Minnesota Cerebral Palsy Resource Guide

Medical facilities for diagnosing cerebral palsy in Minnesota

A cerebral palsy diagnosis is built from the child's developmental and neurological history, a physical examination and a motor assessment. An MRI can help show the nature and timing of a brain injury, and specialists will usually check vision, hearing, swallowing, communication, seizures and hip development along the way.

Gillette Children's

200 University Avenue East, St. Paul, MN 55101. Phone: 651-290-8707 (appointments), 651-291-2848 (main line). Website: Gillette Children's cerebral palsy care

Gillette puts pediatric neurology, rehabilitation medicine, orthopedics, neurosurgery and its motion analysis lab in one system, and its Cerebral Palsy Institute coordinates care across them. Rehabilitation physicians there run the spasticity, gait and developmental evaluations that often settle what kind of cerebral palsy a child has.

Children's Minnesota, Minneapolis

2525 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404. Phone: 612-813-6000. Website: Children's Minnesota Neuroscience Program

The Children's Minnesota Neuroscience Program covers neurology and neurosurgery for patients from birth to age 21, at the Minneapolis hospital and at other Twin Cities sites.

Mayo Clinic Children's Center, Rochester

200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN 55905. Phone: 507-284-2511. Website: Mayo Clinic Cerebral Palsy and Spina Bifida Clinic

Mayo's Cerebral Palsy and Spina Bifida Clinic, in the T. Denny Sanford Pediatric Center, gives children long-term coordinated care from several pediatric specialists and typically sees more than 200 enrolled children a year. It can also connect families with clinical research where that fits.

Treatment and therapy for cerebral palsy in Minnesota

Treatment carries on for years after the diagnosis. Physical therapy works on walking, transfers, strength and range of motion. Occupational therapy works on hand function and daily tasks. Speech and feeding specialists handle communication and swallowing, and rehabilitation physicians manage spasticity, equipment and medication.

Gillette Children's

200 University Avenue East, St. Paul, MN 55101. Phone: 651-290-8707. Website: Gillette rehabilitation therapies

Gillette offers physical, occupational and speech therapy, aquatic therapy, Lokomat robotic-assisted locomotor training, seating and mobility evaluations and virtual rehabilitation. Its rehabilitation medicine program treats spasticity with botulinum toxin and phenol injections and intrathecal baclofen pumps, and uses deep brain stimulation to manage dystonia.

Children's Minnesota Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

2530 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404. Phone: 612-813-8700. Website: Children's Minnesota Neuromotor Intensive Therapy

Children's Minnesota runs pediatric physical, occupational and speech therapy across seven rehabilitation sites, including Lakeville, Maple Grove, Minnetonka, Roseville and Woodbury. Its Neuromotor Intensive Clinic evaluates children with motor and mobility difficulties and offers intensive therapy blocks to selected patients. A physician's order is required.

Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute

3915 Golden Valley Road, Golden Valley, MN 55422. Phone: 612-775-2455. Website: Courage Kenny pediatric rehabilitation

Courage Kenny, part of Allina Health, provides pediatric physical, occupational and speech therapy and adaptive equipment services at locations across Minnesota, and lists cerebral palsy among the conditions it treats. Its Activity-Based Locomotor Exercise (ABLE) program also includes cerebral palsy, though it is not a children's program specifically.

Recreational therapy and summer camps for children with CP in Minnesota

For many children with cerebral palsy, recreation is where a skill learned in therapy becomes something they actually use. Minnesota has one of the deeper adaptive recreation networks in the country, from accessible camps to organized sports.

True Friends, Camp Courage

8046 83rd Street NW, Maple Lake, MN 55358. Phone: 952-852-0101. Website: True Friends Camp Courage

True Friends runs accessible camps at Camp Courage in Maple Lake, Camp Friendship in Annandale (its main office) and Camp Eden Wood in Eden Prairie. Summer sessions offer traditional camp activities with varying levels of support for campers with disabilities. Camp Courage's Cambria Recreation Center added a temperature-controlled pool, a splash pad and an expanded gymnasium.

