Charles Village Street Collapse: Who is Responsible?

 Posted on May 03, 2014 in Insurance

I lived in Charles Village for most of Maryland life–we recently moved to Hampden, but Charles Village was where I lived during law school, two apartments, my first new home, and the infancy of our oldest daughter.

By now, everyone knows about the collapse of the street at 26th Street between Charles and St. Paul streets. My wife called that area, pre-collapse, the most beautiful street in Baltimore. The rowhomes are idyllic, the greenery is perfect, and the whole area feels like a little island placed in the middle of Baltimore City. But now, it’s just chaos.

Residents have lost cars, and have been evicted from their homes while the City and CSX try to figure out what happened, how safe it is, and what needs to be done to get everything repaired. Locals will tell you that it’s too little, too late, and that there have been several complaints made over the years to the City and to CSX officials. The general consensus is that repairs to cracks have been piecemeal and little more than cosmetic fixes. Right now, the estimate is that residents will be displaced for about 40 days. There is a program to help ease the transition, but it’s certainly inadequate. There have been reports so far that automobile insurers are denying coverage for vehicles lost in the street collapse.

Continue Reading ››

Value of Your Maryland Car Accident Case, Part 8: Attorneys’ Fees & Expenses

 Posted on May 02, 2014 in Automobile Accidents

The final piece of the puzzle is the attorneys’ fees. Attorneys’ fees don’t have anything to do with the full value of the case, but they have more to do with your take-home–with the final net value of your settlement.

There are a number of different types of attorneys’ fees for other types of legal claims. In criminal and family law cases, it is not uncommon for the client to provide a retainer fee, and then to be charged hourly for work done. Some types of cases are paid by a flat fee–a predetermined amount of money for a specific project.

Most personal injury cases use a contingency fee. This means that you do not make any up-front payment to your lawyer–in fact, you will never write your lawyer a check. If the case is lost, you will not owe your attorney for expenses. In this way, there is no financial risk to you of bringing a claim.

Typically the attorneys’ fees are structured on a two-tier basis. If your case resolves by settlement before a lawsuit is filed, the attorneys’ fees will usually be one-third or 35% of the total settlement. If the case is filed in court, and it resolves afterward (by settlement or verdict), the attorneys’ fees are usually 40%. The specific percentages may vary by attorney, but these amounts are customary.

Continue Reading ››

Value of Your Maryland Auto Accident Case, Part 7: Health Insurance and Medical Reductions

 Posted on April 28, 2014 in Automobile Accidents

Payment of your medical bills is an important issue in a Maryland automobile collision case. There are a few possibilities:

  • You pay out-of-pocket
  • You pay with health insurance, Medicare or Medical Assistance
  • You pay with PIP (personal injury protection)
  • You don’t pay, and the bills are still outstanding
  • Some combination of these

The reason payment of medical bills is important is that you will get one dollar in your pocket for every dollar already paid, after taking into account case fees and attorney expenses.

Also, there is a rule in Maryland called collateral source. This means that the negligent driver’s insurance company cannot avoid paying your medical bills at settlement simply because those bills have already been paid by PIP, health insurance, or any other source. If the bills are reasonable and caused by the accident, a negligent driver is typically going to have to pay for them. There are good policy reasons behind this–the negligent driver should be punished, and should not receive the benefit of your preparation. If you pay health insurance premiums, and that reduces your medical expenses, it would be unfair for the defendant to reap the advantages.

Continue Reading ››

Value of Your Maryland Auto Accident Case, Part 6: Personal Injury Protection (PIP)

 Posted on April 24, 2014 in Automobile Accidents

Personal injury protection (PIP) is insurance that comes from the car you are in when you are hurt. It is sometimes referred to as no fault, and if you have PIP coverage it will provide benefits regardless of whether you caused the accident, or the accident was caused by someone else. It is also quick–in most cases, you can start to recover money from a PIP policy within 30 days after you submit the documents to the insurance company. Those documents might include an application, lost wage statements from your supervisor, medical records and medical bills.

How do I know if I have PIP?

In most cases, if you are driving your own car, and you have insurance coverage, your insurance company will provide you with PIP benefits.

Of course, some people, in an effort to keep their insurance premiums low, will waive PIP benefits. To do this, they must sign very specific language. If they do, then their insurance company will not pay PIP benefits for anyone injured in or by that car, unless the injured person is 16 or under. We usually recommend against this–the slight increase in premiums is worth the benefits.

Continue Reading ››

Value of Your Maryland Auto Accident Case, Part 5: Venue & Jurisdiction

 Posted on April 23, 2014 in Automobile Accidents

Your auto case value is affected by the courts and counties where you are permitted to file the lawsuit. The reason is that (1) some courts have different limits on the amount of money you can recover; and (2), in general, the decision makers (judges and juries) have attitudes toward personal injury cases that makes them more or less likely to give a favorable verdict.
You might wonder why the court, judges or jury matters–after all, if you are seeking a Maryland car accident settlement, you won’t go to trial, right? Well, it matters for a couple of reasons. First, not every case settles. Sometimes the other side will deny that they were negligent, or they will deny that their negligence caused you harm, or they will claim that your injuries (damages) are not as extensive as you think they are. If they won’t settle your case for what you think it’s worth, the only other choice you have is to file a lawsuit.
Second, even if your case will settle before a lawsuit is filed, the insurance adjuster should know about where you can file suit. Savvy adjusters will understand that the value of a case that can be filed in Prince George’s County is likely higher than a case that can only be filed in Allegany County. That adjuster’s perception of the attitudes of the decision makers will reflect the value they place on your auto collision case.
So, let’s talk about the courts.

