Erb’s Palsy Lawyers in Birmingham

Alabama Filing Deadlines for a Child’s Birth Injury Claim

Alabama generally requires a medical-malpractice action to be filed within two years of the act or omission that allegedly caused the injury.

If the claim could not reasonably have been discovered during that two-year period, Alabama law provides a limited discovery provision that can allow filing within six months of discovery, or discovery of facts that reasonably should have led to discovery, subject to the statute's other limits.

The law generally imposes a four-year outer limit on medical-malpractice actions.

Birth injury cases involving very young children have an important statutory exception. When the child was under four years old at the time of the alleged malpractice, Alabama Code § 6-5-482 provides that the child may have until the eighth birthday to commence the action.

That rule makes a child's age especially important in birth-injury limitation analysis.

Families should not assume that the eighth birthday automatically controls every potential claim, however. The parties bringing claims, the dates involved, and the legal theories asserted can affect the analysis. Having the timeline reviewed promptly is safer than relying on a generalized deadline.

What to Preserve After an Erb’s Palsy Diagnosis

Medical treatment should remain the priority after a diagnosis.

From a legal standpoint, families can also begin preserving information that may later help explain the delivery and the child's prognosis.

Useful records may include the complete hospital chart, fetal monitoring strips, delivery notes, therapy evaluations, imaging, nerve-conduction testing, surgical recommendations, photographs or videos showing arm movement over time, and records documenting the child's functional progress.

It can also help to keep a chronology of major appointments, procedures, therapies, and changes in movement or strength.

Those records can become important when medical professionals evaluate whether the injury is likely to resolve, whether surgery may be needed, and what long-term limitations the child may face.

A Catastrophic Injury Firm Built for Complex Medical Cases

Goldasich, Vick, & McCartney focuses on serious, high-stakes litigation.

Our published case results include more than $800 million recovered for clients, more than 85 results of $1 million or greater, and a $10 million medical-malpractice verdict.

Those results come from different types of cases and do not predict the outcome of an Erb’s palsy claim. They demonstrate the litigation resources and trial preparation our firm brings to catastrophic injury matters.

Our lawyers are licensed in Alabama and Georgia, and the firm can meet with clients virtually when coming to the Birmingham office is not practical.