Courage Kenny Adaptive Sports and Recreation

Golden Valley campus, 3915 Golden Valley Road, Golden Valley, MN 55422. Phone: 612-775-2277. Website: Courage Kenny Adaptive Sports and Recreation

Courage Kenny's adaptive sports program gives children and adults with disabilities organized sport and physical activity. In 2024 it had 543 in-person participants, who accounted for 1,159 registrations.

Organizations that support cerebral palsy in Minnesota

United Cerebral Palsy of Minnesota

Located at Gillette Children's, 200 University Avenue East, St. Paul, MN 55101. Phone: 651-291-2848. Website: UCP of Minnesota resources

UCP of Minnesota provides cerebral palsy information, advocacy and family resources, and connects families with financial help and assistive technology.

The Arc Minnesota

P.O. Box 64007, St. Paul, MN 55164. Phone: 833-450-1494. Website: The Arc Minnesota

The Arc provides statewide advocacy, information and family support on education, employment, housing and community life for Minnesotans with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including cerebral palsy.

PACER Center

8161 Normandale Boulevard, Minneapolis, MN 55437. Phone: 952-838-9000 or 800-537-2237. Website: PACER Center

PACER helps Minnesota parents understand special education, take part in IEP decisions and resolve disability-related problems at school.

Transportation services for the disabled in Minnesota

Transportation matters more when the specialists are concentrated in Minneapolis, St. Paul and Rochester.

Metro Mobility

390 Robert Street North, St. Paul, MN 55101. Phone: 651-602-1111. Website: Metro Mobility

Metro Mobility is the ADA paratransit service for the Twin Cities metro area, for certified riders who cannot use regular buses and trains because of a disability.

Zumbro Independent Passenger Service (ZIPS)

4300 East River Road NE, Rochester, MN 55906. Phone: 507-328-7433. Website: Rochester accessibility and paratransit

ZIPS is Rochester's shared-ride ADA paratransit service for riders whose disabilities keep them off fixed-route buses. It can be used for medical appointments and ordinary errands alike.

STRIDE Paratransit

2402 W. Michigan Street, Duluth, MN 55806. Phone: 218-722-3327. Website: STRIDE Paratransit

STRIDE serves certified riders in Duluth and Superior, and within three quarters of a mile of Duluth Transit routes in Proctor, Hermantown and Rice Lake. Vehicles are accessible and drivers help with boarding and wheelchair securement.

Medical Assistance rides

Minnesota's Medical Assistance program covers non-emergency medical transportation to covered appointments. Ordinary rides and mileage are arranged through the county or tribe; ramp, lift and stretcher transport goes through the state program after a level-of-service assessment.

Fundraisers for cerebral palsy and disabled children in Minnesota

Gillette Children's Walk & Roll

Website: Gillette Walk & Roll

Walk & Roll is Gillette's annual September family event and fundraiser. The 2026 walk was held September 19 at Viking Lakes in Eagan. Families can take part without raising money, and supporters can form teams that fund Gillette's programs for children and their families.

Legal rights for those with a cerebral palsy disability in Minnesota

Minnesota's support for disabled children reaches well past basic Medicaid. Several state programs can change what the ongoing costs of cerebral palsy mean for a family.

