Dov Apfel, Medical Malpractice Attorney in Chicago, Illinois

Recognized for his national reputation and success as a child advocate, Dov Apfel has investigated and litigated birth trauma and obstetrical malpractice claims involving children with cerebral palsy and other neurological and intellectual disabilities throughout the United States for over forty years.

Those in the legal profession who have worked with Mr. Apfel consider him to be the premier “lawyer’s lawyer” in the area of birth trauma litigation. When families and lawyers need someone to help them figure out whether a child’s brain damage could have been prevented, they call Mr. Apfel.

Mr. Apfel’s lifetime of achievements in birth injury litigation, education and advocacy was recognized by the Executive Board of the Birth Trauma Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice in 2011, an organization consisting of thousands of trial lawyers throughout the United States, when he received the Dan Cullan Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award.

"I have had the privilege and honor to represent and bring justice to the most innocent victims of medical malpractice, including brain-damaged children and their families. I have been retained by lawyers and families throughout the United States to assist them in the investigation and litigation of birth injury cases. Finally, I have been a mentor and educator actively training the next generation of lawyers handling birth injury cases.” -Dov Apfel

Judges, too, have recognized Mr. Apfel as both a committed advocate and a source of scientific and medical knowledge in birth trauma cases. He was an invited speaker at the New York State Judicial Seminars, “Medicine for Judges” Programs in 2008, where he taught judges about the criteria for determining the timing and causes of brain damage in babies and newborns.

Mr. Apfel’s outstanding record of success spans across the United States. He has the unique distinction and privilege of helping families and lawyers, and participating in the successful resolution and litigation of birth injury cases, in the following jurisdictions:

• Arizona
• Arkansas
• California
• Colorado
• District of Columbia
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Iowa
• Illinois
• Kentucky
• Maryland
• Minnesota
• Missouri
• Mississippi
• New Jersey
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Washington
• Wisconsin
• Vermont
• Virginia

Mr. Apfel, a passionate child advocate for his clients and for all those who suffer preventable injuries as a result of negligence and inexcusable medical care, has dedicated his career to holding hospitals, drug companies, physicians, obstetricians, nurses, midwives, family practitioners, and other providers accountable for their failures to keep patients safe and out of harm’s way.

Mr. Apfel has more than four decades of experience handling complex medical malpractice and personal injury matters. Among other things, Mr. Apfel’s outstanding record of success can be attributed to his unmatched understanding of the medical principles and science involved in the cases he handles. Beginning in 1991, when the Birth Trauma Litigation Group was established, Mr. Apfel has written extensively to expose junk science and litigation-driven literature, and has taught both experienced and inexperienced lawyers how to evaluate medical issues and determine when a bad outcome could have been prevented.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Apfel has trained and mentored many lawyers and paralegals who have developed great expertise and skills in handling complex medical malpractice cases. For example, Seth Cardeli, a partner at Levin & Perconti and a lawyer who has worked with Mr. Apfel for the past 13 years, has received multiple national honors and is currently recognized by his peers as one of the top birth trauma lawyers in the United States. Kim Martel, a paralegal at Levin & Perconti, who has worked with Mr. Apfel for the past 16 years, received national recognition for her outstanding work, when she was selected as the 2020 Paralegal of the Year by the American Association of Justice, a national organization of trial lawyers.

Mr. Apfel is regularly called upon to lecture at a range of national conferences (some of which have been attended by obstetricians, nurses, and other health care providers), and publishes extensively on legal and medical issues arising in Cerebral Palsy litigation, including the use of expert testimony in birth injury litigation, electronic fetal monitoring, hypoxia, ischemia, asphyxia, meconium stained amniotic fluid and meconium aspiration syndrome, maternal and fetal infection in pregnancy, chorioamnionitis, fetal inflammatory response syndrome, antepartum fetal testing, placental pathology, vaginal birth after cesarean, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, trauma, forceps, oxytocin, misoprostil, arrest of descent, second stage of labor, apgar scores, multiorgan injury, neuroimaging studies, acidemia, metabolic acidosis, fetomaternal hemorrhage, twin pregnancy, vacuum extractors, shoulder dystocia and brachial plexus, and the clinical markers establishing a causal connection between the events of labor and delivery and cerebral palsy.

Mr. Apfel is the author of a landmark Law Review article, “Using a Differential Diagnosis to Prove that Intrapartum Asphyxia is a Significant Cause of Cerebral Palsy,” that helped set the standard for how causation issues in cases involving cerebral palsy are litigated by lawyers representing brain damaged children in the U.S.. Since 2015, Mr. Apfel has chaired multiple 2-day programs designed to teach young, new, and experienced lawyers the fundamentals of electronic fetal monitoring and the criteria that can be used to identify babies who may not be getting enough oxygen and are at risk of developing brain injury during labor and delivery.