Valuing car accident cases for settlement in Maryland is a challenge. The most important thing is the severity of the injuries.
That is probably all that should matter. But many more variables drive how much money the insurance company will offer to settle an injury claim before a lawsuit is filed. This is a list of 14 factors that really matter in determining the settlement value of any auto collision injury claim:
The CDC recently announced that EzriCare Artificial Tears lubricating eye drops have caused a wave of very serious bacterial infections across the country. Infections from the contaminated eye drops have caused very serious injuries including vision loss and at least one death. Our product liability attorneys are currently investigating potential eye drop infection lawsuits from individuals who used EzriCare eye drops and developed a bacterial infection that caused serious physical injuries.
The FDA is working with the CDC, and state and local health departments to investigate a rare, drug-resistant type of bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa that has caused infections in 55 people across 12 states as of January 31, 2023. The infections are linked to the use of EzriCare Artificial Tears, which has led to hospitalizations, one death from a bloodstream infection, and permanent vision loss from eye infections. The CDC has recommended that people stop using EzriCare Artificial Tears until further guidance is provided by the CDC and FDA.
Anyone who was harmed by bacteria in the EzriCare artificial tear drops could be entitled to substantial financial compensation in a civil lawsuit.
I dislike trying personal injury cases with high-low agreements that contain the size of the verdict. If you will force us to take the case to trial, I would prefer the chance of the upside. My gut-level reaction is no deal.
But the problem with this bravado is clients. Our law firm has a decent volume of personal injury cases, which means our lawyers can spread the risk of the possibility of an unacceptable outcome at trial. Clients have just one case, so their risk calculus is very different. An added force of inertia for high-low agreements that makes the numbers more reasonable for injury victims is that insurance companies want to limit the possibility of a verdict exceeding the policy limits. Continue reading
Good Samaritan laws are intended to protect people from liability when they voluntarily assist others in emergencies.
Here is an example of how Good Samaritan laws work. Let’s say you’re driving to work and you witness a car accident. One of the vehicles flips over the driver is stuck and yelling for help. You pull over to help, but in extracting him from the car, you end up breaking his leg and causing other injuries.
Under traditional tort law, you could be liable for the driver’s injuries. The rationale was that you have no duty to render aid. But if you helped, you assumed a duty of helping safely and reasonably.
Let me start off by saying I’m generally skeptical of the benefits of an accident reconstructionist as an expert witness in most car accident cases.
Why? Generally, I think in most liability dispute cases, jurors feel like they have all the information to make the call. Jurors think they understand basic physics and who is telling the truth and rarely look for help from an accident reconstructionist. We had a young lawyer trying his first case against a big law firm in a liability dispute case. The defendants hired one of the best accident reconstructionists in Maryland. Our client barely spoke English. We did not bring an expert. But we won because the jury heard the facts and believed our client.
Maryland made the right call by getting rid of the “one bite rule,” which created an assumption that dog owners know their dogs can bite. In doing so, the Maryland legislature effectively nixed a Maryland Supreme Court ruling that said pit bulls are inherently dangerous and imposed strict liability for owners and landlords.
At the end of the day though, insurance companies are most interested in these sorts of decisions, because they’re the ones paying out dog-bite claims. And although the dog breeds may not be as big an issue for Maryland legislators anymore, your insurance company may still discriminate and charge you more based on the dog you have.
Yes, I’m mostly talking about pit bulls. I agree not all pit bulls are dangerous. Many are well-behaved and loving pets. But because of the breed’s reputation, owners of pit bulls often face discrimination and prejudice from landlords, insurance companies, and others.
Wrongful death lawsuits in Maryland are subject to a 3-year statute of limitations that runs from the date of death. In this post, we will look at wrongful death claims and this 3-year limitation deadline in more detail.
The purpose of a wrongful death lawsuit is to seek compensation for the surviving family members who have suffered a loss as a result of the death of their loved one. This compensation can come in many forms, including monetary damages, reimbursement for funeral and burial expenses, and compensation for loss of companionship, support, and other damages.
Last week in Lamalfa v. Hearn, the Maryland Court of Appeals held that medical records could be admitted over hearsay objections when the records are relied on by an expert witness and the records satisfy 4 conditions of Maryland Rule 5-703(b).
Like most states, Maryland has a statutory business records exception to the hearsay rule. The thinking is that businesses — most businesses, anyway — keep reliable records which makes them more trustworthy than other forms of hearsay. So admitting hospital records into evidence is a common practice in malpractice and other injury and wrongful death cases.
The post looks at Lamalfa and how to admit medical records at trial with a sample direct examination.
In this post, I will explain how to check to see if a particular doctor has ever been sued for medical malpractice or had a malpractice claim filed against them.
Many prospective patients want to know about prior malpractice suits when shopping for a new doctor. Others become interested in a medical practitioner’s prior malpractice history after a bad experience and are considering whether to pursue their medical malpractice lawsuit.
Before we get into the nuts and bolts of checking out a doctor’s malpractice history, I feel obligated to offer at least a little cautionary wisdom. Just because a doctor has previously been sued for medical malpractice does not mean that they are a terrible doctor. The simple reason for this is that medical malpractice lawsuits are common.
Our clients sometimes incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills. They should be compensated for those bills. But the bigger harm in personal injury cases is the physical and emotional pain and suffering that comes with the victims’ injuries.
Today, we will look at average compensation for emotional injuries in an accident and medical malpractice cases to get a better idea of how much money victims can expect to receive as compensation for this type of intangible but often the most important injury.
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