• Medical Assistance through TEFRA: children under 19 who are certified disabled, live at home and need an institutional level of care can qualify for Medical Assistance on the child's own income. Parents' income is not counted, and the TEFRA parental fee ended July 1, 2023.
• Home and community-based waivers: the BI, CAC, CADI and DD waivers fund services that let a disabled person live at home rather than in an institution. Minnesota stopped charging parental fees for children on these waivers on July 1, 2023, except in limited out-of-home placement cases.
• Family Support Grant: state money for families of a child under 25 with a certified disability who lives at home. The grant is up to $3,113.99 per child per calendar year for disability-related costs, subject to an income limit and available funds.
• Paid parent caregivers: Minnesota is moving PCA and Consumer Support Grant recipients to Community First Services and Supports (CFSS), with the switch due by September 30, 2027. Under CFSS a parent of a child under 18 can be a paid support worker for up to 60 hours a week, or 40 hours each when both parents are paid (Minn. Stat. 256B.85).
• Education: Minn. Stat. 125A.03 requires school districts to provide special instruction and services to eligible children with disabilities from birth until age 22 or the end of secondary school, through an IFSP for infants and toddlers and an IEP from age three.
• Employment: the Minnesota Human Rights Act (Minn. Stat. 363A.08) bars disability discrimination at work and requires reasonable accommodation for qualified employees and applicants unless it would cause undue hardship.
• Housing: Minn. Stat. 363A.09 and 363A.10 bar housing discrimination and require reasonable modifications and accommodations. Under Minn. Stat. 363A.40, a landlord with accessible units must give priority for them to a disabled person or a family with a disabled member.
• Public accommodations: Minn. Stat. 363A.11 requires businesses and public places to give disabled people full and equal enjoyment, including reasonable accommodation and auxiliary aids.

Helpful info for families dealing with cerebral palsy in Minnesota

The most useful resource may be the one that connects all the others. Disability Hub MN is a free statewide service, formerly the Disability Linkage Line, whose specialists help families work through health care, benefits, school, housing and work. Call 866-333-2466, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Keep one organized file of the child's MRI and imaging reports, neurological evaluations, therapy assessments, equipment prescriptions, insurance letters, school evaluations, IEPs and benefit applications. A child with cerebral palsy can build up hundreds of pages of records, and having them together saves weeks whenever a new specialist, school district, insurer or agency needs the history.

Families outside the Twin Cities often do best with a local therapy team for weekly work and a specialty center for the big decisions. Gillette runs regional clinics in Alexandria, Baxter, Burnsville, Duluth, Mankato, Maple Grove, St. Cloud and Willmar, and offers virtual rehabilitation, which makes that arrangement easier to sustain.

Lawsuits for cerebral palsy in Minnesota

A cerebral palsy diagnosis does not by itself mean malpractice happened. In a Minnesota birth injury case the questions are whether a doctor, midwife, nurse or hospital fell below accepted medical standards, and whether that failure caused the child's brain injury.

For parents who suspect it did, the medical record is usually the center of the investigation. Minnesota also has strict expert affidavit rules that can end a case on paperwork alone, which is why an early review by a Minnesota cerebral palsy lawyer matters.

Preparing a Minnesota birth injury lawsuit

A birth injury investigation reconstructs what happened hour by hour. It is not a review of the diagnosis.

• Start with the chronology. Write down what you remember about the pregnancy, hospital admission, labor, fetal monitoring concerns, medications, delivery, resuscitation, NICU care and what the doctors said afterward.
• Gather the family's records. Prenatal records, ultrasounds, fetal testing, delivery and discharge records, NICU records, pediatric neurology reports, MRI results, therapy evaluations, genetic testing and developmental records.
• Sign authorizations. The legal team can then request records from physicians, hospitals, nurses, therapists and imaging centers.
• Get the complete electronic record. Certified records, fetal monitoring strips, medication administration records, nursing notes, physician orders, anesthesia records, lab results, imaging, resuscitation records and the electronic audit trail showing when each entry was made or changed.
• Prove negligence and causation. The family must show the provider departed from the standard of care and that the departure caused the injury. Causation is usually the real fight: the defense will often argue the injury happened before labor or came from a complication nobody could have prevented.
• Meet the expert affidavit rules. Under Minn. Stat. 145.682 the complaint must be served with an affidavit stating that a qualified expert has reviewed the case and believes a provider departed from the standard of care and caused injury. A second affidavit identifying the experts and their opinions is due within 180 days after discovery begins.
• Choose the right experts. A serious case can need an obstetrician or maternal fetal medicine specialist, a neonatologist, a pediatric neurologist, a neuroradiologist, a labor and delivery nurse, a rehabilitation physician, a life care planner and an economist.
• File in district court. Minnesota's district courts are the general trial courts, organized in 10 judicial districts with courthouses in all 87 counties.
• Plan for time. A contested birth injury case commonly takes two to four years through discovery, expert depositions, mediation and trial. Settlement can shorten that.

