Maryland Birth Injury and Medical Malpractice Claims
What Baltimore families need to know about proof, deadlines, and who pays, in plain English
Twenty Chapters, Start Anywhere
The first eleven chapters build the claim itself, from the difference between a bad outcome and malpractice, through the first steps, the medical record and the certificate of qualified expert, to the filing deadline. The rest carry it outward: who is named, insurance, what a family can recover, how a case is built, cross-claims, who decides settlement, and accountability.
20 chapters · 192 pages
- 0110 pages
When a Bad Outcome Is Medical Malpractice, and When It Is Not
When a family calls me, there is a question underneath all the others, and it usually comes out as some version of this: was what happened to us a mistake?A bad result is a fact about the outcome, not a finding about the careThe standard of care in plain wordsRisk comes with every birth and every operation
- 0210 pages
The Rules of the Road for Doctors: How a Negligence Case Is Built
People call me and say they do not want to bring a medical malpractice case, they want to bring a medical negligence case.The rules of the road, borrowed from drivingA radiologist, an X-ray and what a reviewing doctor doesA judgment call has to stay inside the standard
- 039 pages
What a Birth Injury Case Is, and Why It Is Different From Other Malpractice Cases
Of all the malpractice cases a lawyer like me can take, birth injury cases are the toughest for me to handle. A family goes to the hospital looking forward to a moment of joy, and something goes wrong.Where a moment of joy turns into a disasterThe delay in delivery at the center of a birth injury caseThree ways a warning sign gets lost during birth
- 0410 pages
The Medical Mistakes That Reach a Baltimore Malpractice Lawyer Most: Surgery, Anesthesia, and Missed Diagnoses
When families first call me, a lot of them are carrying one picture in their heads: something going wrong on an operating table.The kinds of calls a Baltimore malpractice lawyer hearsSurgical complications and wrong-side surgeryAnesthesia errors and serious injury
- 0510 pages
The First Steps a Baltimore Family Can Take After a Suspected Birth Injury
Birth injury is the part of my work that is hardest on me. In my own words, "these are the toughest cases, at least for me, to handle because you're dealing with something where parents' life is turned upside down." A family arrives at the hospital with a moment of joy and the anticipation of joy, and what follows can be a disaster.What I say first to a mother who feels guiltyStep one: write down who was there and what happenedStep two: get your records through the health portal
- 0612 pages
Why Most Calls Never Become Cases: Myths About Malpractice Lawyers and the Checks Built Into the System
Before I explain how a malpractice case gets built, I want to clear away an idea that a lot of people carry with them when they call a lawyer.The biggest misconception about lawyers like meEthics and the checks built into a malpractice caseThe practical reason a lawyer cannot afford flimsy cases
- 0710 pages
What to Expect From Your Lawyer: The First Conversation and the Investigation Behind It
A person who calls a medical malpractice lawyer for the first time is usually in the worst stretch of their life.The lawyer as a client's guide and the roadmap people ask forListening first: letting a caller tell the story in their own wordsSpeaking to the lawyer directly, without layers of intake
- 088 pages
The Medical Record Is the Bible: How Experts Reconstruct a Delivery
A family brings me what they remember of a delivery. I want to hear all of it, and Chapter 7 describes how I listen.Where the record sits in the order of the workCharted times and the timeline built from themBaby strips: the belts, the heart rate, and the timing of an injury
- 098 pages
Shoulder Dystocia and Erb's Palsy: What the Delivery Records Show
Two medical terms sit at the center of this chapter. One is shoulder dystocia. The other is Erb's palsy. A lot of people want to know what those words mean, and they deserve a plain answer before anything else.A baby stuck during birth, and what the law asks about itReading the baby's weight first and the maneuvers secondPulling on a baby's head, and what a missing maneuver tells me
- 1011 pages
The Certificate of Qualified Expert: Maryland's Safeguard Against Weak Claims
A lot of people give medical malpractice a bad name, and the reputation lands on lawyers like me. Here is the belief as I hear it put: "They say, well, a lawyer like myself can just file anything, they can put anything in court.What stops a lawyer from filing just anythingWhat the certificate says and who is allowed to sign itWhat the statute says about timing
- 119 pages
