New York's Best Personal Injury Lawyers

Mr. Merson was honored to be included in New York Law Journal’s first ever “Hall of Fame” for medical malpractice verdicts and settlements.

When New York Magazine published its top verdicts in 2014, Mr. Merson was included on that list, as well.

In fact, Mr. Merson has had the largest single-plaintiff medical malpractice verdict in Westchester County for at least a five year period and he had the largest verdict in Westchester County for any type of case in 2014 — an $11.3 million verdict after the defendant that proceeded to trial refused to offer any money to settle the case.

Mr. Merson was also named in Super Lawyers and he has been quoted by the national and local media, including USA Today, the New York Law Journal and the Daily News.

How to Find a Personal Injury Lawyer that’s Right for You

Throughout most of modern history, childbirth was extremely traumatic and often fatal for both the mother and child. However, since 1915, advances in modern medicine have made childbirth increasingly more safe.

These advances have elevated the standard for childbirth to what it is today. This standard includes the expectation that trained medical staff can and will do everything in their power to ensure a healthy and successful delivery.

Medical malpractice is its own unique category of law because medical professionals are held to different standards than the general public. This is because as a society, we expect medical professionals to help us. When you seek the care of a medical professional, you expect that they are educated and trained in their field. You expect that they prioritize your wellbeing and do everything they can to ensure it.

This expectation is known as the standard of care, or standard of practice.

“The ‘medical standard of care’ is typically defined as the level and type of care that a reasonably competent and skilled health care professional, with a similar background and in the same medical community, would have provided under the circumstances that led to the alleged malpractice.”

–nolo.com

There are caveats to this standard of care. For example, you wouldn’t expect your dentist to be able to diagnose an eye infection – that’s not their specialty. You would however expect your OB/GYN to be able to diagnose gestational diabetes or complications in your pregnancy, since these issues relate to their specialty. 

Because of this, you would not be able to sue your dentist if you discovered that your eye infection was glaucoma. Your dentist cannot diagnose this issue, since they did not train in that field.

But if your OB/GYN did not recognize a complication in your pregnancy, and that complication developed into a birth injury, you may be able to sue for that birth injury.

How to Know if You Can Sue for a Birth Injury

To have a viable birth injury case, four legal elements must be proven:

1. A professional duty owed to the patient
2. Breach of such duty
3. Birth injury caused by the breach
4. Resulting damages: money damages, if awarded, typically take into account both actual economic loss and non-economic loss, such as pain and suffering.

What does this mean?

Professional Duty Owed to the Patient

This means that you retained the medical services of a doctor or other medical professional. When you do so, that medical professional owes a duty to you, the patient. 

This is to ensure that you do not sue a doctor that did not treat you or did not owe you their services at the time of the injury.

Breach of Such Duty

A breach of duty is some action (or inaction) by a medical professional that broke that expectation between you and them. 

Birth Injury was Caused by the Breach

The birth injury must have been caused by this action or inaction in order for your case to be viable.

Resulting Damages

You must be able to prove that there were damages or injury that occurred because of this action. 

These elements are difficult to prove without the assistance of a birth injury lawyer or medical professional.