Texas Birth Injury Lawyers

More than 390,000 babies were born to Texas mothers in 2024, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, and about half of them to Hispanic mothers. Most arrive safely. When something goes wrong in the delivery room — a fetal monitor that was not watched, a C-section that came too late, a baby pulled too hard — the injury can last a lifetime, and Texas law gives the family a way to hold the hospital and the doctors accountable, within strict deadlines and rules.

This guide explains the injuries we see most, the deadlines that apply to a child’s case, how the Texas damage caps work, and what to ask the hospital for. Beverly Law is a Los Angeles personal injury firm; in Texas, we take birth-injury cases through licensed local counsel. Every page is general information; the honest answer for your family comes from a free review of the actual delivery records.

Birth injuries we handle

Deadline to file in Texas

Texas gives a child’s birth-injury case its own deadline, but it comes with a hard outer limit. Under Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 74.251, a health care liability claim must be filed within two years of the negligent act or of the end of the treatment or hospitalization, but a child under 12 has until his or her 14th birthday. The same statute adds a 10-year statute of repose that applies to everyone, children included, and the Texas Supreme Court enforced it in 2014 against a child injured at birth. For a baby hurt during labor or delivery, that means the case must be filed within 10 years of the delivery at the very latest, before the 14th birthday ever arrives. The clock does not wait for a diagnosis, the parents’ own claims generally have only two years, and the Court has refused to excuse a late filing when the parent waited too long, so it is safer to get advice early.

Many Texas babies are born at hospitals run by public hospital districts, such as Harris Health’s Ben Taub and Lyndon B. Johnson hospitals in Houston, Parkland Health in Dallas, University Health in San Antonio and JPS Health Network in Fort Worth, or at hospitals run by state universities. Claims against a government-run hospital fall under the Texas Tort Claims Act. Under Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 101.101, the governmental unit is entitled to notice of the claim within six months of the incident, describing the injury, the time and place, and what happened, and a city’s charter can require notice even sooner. The statute has no exception for minors, and Government Code § 311.034 makes notice a jurisdictional requirement. The Act also limits what a public entity can pay: under § 101.023, $100,000 per person for a unit of local government and $250,000 per person for the state government or a city. If your baby was born at a public hospital, act right away.

Before a medical malpractice lawsuit can be filed in Texas, each doctor and hospital must get written warning. Under Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 74.051, the notice of claim must be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, at least 60 days before suit, together with the medical authorization form written into § 74.052; without that form, the case is put on hold until 60 days after it is provided. Proper notice pauses the filing deadline for 75 days for all parties, and the Texas Supreme Court has held that notice sent without the authorization does not. Then, under § 74.351, the family must serve a report from a qualified expert, with the expert’s CV, on each defendant no later than the 120th day after that defendant files its answer. If the report is not served on time, the court, on the defendant’s motion, must dismiss the claim against that defendant with prejudice and award its attorney’s fees. In practice, the medical review has to be well underway before the lawsuit is filed.

What Texas caps — and what it does not

Texas limits one part of a medical malpractice recovery. Under Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 74.301, non-economic damages (pain and suffering, mental anguish, physical impairment, loss of enjoyment of life) are capped at $250,000 for all doctors and other individual providers combined, plus $250,000 per hospital or other health care institution, with no more than $500,000 for all institutions together. These amounts are fixed in the statute and do not rise with inflation, and everyone whose claim comes from one child’s injury, parents included, counts as a single claimant. Economic damages are not capped by § 74.301: lifetime medical care, therapy, equipment, attendant care and lost earning capacity can be recovered in full, although medical expenses are limited to the amounts actually paid or incurred (§ 41.0105). In a birth-injury case, those economic damages are usually the largest part of the claim. If a baby dies, a separate overall limit in § 74.303 applies; it is adjusted for inflation since 1977 and does not include the cost of medical and custodial care.

Related pages

Birth injury guides · Birth injury news · Accident news (Law Blog)

Important: This page is general information about birth injuries and Texas 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: 2026-09-30.