Last updated August 21, 2026 · Reviewed by Vadim A. Mzhen
Birth injuries are often identified years after the delivery that caused them. A child misses developmental milestones, a school evaluation raises questions, and a records review eventually points back to what happened during labor. Maryland’s limitations statute for medical claims anticipates that delay, and it treats injuries to young children differently from injuries to adults.
The general rule for a claim against a health care provider is the earlier of five years from when the injury was committed or three years from when it was discovered. For a child who was under 11 when the injury occurred, those periods do not begin to run at all until the child turns 11. A delivery injury to a newborn therefore has a clock that starts on the child’s eleventh birthday rather than at birth.
Timing is the question families raise first about Maryland birth injury claims, and it is where Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers usually starts when a family calls about a delivery that went wrong.
Maryland Accident Law Blog