How many birth injury lawsuits are filed in Minnesota?

Minnesota's district courts take in more than 225,000 new civil cases a year across all civil, probate, commitment and family categories. Medical malpractice is a tiny share of that. The Minnesota Association for Justice counted only 85 medical malpractice cases filed statewide in 2021.

Birth injury cases involving cerebral palsy are a small subset of those 85, likely a handful a year. The expert affidavit requirement and the cost of the experts screen out most claims before they are ever filed.

Minnesota birth injury verdicts and settlements

Reported outcomes give some perspective, although most settlements are confidential and no past result predicts the value of another case.

• $23.2 million verdict, Kandiyohi County, 2010. Rodgers v. Affiliated Community Medical Centers. A 28 minute delay in an emergency cesarean at Rice Memorial Hospital in Willmar left a child with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. The jury put 80 percent of the fault on the clinic and 20 percent on the hospital.
• $8,986,900 verdict, Hennepin County, 2018. Samuelson v. Allina. A jury found a nurse-midwife at Allina's Cambridge Medical Center negligent after she discounted concerns about the baby's size and used excessive traction during shoulder dystocia, causing a severe brachial plexus injury. This was not a cerebral palsy case.
• $3.7 million settlement, December 2008. A newborn developed spastic quadriparetic cerebral palsy after hours of non-reassuring fetal monitoring went unanswered and the cesarean came roughly three and a half hours late.
• $4.5 million settlement, January 2008. A child suffered permanent brain injury after staff failed to properly monitor labor and fetal status and delayed a cesarean section.
• $15.5 million verdict, Ramsey County, 2006. Davis v. Aspen Medical Group. The delivering doctor declined to come in despite nurses' requests, and the child was born with cerebral palsy. The jury assigned 90 percent of the fault to the doctor and 10 percent to United Hospital.
• $3.16 million settlement, April 2004. A doctor ordered Pitocin continued despite repeated nurse concerns and abnormal fetal monitoring, and the newborn suffered severe hypoxic-ischemic brain injury.

Legal aid organizations in Minnesota

Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid

111 N. Fifth Street, Suite 100, Minneapolis, MN 55403. Phone: 612-332-1441, statewide intake 877-696-6529. Website: Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid

Free civil legal help for qualifying low-income Minnesotans.

Minnesota Disability Law Center

111 N. Fifth Street, Suite 100, Minneapolis, MN 55403. Phone: 612-334-5970 or 800-292-4150. Website: Minnesota Disability Law Center

Minnesota's protection and advocacy organization, providing statewide disability rights advocacy and legal help, including on special education and benefits.

Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services

445 Minnesota Street, Suite 1800, St. Paul, MN 55101. Phone: 877-696-6529 (the same statewide intake line Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid uses). Website: SMRLS

Civil legal help for eligible low-income residents across its southern and eastern Minnesota service area.

Minnesota cerebral palsy lawyers

The hardest birth injury cases need lawyers who can read a fetal monitoring strip, follow obstetric decision-making, work with pediatric neurologists and neonatologists, tell hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy apart from other causes of cerebral palsy, and put a number on decades of medical, therapy, equipment and attendant care.

Minnesota had 25,872 active licensed lawyers in 2024, according to the annual report of the state's Lawyer Registration Office. Only a small fraction handle plaintiff medical malpractice, and far fewer regularly try catastrophic pediatric birth injury cases where causation is disputed.

Cerebral Palsy Center works only with law firms that have handled hundreds of these complex cases.

Birth injury trends in Minnesota

Minnesota hospitals treat birth trauma as a perinatal safety measure. The Minnesota Hospital Association's perinatal safety road map lists PSI 17, birth trauma with injury to the newborn, among the outcome measures every hospital should collect and review at minimum.

The public data does not show a clear rise or fall in Minnesota. Reported birth trauma rates look broadly stable statewide, with variation between hospitals and from year to year.

How much does a Minnesota birth injury lawsuit cost?

