Brachial Plexus Birth Injury Lawyers in the United States (2026)

About brachial plexus injury claims

A brachial plexus birth injury damages the nerves that connect a baby's spinal cord to the arm. You may see weakness or paralysis at birth. Malpractice isn't proven by the injury alone. For a claim, care below the applicable standard must be linked to your child's injury and the harm that followed. If the delivery worries you, your child's clinician can explain the diagnosis. A lawyer in your state or province can talk with you about having the care reviewed.

Put your child's needs first. Ask for a clear explanation of the injury. Sorting out fault can wait until you've asked for that explanation. A legal review doesn't examine the same questions that medical care addresses. Memory alone shouldn't be all you have to work from when seeking medical care or a legal review after a difficult delivery.

What is a brachial plexus birth injury?

A group of nerves links the spinal cord to the arm. This nerve group is the brachial plexus. An injury to these nerves at birth affects how the arm moves. Damage may affect one or more nerve roots, as Medscape's overview of neonatal brachial plexus palsies explains. Those nerve roots are identified as C5-T1. The injury is present when the baby is born.

You may hear “brachial plexus injury” or “brachial plexus palsy” in discussions of the condition. The names can be confusing. “neonatal brachial plexus injury.” is another term you might hear. Look in your child's chart for the exact diagnosis. Ask the treating clinician to explain the diagnosis. Injuries described by the same terms can involve different damage. Cases can differ in damage extent.

Erb's palsy is a related diagnosis. In its description of Erb's palsy, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke identifies numbness and paralysis involving the upper brachial plexus. Klumpke's palsy is another name you might hear. Your child's chart is the place to check the diagnosis; ask the clinician which nerves it involves. You can also ask what those findings mean for your child.

How the injury happens and what parents may notice

During delivery, the brachial plexus nerves can be damaged by stretching or compression. Tearing can damage them, too. They describe the way nerves are damaged. You can't tell why your child's injury happened from those terms alone. They don't tell you who's responsible, either.

You may hear about shoulder dystocia, a delivery complication, when discussing these injuries. With shoulder dystocia, the baby's shoulder gets stuck during birth. The review should examine the delivery notes for any entry where the team recorded shoulder dystocia. It isn't proof of negligence.

Pediatrics in Review identifies weakness or paralysis of an upper extremity at birth as the clearest warning signs. If your baby's arm movement worries you, have a clinician assess it. Your baby still needs an examination, even if you have an account of the delivery.

Reading the medical information carefully

Nerve-root designations used in Medscape's description of neonatal brachial plexus palsy

C5-T1

Source

The anatomy is what these labels describe. You can't judge the severity of your child's injury from those labels. They don't establish negligence during delivery, either. Ask your treating clinician to explain the examination findings. They can help you understand what the terms mean for your child.

Prognosis doesn't tell you who's at fault. For the medical outlook, talk with your child's clinician. To assess a possible malpractice claim, a lawyer can examine what the records support. Neither question has an answer in the diagnosis alone. You won't find treatment recommendations on this page. This page doesn't give a recovery timetable, either.

When a birth injury may be malpractice

Care isn't shown to be negligent by a bad outcome alone. In a malpractice review, the care you received is compared with the applicable standard. The review must also examine any injury caused by care below that standard. It must consider the harm that followed. The rules that apply depend on the place where you received care.

The standard of care

What should the delivery team have done in those circumstances? That's what a reviewer examines when evaluating the standard of care. The reviewer needs the record. The baby's injury alone doesn't give a reviewer enough information to assess the care. The delivery decisions need review, including how the team responded to any complication documented in the record. The lawyer can explain what medical review is needed.

A phrase can't give you the full picture. “Difficult delivery” doesn't fully describe what the team did during your child's birth. “Shoulder dystocia” names a complication. That phrase alone doesn't support a legal conclusion. The delivery notes can help you understand what happened. The delivery notes may leave some questions from your account unanswered.

Causation

Causation means linking an alleged error to the injury. One concerning entry in the delivery record doesn't establish that link. The review must look at whether the alleged error caused the nerve damage your child suffered. A lawyer in your state or province can explain what evidence might connect the alleged error to the injury.

Harm

Describe your child's injury clearly for the review, including how it affects them. Keep what you've observed separate from the medical findings. Keep the clinician's assessment of arm function in your records. Save your dated account of daily difficulties separately; it serves a different purpose from the clinician's assessment.

Keep the bills and records of care-related expenses together. You may not recover every cost. Your state or province's rules determine which losses can be included in a claim. Ask a lawyer there for help with the documentation.

The Birth Injury page covers the broader subject. For more on delivery decisions, see Obstetrical Malpractice. If your concerns involve care from a midwife, see the Midwife Malpractice page.

What to do next

You don't need a polished case file for the first conversation. The lawyer needs the delivery's date and location. Give your understanding of the diagnosis. Describe the records you've gathered. You can say, "I don't know."

Deadlines differ by state and province

Families in the United States and Canada don't all have the same filing deadline. Each state or province sets its own statute of limitations. A lawyer in that state or province can explain how those rules apply to your child.

Start with where you received care. Our state pages and Canada pages explain more about the jurisdiction where you received care. Your deadline could differ from another family's. Don't assume you have more time to file because the claim involves a child.

Questions to bring to a lawyer

During your first conversation, ask the lawyer to explain what comes next. Have them explain what they can assess now. Find out which questions remain unanswered. Agreeing to review your records doesn't mean the lawyer is promising your claim will succeed.

• Please tell me about the brachial plexus birth injury claims you've handled, if any. Please describe the work you did on those claims, too.
• Please tell me which records you'd need to assess the delivery care.
• During your review of this claim, please explain when you'd need an expert witness or expert report.
• Help me understand my filing deadline. Please tell me what information you need to confirm that deadline, too.
• Please explain the fees and case expenses I'd face if you took the case.
• Please explain what would happen if the medical review didn't support a claim.

You can ask for an explanation that's clearer. The lawyer may need more than a first review to resolve causation, even with the records in hand. Have the lawyer explain why they need more information. The lawyer's next steps are something you can ask about, too.