Fruitland, MD Car Accident Lawyer
Serious car accidents often cause serious and expensive injuries. When car accidents happen because drivers are negligent, victims can seek compensation against them in Fruitland.
Photographing crash sites is a great way to safeguard evidence at risk of getting lost, like glass or tire marks on the road. You should also take pictures of the damage to your car, as that might indicate the cause of the accident. Victims can get help taking pictures from first responders, especially when it comes to photographing their injuries at the scene. Photos of injuries can help prove causation in car accident cases, as can medical evidence from hospitals showing victims’ injuries and diagnoses. After calculating your economic damages from the accident, our lawyers will quantify your non-economic losses. Recovering compensation for emotional pain and suffering is important for many victims, and our lawyers can negotiate a settlement or take your case to trial to get the necessary damages.
Call the Fruitland, MD car accident lawyers of Rice, Murtha & Psoras to schedule a free case review at (410) 694-7291.
What to Photograph After a Fruitland, MD Car Accident
Taking pictures at accident scenes is one of the best things victims can do to preserve evidence. You can photograph property damage to your vehicle, physical injuries to your person, and any additional evidence that might be relevant, like broken glass, skid marks, and nearby traffic signs.
Property Damage
Start by taking pictures of your vehicle and the point of impact. Take detailed photos of property damage so that you can document it for your recovery. Pictures of the damage to your car can help collision reconstruction experts determine which driver caused the accident and how. Based on photos of property damage combined with other evidence, experts may also determine how fast the other car was driving when it struck your vehicle in Fruitland.
Physical Injuries
Victims should also photograph any visible physical injuries. Documenting your injuries as they are when you sustain them is important and can help our car accident lawyers prove causation, a crucial element of injury claims. If you are too hurt to take pictures of your injuries, you can ask paramedics or other first responders to assist you.
Other Physical Evidence
If you notice any debris from the accident, like glass or taillights on the road, photograph it. The same goes for any tire marks or other indications of an accident. Take pictures of any stop signs or traffic lights the other driver might have ignored. Do the same for any no-turn signs or other traffic signs that could be relevant to your claim. To be safe, victims should take photos of the entire crash site to capture all details, however small or irrelevant they might seem in the moment.
How to Prove Car Accident Injuries in Fruitland, MD
Proving car accident injuries requires medical evidence. We can help collect medical records from hospitals after accidents and organize that evidence to use in compensation claims.
Victims can work towards proving their injuries by documenting them. Going directly to the emergency room after a collision is crucial, no matter how injured a victim appears or feels. Internal and soft tissue injuries might worsen if not treated, and physicians can diagnose these injuries when victims go to the hospital.
Getting medical care should be your top priority, as our attorneys can handle other aspects of your case, such as gathering evidence, preparing arguments, and filing on time.
Proving that the other driver caused your injuries and that you did not contribute to the accident is particularly important in Maryland, as it is a pure contributory fault state. Being any degree liable for one’s injuries could bar them from getting damages entirely. We may undermine contributory fault defenses with eyewitness statements contradicting them or evidence showing that the defendant had the last clear chance to avoid the accident. These tactics can let victims recover full compensation for their injuries from auto accidents in Fruitland.
Quantifying Pain and Suffering from Car Accidents in Fruitland, MD
When non-economic damages elude victims, plaintiffs might not recover compensation for emotional losses due to negligence. We can quantify your pain and suffering using the appropriate calculation methods to justify our requests to the court.
One way to quantify non-financial damages is by using the multiplier method. With this method, we will first pick a multiplier between 1.5 and 5. The more severe a victim’s injuries are, the greater the multiplier is. After identifying an appropriate multiplier, we will multiply it by your total economic losses. Economic damages in motor vehicle claims are often substantial, compensating victims for their medical bills, lost wages, and other out-of-pocket expenses.
The second calculation method is the per diem method. This works by assigning a daily rate to your pain and suffering and multiplying that by the number of days you expect to incur non-economic damages.
Which method we use may depend on various factors, such as the severity of your injuries, your anticipated recovery time, and your financial losses.
All of that said, Maryland caps intangible damages in auto accident claims at $935,000, according to Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. Art., § 11-108(b)(2). The limit increases by $15,000 each October. The same cap on emotional damages applies to wrongful death claims for fatal car accidents unless there are two or more beneficiaries in Fruitland. In such instances, the cap increases by 150%.
Getting non-economic damages in settlements is challenging, and our lawyers can leverage evidence to increase offers that compensate you for pain and suffering. Alternatively, victims may go to court, where juries can award non-financial damages after finding defendants liable and seeing the pain and suffering victims have experienced.
Call Our Attorneys About Your Recent Collision in Fruitland, MD
Call Rice, Murtha & Psoras for a free case analysis from our car accident lawyers at (410) 694-7291.