How Long a Maryland Family Has to File a Malpractice Claim
Every chapter before this one has been about what it takes to prove a case: the standard of care, the medical records, the doctor who signs the certificate.A strong case filed one day late is a lost caseThe count I give adults: three years from the injuryKnew or should have known: where the clock becomes a guess
- 128 pages
Who Gets Named in a Maryland Malpractice Lawsuit
The easy picture of a malpractice lawsuit has two names in it, the doctor and the hospital. It is a natural place for a family to start, and in a Maryland case the list of people on the other side can be longer than that.A complaint is the document that starts a lawsuitBehind the doctor stands a corporate practiceThe hospital, the nurse and the corporate entities behind them
- 139 pages
Insurance Coverage and Why It Shapes a Malpractice Case
The chapters before this one deal mostly with proof. What the standard of care is, how a medical record is read, who signs the certificate of qualified expert, how long a family has to file, and who ends up named in the lawsuit.Insurance decides what a case can becomePicturing a rich doctor and the money a lawsuit can reachA birth injury case can rest on several layers of coverage
- 1411 pages
What a Family Can Recover, and What Maryland Limits
A lot of people ask me what a case is worth, and I understand why. A family that has been hurt by the medical system wants to know where all of this leads.What compensation replaces when a life is turned upside downThe lottery nobody is playing, and what the money gives a family insteadHow a life care planner turns a child's needs into a number
- 158 pages
Building the Story of a Case: Themes, Bad Facts, and a Lawyer's Strategy
A lawsuit is a story that someone has to be able to tell. Before I can tell it to a jury, I have to know it myself: what happened, who was involved, and what it has cost a family.Groundwork before brilliance: how a strategy gets startedA story and a theme, from the first conversationWhat a bad fact is, and why it comes back at trial
- 1612 pages
Cross-Claims, Counterclaims, and Third-Party Defendants Explained
A lot of people want to know what it even means to say a case has been "filed in court." The answer is shorter than they expect, and it opens the door to the part of a malpractice case where the vocabulary turns strange.What filing a complaint sets in motionA lawsuit inside the lawsuit: how a cross-claim worksCounterclaims, and what a jury would think of a doctor suing a patient
- 179 pages
When the Doctor and the Nurse Blame Each Other: One Case and What Families Should Expect
The last chapter gave you the vocabulary: cross-claims, counterclaims, and third-party defendants. Words like those mean little until you watch people use them, so this chapter follows one case that I was involved in.A new nurse, a doctor on call, and a second concern many hours laterThe heart rate that climbed, and what happens when a baby runs out of gasTwo accounts of the same call: the nurse's and the doctor's
- 188 pages
Who Decides: Settlement, Mediation, and Trial
People come to a medical malpractice lawyer when their lives have often been turned upside down, and many of them assume that once the case is in a lawyer's hands, they will have no control and no say over how it ends.Whether to file and whether to settle belong to the clientStrategy, briefs and wording belong to the lawyerMediation: a neutral person, an offer, and the right to say no
- 1911 pages
Accountability, Apologies, and What Families Are Asking For
A lot of people assume that a call to a medical malpractice lawyer is a call about money. It is, in my experience, a call about something larger, and the money is only one piece of it.Holding the industry accountable and treating people with dignityRecognition from the system that failed themThe apology families ask for and seldom receive
- 209 pages
Technology, Hospitalists, and the Distance Between Doctors and Patients
A reminder call about tomorrow's appointment. A form sent out ahead of the visit. A doctor who walks into the exam room carrying a laptop.Robotic surgery, reminder calls and forms: where technology already sits in medicineProgramming has limits, and a self-driving truck shows whereLaptops, hospitalists and the doctor you used to know
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All twenty chapters, as a single PDF. No email required.
- All twenty chapters in one PDF
- The standard of care, the filing deadline, the delivery record and the certificate of qualified expert
- Written from recorded conversations, not a marketing brief
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Frequently Asked Questions
Straight from the book. The full answers, with links, are on the FAQ page.
