Personal Injury Attorneys in Maryland

SUMMARY: Personal Injury Attorneys in Maryland

Hiring a personal injury attorney is the best way to ensure a good outcome after you've been injured in an accident, especially when fault is unclear after the accident. A lawyer will help you get the highest level of compensation and can advise you of the steps to take after an accident to make sure you protect your case.

NOTE: The content of this website is intended solely for informational purposes. It is not a source of legal advice and should not be used as such.

Benefits of Hiring a MD Personal Injury Attorney

Anytime you get into an accident, it can be a confusing and frightening experience. This is especially true when you've suffered an injury. Even minor injuries can result in time away from your job, or mental stress that modifies your quality of life.

If you are hurting and confused and going up against an ocean-sized auto insurance company, you need all the help you can get. That is where a personal injury lawyer can play a major role in helping you attain the levels of compensation that you deserve. This includes even the gray areas of non-economic losses, such as emotional suffering.

Fault and Personal Injury

Although the state requires motorists to carry personal injury protection (PIP), it still utilizes the tort system. Thus, fault is established and the driver deemed "at-fault" has to compensate all injured parties though their insurance company.

Before you can even wade into the settlement waters, the following questions need to be answered:

  • Who was at fault?
  • Was partial fault involved?
    • For example, was one driver 80% at fault while the other was 20%?
  • Did the injuries result from the accident?

A personal injury attorney will have the experience to represent you in discussions with the insurance companies involved and help you provide evidence to the insurance company to answer the above questions.

What Is an Injury Worth?

Defining the cost of an injury is tough. There is a mountain of details to sort through (again, this is where a personal injury lawyer is handy) when filing an injury claim, and so many things one must consider besides who is simply liable and what that exactly entails.

Insurance companies generally use a compensation formula to determine costs. But in many cases, the dollar amount presented is rather black and white and fails to consider a number of factors, such as pain and suffering. However, a number is a number, and without representation you may have a tendency to jump at the initial settlement amount.

It is easy for an insurance adjuster to add up a figure in order to reimburse all tangible costs accumulated, and even tally up the financial losses from downtime at a job. But how do you calculate monetary compensation for pain and suffering or even lost opportunities? An attorney who understands and is experienced interpreting the complicated intricacies of personal injury law can make sure you are wholly compensated.

Injury damages are split into three categories:

  • Economic damages―Medical expenses, wages lost (past and future), and general "real" expenses.
  • Non-economic damages―Losses that are not economic, such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of quality of life.
  • Physical disfigurement and impairment ―Consequences and costs of irreparable physical harm or permanent disability.

Personal injury attorneys in Maryland are experienced seeking all of the damages above. By hiring an attorney, you will likely see more compensation that if you were dealing with the insurance company on your own.

What to Do After an Accident

What any lawyer will disclose is that if you are in an accident, there are certain things that you can do to help yourself in the long run:

  • Call the police, regardless of whether the accident involves any apparent injury. If someone is in obvious pain, call an ambulance.
  • Try to get people who witnessed the accident to give you their basic information.
  • Take pictures. Hopefully you have one of those fancy cell phones that also come equipped with a camera. This is where it will really come in handy.
  • Make sure to ask for the police report number.
  • Give the other driver(s) involved your necessary information and also get theirs.

Please enter your ZIP code OR city and state abbreviation

DMV.ORG BBB Business Review