Our lawyers can help if your child was sexually abused at school and you plan to file a lawsuit. Not only can we investigate your child’s abuse, get evidence, and build a strong claim, but we can also give your family the necessary support and guidance throughout the entire case.
If your child discloses sexual abuse to you, report it to the school immediately. You may also file a police report. Have medical professionals assess your child and look for common injuries and signs of sexual abuse. Then, please contact our lawyers, and we can explain what filing lawsuits entails. While you focus on your child’s mental and emotional well-being, we can focus on preparing the lawsuit, which involves documenting damages from sexual abuse at school.
Call Rice Law at (410) 694-7291 to discuss your case for free with our Maryland sexual abuse lawyers.
What Should I Do if My Child is Sexually Abused at School?
How you handle your child disclosing their sexual abuse at school may ultimately help them get justice for that abuse. We help parents take the right steps in these situations so they file successful claims.
Report the Abuse
You should report the abuse to the school as soon as possible. You should also involve the police so law enforcement can perform its own investigation. A criminal case would be separate from any civil case our lawyers handle, but our Maryland sexual abuse lawyers may glean information from law enforcement’s investigation.
Each situation is unique, and some parents may also feel compelled to temporarily remove their children from a specific school until the case is resolved. Do what is best for your child’s physical and emotional safety and your family’s healing.
Know the Details
If your child discloses to you that they are being sexually abused at school, you need to know more about what happened. Therapists can help child victims feel safe enough to give more details, such as who was abusing them, when the abuse began, where in the school the abuse took place, and the exact nature of the abuse.
Your child needs mental health support after disclosing abuse, so focus on getting them that care. Mental health experts who evaluate and help your child may also testify if a lawsuit goes to trial, supporting your child’s claims of abuse and their need for damages.
Get Medical Intervention
Sexual abuse often leaves victims with physical injuries, especially children. Take your child for an assessment, and physicians can document injuries and any signs of abuse.
Contact Our Lawyers
You can also contact our lawyers after learning of your child being sexually abused at school. We can help you report and document the abuse and advocate for your child against a negligent school and abusive environment.
While you focus on your child’s emotional, mental, and physical well-being, we can focus on building a sexual abuse case that gets them justice.
We can use a lawsuit to get internal investigation reports from the school, learn more about its hiring practices and if it adequately screened the employee who abused your child, and determine whether or not previous reports against the abuser went uninvestigated.
Can I File a Lawsuit if My Child is Sexually Abused at School in Maryland?
Most likely, you can file a lawsuit on your minor child’s behalf if they have been sexually abused at school. Lawsuits may involve the individual abuser and the institution that enabled or ignored their behavior, such as the school that employed them.
Your child’s school may be liable for sexual abuse, as it has a duty of care to protect your child from harm. While minors cannot legally file lawsuits themselves until they reach adulthood, their parents may sue in their place to get justice sooner.
Minor victims may also wait until they turn 18 to file a lawsuit. It takes many victims a long time to disclose or identify abuse, and, fortunately, Maryland has no statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse lawsuits.
What to Do if My Child’s Sexual Abuse at School is Not Investigated?
If you report sexual abuse at school to the administration, and the report is not taken seriously, call our lawyers. We can gather copies of reports, correspondence with school administration, and other relevant evidence showing the school did not uphold its duty of care.
If the school employee directly responsible for your child’s sexual abuse is not immediately investigated and removed, it may benefit your lawsuit to switch schools. This also saves your child further emotional, mental, and physical damage and avoids any chance of interaction with the abuser after coming forward.
If you have not yet reported the abuse to law enforcement and the school has failed to investigate, now is the time to do so. We can also initiate our own investigation and may discover past reports that went uninvestigated.
How Do You Document Damages from Childhood Sexual Abuse at a Maryland School?
Parents are understandably focused on their children after they come forward about institutional sexual abuse at school. Rather than also worrying about tracking damages from the abuse, let our lawyers handle that task.
Economic damages from child sexual abuse include medical costs, mental health counseling, and other out-of-pocket expenses. The non-economic damages are almost never-ending, with victims experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and other mental health issues at high rates.
We can handle tallying economic damages and can work with mental health experts to quantify your child’s non-economic damages.
Maryland caps non-economic damages for lawsuits against government entities like public schools, and our lawyers can work hard to maximize your recovery. Non-economic damages are also limited in lawsuits against private schools, though typically, more is available from these defendants.