You cannot tell from the result alone. Most bad outcomes are not malpractice at all. A case needs care that fell below the nationally recognized guidelines and a departure that caused the injury, and another doctor has to be willing to say so. On a first call I can often tell someone there is no case. When there may be one, it takes months of investigation before I can say.
It starts with a long interview where you tell the story in your own words. Next I go through the medical records, build timelines, and have practicing doctors review them. A doctor signs a certificate of qualified expert, which is generally required. Then I file a complaint naming every party that belongs, and litigation begins. Virtually all cases, I think, go through mediation, and the decision to settle is yours.
Two clocks run, and missing either can end a strong case. For an adult I count three years from the injury, the conservative rule I give clients. The statute, section 5-109, sets the earlier of five years from the injury or three years from discovery, and a child gets far more time. The certificate has its own clock. As I put it, "if things are even one minute late, it's like they're a hundred years later."
A departure from the standard of care that caused the injury, a practicing doctor willing to sign the certificate, enough injury to justify an expensive case, and enough insurance. On that last one, there has to be enough insurance behind the case for me to tell a client plainly that there is a meaningful chance of a recovery. When one of these is missing, I tell the caller why.
The deadlines are unforgiving and the litigation tools are complicated. A party left out of the complaint can leave a family out of luck, and those tools are meant for lawyers with a lot of experience. The lawyer has to know the rules and file things on time. The research on who to name comes before the complaint.
Whether to file and whether to settle, and for how much, are yours. Strategy, briefs and wording are mine, though I bounce strategic ideas off my clients and keep them updated. As I put it, "It's their choice whether to file a lawsuit or not." I say this up front: if I bring you a number I think is fair and you do not, you can tell me no and we go to trial.
No, and I think that is the biggest misconception about lawyers like me. I do not hate doctors, and I have doctors who are my friends. Ethics bind me, a practicing doctor has to sign off, and a lawyer who files weak cases goes out of business. Most callers hear from me that the healthcare system did the right thing by them and that they do not have a case.
No. Birth injury runs through this book because, in my words, these are "the toughest cases, at least for me, to handle." The calls I hear most often are about surgical complications, and I also take anesthesia errors, misdiagnosis, failure to diagnose and neurosurgery cases, such as spinal and neck fusions. Not a lot of lawyers handle birth injury.
A lawsuit can bring compensation and accountability. It cannot undo what happened, and I tell clients so. Compensation can help a family pay for care, therapies and lost work that insurance does not cover. An apology is different. I cannot promise one, and in thirty-five years it has not happened much.
Callers tell me "I'm not the suing type", and I understand it. I believe that feeling comes largely from a message pushed by organizations with money behind them, insurance companies among them, that want to narrow access to justice. A malpractice case is not a lawsuit against anybody for anything. A doctor has to sign a certificate, and I turn away most of the people who call.
The Firm’s Medical Malpractice Practice Areas
Birth Injury
Birth injury claims for Maryland families.
Baltimore Birth Injury
Birth injury claims for Baltimore families.
Cerebral Palsy
Cerebral palsy claims after a birth injury.
Erb’s Palsy
Erb’s palsy claims after a difficult delivery.
Birth Asphyxia
Claims where a baby was deprived of oxygen.
Kernicterus
Claims involving untreated newborn jaundice.
Vacuum-Assisted Delivery
Claims involving vacuum-assisted deliveries.
Catastrophic Injuries
Claims involving catastrophic injuries.
Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice claims in Baltimore.
Failure to Diagnose
Claims where a condition was not diagnosed.
Misdiagnosis and Delayed Diagnosis
Claims involving a wrong or late diagnosis.
Surgical Errors
Claims involving errors in surgery.
Spinal Surgery Malpractice
Claims involving spinal surgery.
Emergency Room Malpractice
Claims involving emergency room care.
Medication Errors
Claims involving medication errors.
Sepsis
Claims involving missed or delayed sepsis care.
IV Infiltration
Claims involving IV infiltration injuries.
Nursing Home Abuse
Claims involving nursing home abuse and neglect.
Wrongful Death
Wrongful death claims after a medical error.