Cerebral Palsy Lawyer in Washington

A cerebral palsy diagnosis changes everything you had planned. Between therapy, specialist visits and daily care, many parents in Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and across Washington State end up asking the same hard question: did something go wrong in the delivery room?

Sometimes the honest answer is no: most cerebral palsy is not caused by mistakes during labor. But sometimes the brain injury happened because a doctor or nurse missed warning signs, waited too long to act, or used a delivery tool the wrong way. When that happens, Washington law lets the family seek compensation for the child’s lifetime of care.

This page explains what cerebral palsy is, how errors during labor and delivery can cause it, the signs parents notice first, and how Beverly Law, working with licensed local counsel in Washington, reviews the medical records for free. Call 1 (877) 427-2752 any time, in English or Spanish.

What is cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and keep balance and posture. The CDC calls it the most common motor disability in childhood. It is caused by abnormal brain development or damage to the developing brain before birth, during birth, or in the first years of life.

According to Cleveland Clinic, CP affects about 3 out of every 1,000 children in the United States. The CDC reports that about 80% of cases are spastic CP, meaning stiff muscles and exaggerated reflexes. Other types cause slow, uncontrolled movements (dyskinetic) or balance problems (ataxic); some children have a mix.

CP is permanent and has no cure, but therapy, medicines for stiff muscles, braces and sometimes surgery help. A diagnosis usually happens between 1 and 2 years of age, once developmental delays become clear.

How mistakes during labor and delivery cause it

Some context first. The CDC reports that 85% to 90% of CP is congenital (the damage occurred before or during birth) and that scientists now believe lack of oxygen during birth explains only a small number of cases. Mayo Clinic agrees: oxygen loss during hard labor or delivery is a real cause, but less common than once thought.

Still, when a baby’s brain is starved of oxygen or blood flow during labor (hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, or HIE), the damage can be severe: Cleveland Clinic reports that an estimated 25% to 60% of infants with HIE develop long-term neurological conditions such as cerebral palsy or epilepsy. The legal question is whether the medical team could have prevented that oxygen loss by following standard practice. The most common failures:

• Ignored fetal heart-rate monitoring. The baby’s heart rate is watched during labor because an irregular pattern can mean too little oxygen. Repeated late decelerations or a slow heart rate are signs of fetal distress that call for action.
• Delayed emergency C-section. When position changes, IV fluids and stopping labor drugs do not resolve serious distress, the standard response is immediate delivery, by C-section or with forceps or vacuum. Every extra minute is more time without oxygen.
• Uterine rupture, placental abruption and cord problems. The CDC lists all three as events that can cut off the baby’s oxygen. They are emergencies that must be recognized fast.
• Too much labor-inducing medication. Contractions that come too often are a known cause of fetal distress; reducing or stopping oxytocin is a first step when the monitor shows a problem.
• Forceps or vacuum misuse. Used correctly both are safe, but they carry rare serious risks, including skull fracture and bleeding in or around the brain. Too much force, too many attempts or the wrong position raises those risks.
• Untreated infections. Maternal infections during pregnancy and newborn infections that cause swelling in or around the brain are recognized causes of CP. Failing to catch or treat them can be negligence.
• Untreated jaundice (kernicterus). Most newborns get some jaundice, but when severe jaundice goes untreated, bilirubin can cause brain damage called kernicterus, which can cause CP. The American Academy of Pediatrics says a baby with jaundice in the first 24 hours should have bilirubin measured right away; phototherapy is the standard treatment.

Signs parents notice

Signs usually appear in the first months of life, though the formal diagnosis often comes later. According to the CDC, NINDS and March of Dimes, parents may notice:

• Under 6 months: the baby feels unusually stiff or floppy; the head falls back when picked up; the legs stiffen and cross or “scissor”.
• After 6 months: does not roll over, cannot bring the hands together or to the mouth, or reaches with one hand while keeping the other in a fist.
• After 10 months: crawls lopsided, pushing off with one hand and leg and dragging the other side, or scoots on the bottom instead of crawling.
• Feeding problems: trouble sucking, chewing or swallowing, and a lot of drooling.
• Delayed milestones: late sitting, crawling, standing with support or walking.
• Abnormal muscle tone or reflexes: muscles that are too tight or too loose, exaggerated reflexes, an unusual posture or favoring one side of the body.
• Seizures, which some children with CP develop.

Is it medical negligence?

Not every bad outcome is malpractice. In Washington, RCW 7.70.040 sets the test: the provider must have “failed to exercise that degree of care, skill, and learning expected of a reasonably prudent health care provider” in the same profession, in the state of Washington, acting in the same or similar circumstances, and that failure must have been a proximate cause of the injury. A cerebral palsy case has to prove both parts: that the care fell below this standard of care, and that the failure caused the brain injury and real damages.

Causation is usually the hardest part. Because most CP is congenital and often cannot be traced to a single event, the defense will argue the injury happened before labor began. Proving otherwise takes the fetal monitoring strips, the timing of every decision, cord blood gases, Apgar scores and brain imaging, read by obstetric and pediatric neurology experts.

