisations dealing with medical negligence, Government departments and established charities.

The issue is that of suing the NHS for avoidable injury to a baby in pregnancy, labour or soon after birth. Many parents are loathe to sue the NHS. They may look at the amazing care given post birth or how caring the professionals are during the child’s life. Alternatively, they may feel care was not optimal at any point.

Societal pressure around ‘taking money from the NHS’ is enormous and may deter some. However, the money used to care for injured children comes from an insurance fund and not from individual NHS trusts. All hospital trusts in England contribute to a central fund called the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts, administered by NHS Resolution, the body which oversees clinical negligence claims.  It does not come directly from hospital’s budgets. Of course, money spent on caring for injured children would be better spent on health and maternity services, and that is what every parent forced to go down the legal route wants to see, no other parent or child suffering as they do.

There is also the matter of preventing these injuries from happening. If we all stayed silent, or are silenced, these mistakes would happen again and again, so no lessons would ever be learned.

I’ve tried to make the website easy to navigate with a drop down menu in the Header and the action buttons below.  My Blog section is where I look at subjects in far more depth, such as Deputies and the issue of Secondary victims.

My aim is to make a website that is easy to navigate, offers advice and guidance on the legal process and supports parents in one of the most difficult and stressful situations they find themselves following the difficult and stressful situation of giving birth to a brain injured baby. The litigation process is really adding insult to injury.

The Medico-Legal Director of the Charity Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA) has been kind enough to offer advice and guidance in putting together a dedicated page showing the Charity’s  services.  They offer free professional advice to claimants with caseworker support if necessary.  I strongly advise using their service.  This can be found in my ‘Overview’ section.