San Diego Birth Injury Lawyers

From Chula Vista and National City to Escondido and Oceanside, Latino families make up a large part of San Diego County, and the California Department of Public Health counted 36,035 births to county residents in 2024. Most parents leave the hospital with a healthy baby. When they do not, and the cause was an avoidable error during labor, delivery or the first hours of life, they need someone to read the medical records with a critical eye.

Maternity care in San Diego is split between University of California hospitals (Jacobs Medical Center in La Jolla and Hillcrest Medical Center, both part of UC San Diego Health), a public health care district hospital in Escondido (Palomar Medical Center), and large private systems such as Sharp, Scripps and Kaiser Permanente. Whether the hospital is a public entity or a private one is the first thing that determines the deadline in a birth-injury claim, so it is the first thing Beverly Law checks.

Hospitals where babies are delivered in San Diego

These are some of the hospitals with labor and delivery units in San Diego County, with the type of hospital and the NICU level where we could confirm it:

• Jacobs Medical Center at UC San Diego Health — 9300 Campus Point Dr., La Jolla, CA 92037 · University of California hospital (UC San Diego, public entity) · Level III NICU
• UC San Diego Health – Hillcrest Medical Center — 200 W. Arbor Dr., San Diego, CA 92103 · University of California hospital (UC San Diego, public entity) · Level II NICU
• Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns — 3003 Health Center Dr., San Diego, CA 92123 · Private hospital · Level III NICU
• Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla — 9888 Genesee Ave., La Jolla, CA 92037 · Private hospital · Level III NICU
• Scripps Mercy Hospital San Diego — 4077 Fifth Ave., San Diego, CA 92103 · Private hospital · Level II NICU
• Sharp Grossmont Hospital — 5555 Grossmont Center Dr., La Mesa, CA 91942 · Private hospital · NICU
• Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center — 9455 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., San Diego, CA 92123 · Private hospital (Kaiser) · NICU
• Palomar Medical Center Escondido (Palomar UC San Diego Health) — 2185 Citracado Pkwy., Escondido, CA 92029 · Public health care district hospital

Public hospital or private hospital: why it changes the deadline

Of the hospitals listed above, Jacobs Medical Center and Hillcrest Medical Center belong to the University of California and Palomar Medical Center Escondido is run by a public health care district, so those three are public entities; Sharp Mary Birch, Sharp Grossmont, Scripps Memorial La Jolla, Scripps Mercy and Kaiser Permanente are private.

Many California babies are born at county or University of California hospitals: LAC+USC, Harbor-UCLA, Olive View-UCLA, Riverside University Health System, Arrowhead Regional, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UC Davis and others. These are public entities, and the Government Claims Act applies. Under Government Code § 911.2, a written claim for injury or death must be presented to the public entity within six months of the injury, before any lawsuit. If the claim is rejected in writing, Government Code § 945.6 gives six months from that notice to file suit. The child’s longer deadline under Code of Civil Procedure § 340.5 does not replace this six-month claim, so families with a public-hospital birth should act right away.

Where a birth-injury case is filed in San Diego County

In San Diego County, a medical malpractice lawsuit is an unlimited civil case filed with the Superior Court of California, County of San Diego. Civil cases are filed through the court’s Civil Business Office at the Hall of Justice, 330 West Broadway, San Diego, CA 92101, where the civil independent-calendar courtrooms also sit. Beverly Law prepares and files the complaint and handles every court appearance for you.

Deadline to file

California gives a child’s birth-injury case its own deadline. Under Code of Civil Procedure § 340.5, a minor must sue within three years of the wrongful act, but a child who was under six when it happened has until his or her eighth birthday if that is longer. For a baby hurt during labor or delivery, that usually means the eighth birthday. The clock runs from the act itself, not from the day the family learned what went wrong, and it is paused only in narrow cases of fraud or collusion. Parents’ own claims, and claims against a public hospital, can have much shorter deadlines, so it is safer to get advice early.

Birth injuries we handle in San Diego

Beverly Law handles the full range of birth injuries for families in San Diego, including:

• Cerebral Palsy →
• Erb’s Palsy / Brachial Plexus Injury →
• HIE / Oxygen Deprivation at Birth →
• Statute of Limitations →
• MICRA Damages Cap →

How Beverly Law helps families in San Diego

Beverly Law starts every San Diego birth-injury case the same way: we obtain the labor and delivery records, fetal monitoring strips and NICU notes at no cost to you, and we have them reviewed by obstetric and neonatal medical experts to find out whether the injury could have been prevented. If it could, we deal with the hospital and its insurer from that point on, so that you can focus on your child.

There is no fee unless we win, and in California medical malpractice cases attorney fees are set by law. Our team works in English y Español, and if getting to an office is hard with a newborn or a child with special needs, we come to you anywhere in San Diego County or set up a video consultation.

Questions parents ask

Related pages

Los Angeles · Orange County · Riverside · San Bernardino · California birth injury lawyers

Important: This page is general information about birth injuries and California law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship with Beverly Law. Every case is different — talk to a lawyer about your own situation. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. No fee unless we win. Last reviewed: 2026-09-18.