Complaints and legal advice — Birth Trauma Association

Our personal injury and medical negligence solicitors understand the life-altering impact birth trauma can have. We advise clients on birth injury as well as maternal damage claims. Making the decision to bring a claim can be daunting when you have so much else to concern you but we can support you every step of the way.

We have a dedicated team of lawyers who specialise in medical negligence claims many of who focus on birth and maternal injuries as well as injuries arising from women’s healthcare generally. We also support the promotion of safer maternity care by collaborating with charities and other relevant agencies where possible.

Flexible funding options are available. At Russell-Cooke, you're more than a client – you're deserving of the utmost care and advocacy.

We are accredited by the Law Society for Clinical Negligence. Our medical negligence team members are also on the Law Society and Action Against Medical Accidents (AVMA) clinical negligence panels and have been accredited by Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) as Medical Negligence Specialists. We are also Lexcel accredited by the Law Society for excellence in legal practice management and client care. We have a proven record of success in and out of the courts for obtaining settlements which are life changing for individuals and families. Many of these are exceptionally high value cases involving the most serious brain injuries to babies.

Please email us with any enquiry you may have on BTAnewenquiries@russell-cooke.co.uk

Bernadette McGhie

Bernadette.mcghie@russell-cooke.co.uk

020 8394 6567

Janice Gardner

Janice.gardner@russell-cooke.co.uk

020 8394 6569

How we can help

We will take time to listen to your concerns about the treatment you or your baby received and the impact on you and your family before advising you how we can help.

We are dedicated to advocating for your rights and well-being, navigating complex medical and legal issues with care and compassion. We will manage your case with the benefit of our extensive and varied experience dealing with claims against the NHS and private medical doctors, hospitals or clinics and understand the stresses placed on you and your family. We will work closely with you to guide you through the litigation process helping you to discover why you or your loved one has suffered injury. We will instruct trusted medical and other experts to assess your needs for any further treatment or therapies and ongoing rehabilitation as a consequence of any injury, and secure financial compensation where appropriate.

Claims should be made as soon as possible whilst memories of events are fresh. After initial investigations, the sooner we can establish liability for injury, the sooner we will be able to secure interim payments of compensation to cover the cost of rehabilitation and care for you or your child.

Sadly, after any birth injury there can be life changes that require other legal services. In addition to medical negligence claims, we can also advise on a range of other legal issues such as family and children disputes, family building including adoption and surrogacy, education and EHC plan challenges, employment and residential considerations as well as the need for wills, trusts and court of protection advice. We are fortunate to have teams inhouse that can deal with all of these aspects of life post-injury too.

Client stories

Adult clients:

Many of our clients are women who have experienced psychological damage as a consequence of baby loss or a traumatic birth that has been badly managed. Some of our clients have been denied freedom of choice in the mode of birth whether the choice was for a planned c-section or vaginal delivery; they may have felt that they have lost autonomy and that their wishes have been overlooked or disregarded.
Some of our clients have also suffered physical damage during childbirth which could have been avoided had the birth been managed more carefully. We also have clients who suffered badly managed post-partum haemorrhages that led to emergency hysterectomy and infertility. In addition to any medical negligence claim, our family building team have been able to advise on surrogacy and related issues.

Baby clients:

We also act for many babies who have suffered devastating brain injury during the course of their birth that would have been avoided but for failures in their mother's care or their own care following birth.
Some of our baby clients have suffered injury caused by forceps causing facial scarring or neurological injuries arising from failure to anticipate or poor management of shoulder dystocia.

Geographical location(s)

We have 3 offices in and around London – in Holborn, Putney and Kingston-upon-Thames. However, we have clients from all over the country and are happy to hold appointments by video call (Teams/Zoom) or elsewhere if easier.