Legal Question in Medical Malpractice in Massachusetts
birth injury
What is the statue of limitations for a birth injury. My son is now 8yrs old. Has mulitple disabilities. Bleed for the first six months of pregnancy. Had known placenta-previa.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: birth injury
most likely three years, however the clock begins to run when you discovered, or should have, that you had potential claims causing the problems. If your child's unfortunate condition evolved over time and took a while to figure out what was casuing it (or might have), and it was only within the last 3 years that you were able to reasonably discern the potential cause, you might still have claims to bring. Totally depends on the facts.
Even if you did have claims left, you would have to expect a vigorous statute of limitations challenmeg by the defendants. they will look to every fact that happened more than 3 years ago and argue that based on that/those older facts, a reasonable person would have discovered sooner the potnetial for claims, in an effort to defeat the claims. The analysis is not when YOU reasonably discovered the potential claims, it is when the reasonable person would/should have. But your facts would control that analysis.