Robbed at Birth?

On Saturday the Independent published an article entitled “Robbed at Birth” which highlighted the the stark contrast in damages payments for wealthy families and poorer families.  The reason for the difference was largely attributed to the claims for loss of earnings. 

The purpose of damages is to attempt to place the Claimant in the position they would have been in had the negligence not occurred. Where an adult suffers an injury you can look at their actual earnings and likely career progression in order to determine the likely trajectory for the earnings over their lifetime. However, where a baby suffers significant injury at birth there is no way of knowing what job they may have gone on to do in the future. 

How are claims calculated?

The traditional way of approaching the calculation for loss of earnings in these circumstances is to look to the babies' parents and wider family to see the jobs that they do and whether they have entered higher education, in an attempt to assess the types of job the baby may have undertaken. While this is an imperfect solution my experience is that this will be adopted in most cases. 

The changing social and economic factors on claims

The current approach relies on a perceived lack of social mobility. However, this runs counter to the emphasis which has been placed on social mobility in professional organisations over recent years. It means that children who are born into poorer families and suffer injury at birth or in early childhood are trapped living the same lifestyle as their parents. 

Calculating loss of earnings is further challenged by the increase in students going to university. In 1980 around 11% of 18 year olds went to university while in 2019 this had increased to around 32%. This means that a significant number of students attend university even though their parents did not. 

Furthermore, advances in technology are increasingly changing the employment landscape. In 2025 the fastest growing area of employment is in relation to AI - an area which simply did not exist 20 years ago. At the same time white collar workers are increasingly transferring to blue collar work which can offer better pay. Again, the current approach does not account for these changes. 

Ensuring an fair and reasonable compensation

Calculating future losses will always be done with a level of uncertainty. As an AVMA panel member with over 16 years experience in clinical negligence claims, I know that approaching each claim on an individual basis and with an open mind is the best way to ensure that wronged claimants receive an appropriate level of compensation. My advice to anyone considering making a clinical negligence claim would be to research your Solicitor to ensure that they are experienced in dealing with these types of claims.