Experts are the largest expense. A contested cerebral palsy case can need several of them to review thousands of pages of records, analyze fetal monitoring and imaging, write reports, sit for depositions and testify at trial. Expert fees commonly run from several hundred dollars an hour to more than $1,000 an hour for the most specialized testimony, and a case that goes through full expert discovery and trial can cost well into six figures.

Other costs include certified records, imaging, deposition transcripts, court reporters, medical literature, travel, trial exhibits, life care planning and economic loss analysis.

Cerebral Palsy Center works only with law firms that take these cases on contingency, so the family owes no fees or costs unless it recovers money.

Minnesota facilities named in birth injury litigation

The facilities below appear in public court records and reported decisions involving birth-related care. Being named in a lawsuit is not evidence of negligence, and several of these cases ended for the defense.

• Rice Memorial Hospital, Willmar. Named with Affiliated Community Medical Centers in Rodgers, the 2010 Kandiyohi County case that returned a $23.2 million verdict over a delayed emergency cesarean.
• United Hospital, St. Paul. Assigned 10 percent of the fault in Davis v. Aspen Medical Group, the 2006 Ramsey County cerebral palsy verdict.
• Allina Health. Its Cambridge Medical Center was the defendant in the 2018 Samuelson brachial plexus verdict. Separately, in Popovich v. Allina Health System (2020), an adult emergency care case, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that a hospital can be liable for independent contractor physicians in its emergency room under apparent authority.
• Fairview Lakes Regional Medical Center. In Nelson v. Fairview Health Services (Minn. Ct. App. 2021), the family alleged that preterm labor at 23 weeks was not treated in time, contributing to a premature baby's cerebral palsy. The court affirmed summary judgment for the defendants because the expert testimony did not establish causation.
• Windom Area Hospital. In Damgaard v. Avera Health (D. Minn.), the family alleged negligent management of labor and newborn care led to hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. A federal jury found for the defense in 2016.
• St. Luke's Hospital of Duluth. In Merrill v. Guttormsson (Minn. Ct. App. 2007), the family alleged a prolonged fetal heart rate drop during labor caused cerebral palsy. The appeal concerned only whether the family could add a negligent hiring claim.

Minnesota law governing birth injury lawsuits

A family can have a strong medical claim in Minnesota and still lose it to a missed deadline or a defective affidavit.

• The child's deadline: Minnesota's medical malpractice period is four years (Minn. Stat. 541.076). For a child, Minn. Stat. 541.15 pauses that clock during minority, but for malpractice the pause cannot exceed seven years. For an injury at birth, that means the child's claim must be filed by the 11th birthday.
• The parents' deadline: the parents' own claims, including for medical bills they have paid, are not tolled. They run four years under Minn. Stat. 541.076.
• Public hospitals: a claim against a city or county hospital, including Hennepin Healthcare (HCMC), requires written notice within 180 days after the injury is discovered (Minn. Stat. 466.05), and damages against those hospitals are capped at $500,000 per claimant and $1,500,000 per occurrence (Minn. Stat. 466.04).
• Expert affidavits: Minn. Stat. 145.682 requires the expert review affidavit with the complaint, or within 90 days if the deadline left no time for review, and the expert identification affidavit within 180 days after discovery begins. Missing either leads to mandatory dismissal with prejudice, although the plaintiff gets 45 days to cure a deficiency once it is identified.
• Comparative fault: under Minn. Stat. 604.01 a plaintiff can recover from a defendant only if the plaintiff's own fault is not greater than that defendant's fault, measured against each defendant separately. Damages are reduced by the plaintiff's percentage of fault.
• Damages caps: Minnesota has no cap on economic or noneconomic damages in malpractice cases against private providers. The only cap is the public hospital limit above.
• Hospital liability: after Popovich v. Allina Health System (2020), a hospital that holds itself out as providing emergency care can be liable for independent contractor physicians when the patient relied on the hospital to choose them.

Every birth injury case turns on its own facts, and the deadline that applies depends on them. Speak with a Minnesota cerebral palsy lawyer as soon as you suspect something went wrong. Cerebral Palsy Center can connect you with one today.