Butte, MontanaButte Birth Injury
Butte Birth Injury Lawyers: Labor and Delivery Errors, HIE and Newborn Injuries for Butte and Southwest Montana Families
Boland Aarab PLLP.
A birth injury claim from a Butte delivery is a medical malpractice claim. It usually must go to the Montana Medical Legal Panel before a lawsuit, and then to the Second Judicial District Court in Butte. For a child injured before age four, the two-year deadline generally begins at the child’s eighth birthday. Evidence, though, should be gathered now.
Was your child hurt during labor, delivery or the first days of life? Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.
Where do southwest Montana families deliver, and why does it matter?
St. James Healthcare in Butte, part of Intermountain Health, provides labor and delivery services for Butte and much of the surrounding region. Many families drive in from Anaconda, Deer Lodge, Dillon, Whitehall, the Ruby Valley and the Big Hole to deliver there.
That regional pattern shapes birth injury cases in three ways.
- Travel in labor. Families coming from outlying towns may cross Homestake, Pipestone or the Continental Divide on I-15, sometimes at night and in winter. A mother who calls ahead with warning signs should get clear, safe advice about when to come in and whether to go to the nearest hospital. What she was told, and when, is part of the record.
- Prenatal care in one place, delivery in another. A pregnancy followed at a clinic in one town may end in a delivery in Butte. Risk factors such as high blood pressure, diabetes, a large baby or a prior cesarean must be passed along and acted on. Gaps in that handoff are a common thread in birth injury cases.
- When a newborn needs more. If a baby needs a higher level of neonatal care than the delivering hospital provides, the baby may be transferred to a larger center, and parents may be apart from their child during the most frightening days of their lives. The timing of that decision, and the care given while waiting, can matter a great deal, especially for babies with oxygen deprivation, where cooling therapy is time-sensitive.
What birth injuries lead to claims?
The most common preventable injuries are:
- Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), a brain injury caused by lack of oxygen and blood flow, often linked to a failure to respond to fetal distress or to deliver quickly enough;
- some forms of cerebral palsy that result from those same events;
- Erb’s palsy and other brachial plexus injuries, from excessive force on the baby’s head and neck during a difficult delivery; and
- injuries from vacuum or forceps use, and from infections or jaundice that were not caught and treated in time.
What happens after a birth injury in Butte?
Get the records, all of them. The key evidence is in the hospital’s hands: the fetal heart monitoring strips, nursing notes, medication records, the newborn’s chart and the electronic audit trail showing who entered what, and when. We request the complete record, including the monitoring data in its native format, from every provider in the chain, whether in Butte, a referring clinic or a receiving hospital.
Understand the timeline. Birth injury claims usually must be presented to the Montana Medical Legal Panel before suit (§ 27-6-701, MCA). The mother’s own claim follows the ordinary two-year malpractice rule. The child’s claim has a longer window, but a family should not wait, because witnesses move on and records can be harder to obtain over time.
The court. After the panel, a case arising from a Butte delivery is usually filed in the Second Judicial District Court, Silver Bow County (§ 3-5-101(2), MCA), at the Silver Bow County Courthouse on West Granite Street. A claim involving a federally funded clinic’s provider would go to the U.S. District Court, Butte Division, at the Mike Mansfield Federal Courthouse (mtd.uscourts.gov).
Montana law that applies
In brief. Our Montana birth injury lawyer page explains more.
- For a child injured before age 4, the 2-year malpractice deadline generally begins at the child’s eighth birthday, or at the child’s death if that comes first (§ 27-2-205(2), MCA).
- Claims against physicians and licensed facilities go to the Medical Legal Panel first (§ 27-6-701, MCA).
- Montana caps noneconomic damages in malpractice cases (§ 25-9-411, MCA); a child’s lifetime medical care and lost earning capacity are not capped. A life-care plan is central to these cases.
Why hire a Great Falls firm for a Butte case?
Birth injury cases are among the most complex in medicine and law. They depend on obstetric, nursing, neonatal and neurology experts, and on a clear picture of a child’s lifetime needs. We are based in Great Falls and handle these cases statewide, and our attorneys come to Butte, and to your home when that is easier for your family, to meet with you, attend depositions and panel proceedings, and try the case.
Our only office is in Great Falls. The counties where we have tried jury cases are Cascade, Phillips, Meagher and Yellowstone.
The Boland Aarab Way
- Courtroom experience: more than 4,000 hours in the courtroom and more than a dozen jury trials.
- Appellate depth: we brief and argue our own appeals, and our record goes back to 1977 (appellate results).
- Leadership in the trial bar: both attorneys belong to AAJ and MTLA, and Caitlin Boland Aarab is an AAJ Governor.
- Families work with the attorneys, Caitlin Boland Aarab and Samir Aarab, not a call center.
We also handle medical malpractice cases in Butte and brain injury cases in Butte. See our Butte personal injury page.
Contact Boland Aarab PLLP for a free consultation at (406) 315-3737.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our baby was born at St. James in Butte and transferred. Which hospital’s care matters? Possibly both. We review the care before, during and after the transfer, including how quickly the need for transfer was recognized.
How long do we have for a birth injury claim from a Butte delivery? For a child injured before age four, the two-year malpractice deadline generally starts at the child’s eighth birthday. The mother’s own claim has a shorter deadline, so act early.
We live in Dillon or Anaconda. Does it matter where the case is filed? Usually the case is filed where the care was provided. For a Butte delivery, that is generally the Second Judicial District Court in Butte.
What are fetal monitoring strips, and why do they matter? They record the baby’s heart rate and the mother’s contractions during labor. They often show whether and when the baby was in distress, and whether staff responded.
Does filing a claim mean going straight to court? No. Most Montana birth injury claims start with the Medical Legal Panel, and many steps come before any trial.
Our attorneys: Caitlin Boland Aarab · Samir F. Aarab
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
