How Expert Testimony Strengthens Arizona Birth Injury Claims

Many birth injury cases are brought as medical malpractice claims. Because the causes and types of birth injuries can be complex to establish, successful plaintiffs often rely on expert testimony to support their claims during settlement negotiations or in court.

In Arizona, the success of birth injury claims often depends on establishing medical negligence. Expert testimony is key to this objective. In most Arizona medical malpractice cases, if the defendant is a specialist, a standard-of-care expert must practice (and, if applicable, be board-certified) in the same specialty, as required by A.R.S. § 12-2604. These experts analyze medical records, identify deviations from accepted practices, and link those deviations to the child’s birth injury.

Medical malpractice claims are multifaceted and complex. In this blog post, we focus solely on the role that expert medical witnesses play in supporting birth injury claims in Arizona, including some specific state requirements for expert witnesses in medical malpractice lawsuits.

If your newborn child suffers from a birth injury in Arizona, the personal injury attorneys of Verderame Law Group Arizona Injury Lawyers can help you understand your legal options under Arizona’s medical malpractice laws. Speak with an experienced birth injury attorney today. Contact us online to schedule a free consultation.

Causes of birth injuries

Many times, a medical mistake can lead to a birth injury. Some of these errors include:

• Misuse of a medical device, like forceps or a vacuum extractor
• Medication errors
• Miscommunication among medical personnel, like doctors and nurses
• Delays or failures to use necessary procedures, like C-sections, or to respond to medical emergencies, like signs of fetal distress
• Failure to consult with specialist doctors in high-risk deliveries
• Failure of medical personnel to follow proper procedures or guidelines, such as failing to monitor an infant’s oxygen saturation before, during, and after delivery
• Pulling the baby’s arm at delivery with too much force
• Failure to properly resuscitate a baby after delivery
• Use of unethical or nonstandard methods and procedures
• Inadequate staffing or hiring unskilled medical workers
• Failure to properly train medical workers

How do you prove medical malpractice in a birth injury claim?

Now that we have a sense of how birth injuries can occur, the next question is how, in an Arizona medical malpractice claim, you can prove liability for the birth injury. In medical malpractice actions, this proof often requires expert witness testimony.

Fundamentally, in a medical malpractice action, you need to establish professional negligence. The elements of your claim are much the same as with a personal injury cause of action generally, including:

• The existence of a duty of care to you and the newborn on the part of the medical personnel involved in the birth injury-causing event.
• A breach of that duty of care. Here, the difference between ordinary negligence and medical malpractice is that, instead of a “reasonable person” standard, for medical malpractice, the standard is whether the medical professional deviated from the accepted standard of care of other, similar medical professionals under the same circumstances. This is a key reason why medical expert testimony is often needed in medical malpractice claims.
• Causation of harm. You must establish a direct link between the medical professional’s breach of duty and the birth injury.
• Damages. You must show that physical, emotional, and financial harm resulted from the birth injury. Examples of birth injury damages include medical costs, future care needs, and pain and suffering.

The use of medical expert testimony in birth injury cases

Because the standard of care in medical malpractice is based on analyzing how a competent medical professional would have acted, it takes someone with expertise in the field to know what that standard is. In most Arizona medical malpractice cases, expert testimony is required to establish liability; only in rare, obvious-negligence situations can a case proceed without medical expert testimony.

But how do you know who qualifies as a medical expert for testimony purposes? This is where Arizona law steps in to help.

The preliminary affidavit of merit requirement under the Arizona medical malpractice law

A.R.S. § 12-2603 requires the plaintiff in a medical malpractice action to serve a preliminary expert opinion affidavit with the initial disclosures or within a time set by the court, explaining the factual basis for each claim. This includes the acts, errors, or failure to act that the expert believes breached the appropriate professional standard of care.

The purpose of requiring this preliminary affidavit is to reduce the chance of unwarranted medical malpractice claims in Arizona.

Content of the preliminary affidavit

A.R.S. § 12-2603 sets forth the specific information that must be included in the preliminary affidavit. This includes:

• The identification of the healthcare professional or professionals accused of negligence.
• A description of the applicable professional standard of care.
• An explanation of how the defendant breached that standard of care.
• A detailed explanation of the causal connection between the breach and the plaintiff’s injury.

Failure to comply with this requirement can result in dismissal if the deficiency is not corrected after notice.

Who qualifies as an expert?

A.R.S. § 12-2604 defines an expert as a healthcare professional who is qualified by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education in the relevant medical field. The expert must have recent, active experience in the same specialty as the defendant.

• If the defendant is a specialist, then the expert must specialize in the same field and, if the defendant is board-certified, hold the same board certification.
• If the defendant is board-certified, then the expert must be board-certified in that specialty.
• The expert must have devoted a majority of their professional time during the year preceding the incident to active clinical practice or teaching in the same specialty.
• Courts strictly interpret the statute and have excluded experts with closely related but not identical board certifications.

Other specialists can also provide supporting expert testimony to support your medical malpractice claim. These can include life care planners, rehabilitation physicians, and therapists. Their expert testimony can be helpful in establishing how much compensation will be needed to cover future medical expenses, assistive devices, and support services in the aftermath of a birth injury.

Exceptions to the general affidavit requirement

The requirement of an expert witness affidavit is not absolute. A plaintiff may certify that expert testimony is not necessary—such as in cases where negligence is obvious to a layperson, known as the ‘common knowledge’ exception—and no affidavit is required unless the court later determines that expert testimony is needed.

How expert testimony bolsters a birth injury claim

The filing of the preliminary affidavit is only the beginning of the process. Expert witness testimony is central to a medical malpractice case. Your case may need the testimony of multiple experts to be successful.

Establishing the professional standard of care

Obstetricians often serve as expert witnesses to review medical records, fetal monitoring data, and delivery notes to establish what the defendant or defendants should have done to comply with accepted medical protocols and guidelines.

Other specialists, like neonatologists and maternal-fetal medicine experts, can help to clarify standards for newborn care and high-risk pregnancies.

Proving causation

Proving that the defendant’s actions were the direct cause of the birth injury is where pediatric neurologists and other medical experts can be decisive. They can analyze your child’s condition and medical history, explain how events during labor or delivery could have led to the birth injury, and rule out alternative causes like genetic conditions.

Assessing long-term impact

The long-term consequences of birth injuries can have a serious impact on your child’s physical, cognitive, and emotional development. Pediatric neurologists are well qualified to assess the extent of neurological damage and predict future challenges like mobility issues, developmental delays, or seizure disorders.

Do you have a potential claim for birth injury in Arizona?

Expert testimony from obstetricians, pediatric neurologists, and other specialists is essential to proving birth injury claims in Arizona. Having the right birth injury lawyer is equally essential in finding the right medical expert witnesses to support the essential elements you must prove to prepare a birth injury medical malpractice claim for settlement or trial.

At Verderame Law Group Arizona Injury Lawyers, we care about our clients and understand the pain that a birth injury causes. Our birth injury attorneys have helped numerous families secure the compensation they need to provide an injured child with necessary medical treatment for a long and happy life. To assist in this process, we solicit the help of qualified healthcare professionals to review our potential catastrophic injury cases before bringing the claim.

We take care of all up-front costs, and you don’t pay us unless we secure a settlement or verdict on your behalf. If your family has been affected by a birth injury and you are seeking honest legal assistance, complete our contact form today to schedule a consultation at our office in Phoenix.