Be honest with yourself: many CP cases are not malpractice, and a lawyer who promises otherwise before seeing the records is not doing you a favor. Only a careful records review tells the difference. If the records show a preventable delay or an ignored warning, there is a case to evaluate. If not, you deserve to hear it plainly.

Deadline to file in Washington

In Washington State, a medical malpractice case must be filed within the time set by RCW 4.16.350: three years from the act or omission, or one year from when the injury and its cause were discovered or reasonably should have been, whichever expires later. For a child, that clock is generally paused until age 18. In Schroeder v. Weighall (2014), the Washington Supreme Court struck down the law that denied minors this pause in malpractice cases, and the Legislature removed it in 2023. For a baby hurt during labor or delivery, that usually means the child’s own case can be filed until about the 21st birthday. The old eight-year outer limit was struck down in Bennett v. United States (2023). Parents’ own claims are not paused, and claims against public hospitals add a required step, so it is safer to get advice early.

Some Washington babies are born at public hospitals, and a claim against them starts with paperwork, not a lawsuit. The University of Washington, which runs UW Medical Center, is part of state government: under RCW 4.92.100 and 4.92.110, a claim on the state’s standard tort claim form must be presented to the Office of Risk Management, and no lawsuit may be filed until 60 days after that. Public hospital districts, such as Valley Medical Center in Renton and EvergreenHealth in Kirkland, are local government entities: under RCW 4.96.020 the claim goes to the agent the district has appointed, within the time limit for the lawsuit, followed by the same 60-day wait. Harborview Medical Center is owned by King County and operated by UW Medicine, so a claim may need to go to more than one public body. The filing deadline is paused during the 60 days, but a missing or misdirected claim can put a case at risk.

What compensation covers

A child with cerebral palsy may need support for life, and the goal of a claim is that this support does not depend on what the family can afford. Depending on the facts, compensation may cover lifetime medical care (doctors, specialists, hospital stays, medications, future surgeries) and therapy: physical, occupational, speech and recreational, often for years.

It may also cover equipment and its replacement as the child grows (wheelchairs, walkers, braces, communication devices), home and vehicle modifications such as ramps, accessible bathrooms and lifts, and in-home care for daily activities.

Finally, it covers the child’s lost earning capacity, the parents’ lost income when one cuts hours or leaves work to provide care, and pain and suffering: physical pain and loss of enjoyment of life, which Washington law treats as non-economic damages.

Washington does not cap damages in a medical malpractice case. In Sofie v. Fibreboard Corp. (1989), the Washington Supreme Court held that the state’s limit on non-economic damages violated the right to a jury trial in article I, section 21 of the state constitution, and in 2023 the Legislature repealed that old limit (RCW 4.56.250). A jury can award the full amount of a child’s losses: economic damages such as lifetime medical care, therapy, equipment, home modifications and lost earning capacity, and non-economic damages such as pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life, with no statutory ceiling on either. Under RCW 4.24.010, parents can also recover their own losses, including the child’s medical expenses and the injury to the parent-child relationship. Any settlement for a child must be approved by a court.

What to ask the hospital for

You have the right to request your own medical records and your child’s. Ask for the complete file, not a summary, in writing. Under Washington’s RCW 70.02.080, a health care provider must respond to a written request no later than 15 working days after receiving it. If you cannot get everything, the records are requested from the hospital as part of the free review. What matters most:

• Complete prenatal and labor-and-delivery records, with the time of every medication, exam and decision.
• Fetal heart-rate monitoring strips (the continuous tracing, not just notes about it).
• Nursing notes and flow sheets from labor, delivery and the newborn nursery.
• Apgar scores.
• Umbilical cord blood gas results.
• NICU records, including bilirubin levels, any cooling treatment (therapeutic hypothermia) and EEG results.
• Imaging: head ultrasound, MRI and CT reports, and the images themselves.
• Discharge summaries for mother and baby.

How Beverly Law helps

Beverly Law is a Los Angeles personal injury firm. In Washington State, we take birth-injury and medical malpractice cases through licensed local counsel. The first step is always a free review of the medical records: they are requested and read by qualified experts in obstetrics, neonatology and pediatric neurology, and you get an honest answer about whether the evidence points to a preventable injury.

If it does, we and our Washington counsel handle everything from there: the claim forms if the hospital is public, the hospital and its lawyers, the insurer, the experts, mediation and the litigation. You focus on your child. We work on contingency: no fee unless we win, nothing up front, and nothing at all if there is no recovery.

Our team serves families in English y Español, by phone or video. Call 1 (877) 427-2752 to talk with us about what happened during your delivery.

Questions parents ask

Related pages

Erb’s Palsy / Brachial Plexus Injury · HIE / Oxygen Deprivation at Birth · Statute of Limitations · Damages in Washington · Washington birth injury lawyers

Important: This page is general information about birth injuries and Washington 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.