Rhode Island Birth Injury Lawyers

Fighting for Families Harmed by Negligence

If your child suffered a preventable birth injury, or if a medical mistake during labor or delivery caused serious harm to you or your baby, you may have grounds to pursue compensation. 

At Decof, Mega & Quinn, P.C., our Providence birth injury attorneys represent families across Rhode Island in high-stakes birth injury and medical malpractice cases. 

Families trust us because:

• We are Rhode Island's first law firm to specialize in personal injury law.
• We’ve recovered over $1 billion for clients since our firm was founded in 1975.
• We’ve secured record-setting results, including the largest medical malpractice verdict in Rhode Island history and major recoveries in birth injury cases.
• Our deep bench of attorneys includes award-winning trial lawyers with over 200 years of experience and a former medical malpractice defense attorney.

A Legacy in Birth Injury Litigation

Comprised of some of the state’s leading lawyers, Decof, Mega & Quinn, P.C. is known for litigating complex birth injury cases. We have secured over $1 billion in verdicts and settlements, and have more record-setting verdicts than any other firm in RI.

Some of our recent recoveries include:

Why Families Put These Cases in Our Hands

Birth injury cases are expensive to investigate, hard to prove, and aggressively defended. Families affected by medical negligence need a law firm with the resources, reputation, and experience to take on hospitals, insurers, and defense teams in high-stakes litigation.

At Decof, Mega & Quinn, P.C., we offer:

Extensive Resources for Complex Cases

Birth injury cases require extensive records review, expert analysis, and major investment before trial. We have built our practice to handle that work.

Nationally Recognized Attorneys

We’re recognized as a Best Law Firms® Tier 1 Medical Malpractice firm and have attorneys who have been selected as “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers®.

Defense-Side Insight from Mike Quinn

Mike Quinn previously defended hospitals, doctors, and medical providers in malpractice cases, giving our team valuable insight into how these claims are fought.

Do I Have a Birth Injury Case?

Not every difficult pregnancy, labor, or delivery outcome is the result of medical negligence. Some complications cannot be prevented. Others happen because a doctor, nurse, hospital, or other provider failed to deliver care that met accepted medical standards.

One of the first questions families often face is whether they are dealing with a birth defect or a birth injury, which will often determine their right to pursue compensation.

Birth Defects vs. Birth Injuries

• Birth defects generally develop during pregnancy. They are often tied to genetics, fetal development, or other congenital conditions. In some cases, outside exposures or medical mistakes may play a role, but many birth defects are not caused by malpractice.
• Birth injuries happen during pregnancy, labor, delivery, or the immediate postpartum period. These cases may involve trauma, oxygen deprivation, delayed intervention, improper delivery techniques, medication mistakes, or failures to respond to complications.

Examples of Labor & Delivery Negligence

A birth injury case may exist when a provider’s substandard care caused preventable harm. 

Examples can include:

• Failure to monitor fetal distress or maternal distress
• Delay in ordering or performing a medically necessary C-section
• Improper use of forceps or vacuum extraction
• Failure to recognize or treat placental abruption, uterine rupture, infection, preeclampsia, or umbilical cord complications
• Medication or anesthesia errors during labor and delivery
• Failure to respond appropriately to signs of oxygen deprivation

Taking Steps to Determine Liability

Determining whether negligence caused a birth injury is rarely simple. These cases require careful review of prenatal records, labor and delivery records, fetal monitoring strips, imaging, and expert medical opinions. Our birth injury attorneys in Rhode Island help families investigate what happened and whether preventable errors may have played a role.

Birth Injury Cases We Handle

Our firm handles a wide range of birth injury and childbirth negligence claims.

We often handle birth injury cases that involve:

• Cerebral palsy
• Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)
• Brain damage from oxygen deprivation
• Delayed C-section injuries
• Developmental delays
• Shoulder dystocia
• Brachial plexus injuries / Erb’s palsy
• Klumpe’s palsy
• Birth trauma from forceps or vacuum extraction
• Skull fractures and intracranial bleeding
• Maternal injuries caused by labor and delivery negligence
• Maternal death or infant wrongful death

Who Can Be Liable for a Birth Injury?