Continue Reading ››

Value of Your Maryland Auto Accident Case, Part 4: Non-Economic Damages

 Posted on April 20, 2014 in Automobile Accidents

We’ve discussed how the strength of your case (liability and negligence) affects your case value, and we’ve discussed how the economic damages, like medical bills and lost wages, impacts your case value. Now we’ll talk about non-economic damages.

Most people think of non-economic damages as “pain and suffering.” Each state has its own rules, but in Maryland, non-economic damages are much more. The Maryland jury instructions explain that non-economic damages are recoverable for past and future:

The “Noneconomic Damages” sustained in the past and reasonably probable to be sustained in the future. All damages which you may find for pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, disfigurement, loss of consortium, or other nonpecuniary injury are “Noneconomic Damages.”

This list is important, because it is what judges and juries look at when determining the value of a personal injury claim. Let’s go through them, one by one:

Continue Reading ››

Value of Your Maryland Auto Accident Case, Part 3: Economic Damages

 Posted on April 18, 2014 in Automobile Accidents

Probably the most important factor in determining the value of your Maryland auto accident case is the amount and type of economic damages. Economic damages are, simply put, those things which can be calculated with mathematical precision. This is different from non-economic damages (which we’ll talk about next time), which have no universal method of calculation.

Common economic damages include:

  • medical bills
  • lost wages
  • property damage
  • cost of services
  • mileage

Before an auto accident settlement, it is important to know exactly what your economic damages are. In most cases, we recommend that you do not settle your case until you are finished with medical treatment. This is because if you settle your case before you finish, then it can be difficult to know, and to prove, what future medical problems (and costs) you might have. So if you settle, you won’t get the chance to go back for more money if your condition worsens, if you need surgery, or you need more time in therapy.

Continue Reading ››

Value of Your Maryland Automobile Accident Case: Negligence and Liability

 Posted on April 16, 2014 in Automobile Accidents

Two major factors in deciding the value of any automobile accident case are liability and damages. Damages, which we’ll discuss in a later post, include things like medical bills, lost wages, pain, suffering and incapacity.

Liability is used (often incorrectly) by lawyers to refer to negligence. In some cases, lawyers might tell the judge or jury that they have conceded liability, which is taken to mean that the defendant admits to being negligent. Technically, if a driver is liable, he was negligent, and his negligence caused damages. However, in some cases, a driver may admit negligence, but argue that his negligence did not cause damages.

So, though lawyers sometimes use the terms liability and negligence interchangeably, we’ll use the correct term “negligence.” Negligence is simply a fancy way to describe fault. A negligent driver is one who caused the accident–it’s as simple as that.

So, why is negligence important in determining the value of your car accident case? Why is it important in your ability to get an accident settlement, or to convince a judge or jury that you were wronged? The reason is that a case with clear negligence is a simpler case–the only thing you need to prove is causation and damages (that is, you have to prove the at-fault driver’s actions caused your injuries). A case with clear negligence is usually a winner, and the only issue is how much you will win.

Continue Reading ››

Value of Your Auto Accident Case

 Posted on April 15, 2014 in Automobile Accidents

One question common to all Maryland auto accident victims is “what is my case worth?” It’s a simple question with a complicated answer–so complicated, that we’re going to spend the next seven or so blog posts breaking it down for you.

Here’s the outline of what we’ll cover:

  • Liability (how easy is it to prove that the other driver was negligent and you were not)
  • Economic damages (the total of your medical expenses, property damage, and lost wages)
  • Non-economic damages (your pain, suffering, inconvenience, and aggravation, etc…)

Continue Reading ››

TAKE PHOTOS OF THE ACCIDENT

 Posted on April 10, 2014 in Automobile Accidents

With smartphones everywhere, Maryland accident victims have the ability to record and document almost every aspect of an accident, almost in realtime. It’s no surprise that witnesses in auto accident cases are scarce, negligent drivers frequently lie about what happened, and testimony in at trial is inconsistent. So what’s a judge or jury to do?

Ideally, the judge or jury will have the opportunity to look at the vehicles, the accident scene, and overhead maps of the collision site. People involved in a collision should take pictures of their cars, the other driver’s cars, and important landmarks that show where the accident occurred. Those photographs should include close-up shots, and wider views (you’d be surprised how hard it is to determine what a narrow angle shot shows). Pictures of the damage are important, but so are pictures of non-damaged areas.

What do these photos show? They can help a judge or jury to determine the exact area of impact, that is, where the cars came into contact. This can be crucial to determining who was at fault. They can help to show how bad the collision was. To be fair, though, the extent of damage does not always correlate with actual physical injuries. We’ve all seen people walk away unharmed from serious accordion-style wrecks; and we’ve also seen people require multiple surgeries from mere “bumper-tap” cases. But, high damage will almost always help in an effort to secure damages.

Continue Reading ››