Liability in a birth injury case depends on what happened, who was involved, and whether their actions fell below the standard of care. In some cases, responsibility may rest with one provider. In others, multiple individuals and entities may share liability.

Potentially liable parties can include:

• Obstetricians and physicians who failed to diagnose complications, delayed treatment, or made negligent delivery decisions
• Nurses and labor staff who failed to monitor the mother or baby, communicate changes, or carry out appropriate interventions
• Hospitals and medical facilities that may be responsible for staff negligence, inadequate policies, poor supervision, or systemic breakdowns in care
• Midwives or other birth attendants whose errors contributed to preventable injuries
• Anesthesiologists or other specialists involved in labor, delivery, or emergency intervention

Identifying who should be held accountable requires more than looking at a bad outcome. It requires understanding how care was supposed to be delivered, where it broke down, and which decisions or failures directly contributed to the harm.

What Do I Have to Prove in a Birth Injury Lawsuit?

Like other medical malpractice claims, birth injury cases are built around several core elements. 

In general, you must be able to prove that:

• A provider owed a duty of care. The provider or facility had a professional responsibility to deliver treatment that met accepted medical standards.
• The standard of care was breached. A doctor, nurse, hospital, or other provider failed to act as a reasonably competent medical professional should have acted under similar circumstances.
• The breach caused injury. It is not enough to show that something went wrong. The evidence must connect negligent care to the injury.
• The injury resulted in damages. The harm must have led to measurable losses, such as medical bills, disability, long-term care needs, pain and suffering, or other serious consequences.

These are expert-driven cases. Hospitals and insurers often argue that a child’s condition was unavoidable, genetic, or unrelated to the care provided. Proving otherwise requires detailed records analysis, strong medical experts, and a law firm with specialized experience.

Compensation for Birth Injury Victims

Compensation in a birth injury lawsuit depends on the nature of the injury, the long-term impact on the child and family, and the facts surrounding the negligence. In serious cases, damages can be substantial because the consequences are often lifelong.

Recoverable damages may include compensation for:

• Past and future medical expenses
• Hospitalization, surgeries, therapy, and rehabilitation
• Long-term nursing care or attendant care
• Assistive devices, home modifications, and specialized equipment
• Special education and supportive services
• Lost earning capacity or diminished future opportunities
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Damages related to maternal injury or wrongful death, where applicable

In the most severe birth injury cases, financial recovery must account not only for what a family has already lost, but also for what the child may need over the course of a lifetime.

Deadlines for Filing a Birth Injury Lawsuit in RI

Birth injury claims are generally governed by the state’s medical malpractice statute of limitations, which often requires lawsuits to be filed within three years. 

Rhode Island law also includes important rules involving minors, delayed discovery, and certain disabilities that can affect when the filing period expires. For example:

• Claims involving children may be treated differently. Rhode Island law provides that when the injured person is under a disability by reason of age, and no action is brought within the initial three-year period, the action may be brought up to age 21.
• Some injuries are not immediately discoverable. If the malpractice could not reasonably have been discovered at the time it occurred, the law may allow suit to be filed within three years from when the malpractice should have been discovered through reasonable diligence. 
• Other tolling issues may apply in limited situations. Rhode Island also has statutes addressing legal disability and fraudulent concealment, both of which can affect when a limitations period begins or expires. 

Statute of limitations issues in birth injury cases can get complicated quickly, especially when the injuries involve a newborn, delayed diagnoses, lifelong impairments, or questions about when families reasonably could have known that negligence played a role. 

Waiting too long can put a claim at risk, so it is best to speak with a RI birth injury lawyer as soon as possible. Call Decof, Mega & Quinn, P.C. today for a free consultation.

Tell Us Your Story in a Free Consultation

Birth injury cases are among the most difficult medical malpractice claims families can face. They are also among the most important. When a child suffers preventable harm, families deserve clear answers, honest guidance, and attorneys with the experience to help.