Call Our Lawyers for a Free Case Review in Maryland
Call Rice Law at (410) 694-7291 for a free case analysis from our Baltimore, MD sexual abuse lawyers.
While most doctors take great care to ensure they are not prescribing the wrong medication to a patient, some fail to do so. If a wrongly prescribed medication injured you, our lawyers can help you get compensation for your damages.
First, we will obtain evidence to determine how the defendant managed to prescribe the wrong medication. Some healthcare providers fail to obtain informed consent and complete patient histories, potentially leading to allergic reactions. Others prescribe the wrong dosage or medication than they intended. Our team will work with qualified experts who can review the evidence and certify how your doctor deviated from the accepted standard of care and caused your damages. If we cannot settle your claim during the mandatory arbitration process for medical malpractice, we can file a lawsuit.
For a free case review with our Maryland medication error lawyers, call Rice Law today at (410) 694-7291.
Can I File a Lawsuit in Maryland if I Am Prescribed the Wrong Medication?
Prescribing the wrong medication is a preventable error that should never occur. When it does, our medication error lawyers can determine how it was caused and who should be held responsible in a lawsuit. The following are the most common ways doctors negligently prescribe the wrong medication:
- Prescribing the wrong dosage
- Prescribing the wrong medication
- Failing to secure a patient’s informed consent or explain the risks and side effects
- Prescribing medication that would worsen another medical condition
- Prescribing the wrong duration or frequency to take the medication
When doctors are usually directly at fault these kinds of mistakes, we might be able to include the hospital, office, or clinic that employs them, since most employers are vicariously liable for their employees’ negligence.
Other times, we need to sue nurses and pharmacists since they also have a duty to check prescriptions that they are administering. If they fail to notice a prescription error that other healthcare professionals would have caught, they can be held liable.
When Must I File a Claim for Receiving the Wrong Prescription in Maryland?
According to Md. Code Cts. & Jud. Proc. Art., § 5-109(a), you must file a medical malpractice claim within five years from the date your doctor prescribed the wrong medication. If you could not discover that the prescription was wrong through ordinary diligence until later, you have three years from the date of discovery to file a claim.
If the wrong prescription injured a child younger than 11, the limitations period will not commence until they reach 11 years old under § 5-109(b).
Victims under 16 years old when they are injured and older than 11 will statute of limitations will pause until they reach 16, as per § 5-109(c)(2).
Unfortunately, some medication errors are fatal. If you lost a loved one because of a negligent prescription, you generally have three years from the date they passed to file a wrongful death claim under § 3-904(g).
The cases tend to be complex, so the sooner you start, the better. If your case’s filing deadline passes, you could miss your opportunity to recover compensation.
Prerequisites to Filing a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit for Negligent Prescriptions in Maryland
Since a physician will most likely be the defendant, we must file a medical malpractice lawsuit. However, a few hurdles must be overcome before your lawsuit can proceed.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Maryland medical malpractice claims must undergo the Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution process, which involves mandatory arbitration. During arbitration, a panel of three arbitrators will evaluate your case and decide if malpractice happened and who is responsible.
Although arbitration can assist you in obtaining compensation for the wrong prescription without going to court, it might be less than what you could recover in a lawsuit. Fortunately, the results of the arbitration are non-binding unless both parties’ consent. If you disagree with the arbitration panel, we will move forward with your claim.
Qualified Expert Certificates
To determine if a victim has a valid case, Maryland requires anyone filing a medical malpractice claim to file a “certificate of a qualified expert” within 90 days supporting it, according to § 3–2C–02.
The certificate should outline the reasons the medical expert concludes that malpractice took place. This typically includes information regarding the relevant standard of care, how the defendant’s conduct amounts to medical malpractice, and the expert’s qualifications.
The court will dismiss unsupported claims lacking a qualified expert’s certificate. However, we can assist you in refiling, as the dismissal should be without prejudice. After gathering evidence and witness testimony during discovery, we’ll file an updated expert certificate.
Waiving Arbitration
If you are aware that arbitration will likely not work, you can choose to forgo it and go to the lawsuit instead under § 3-2A-06B(b). However, you can only opt out of arbitration after submitting a certificate from an expert and providing the reasons to waive alternative dispute resolution.
Your waiver must be submitted within 60 days following the filing of all the defendants’ expert certificates.
Limits on the Compensation that Victims Can Recover for Wrong Prescriptions in Maryland
Victims injured by wrong prescriptions typically claim economic and non-economic damages in their lawsuits.
Fortunately, Maryland does not cap the proven financial losses that the doctor’s negligence caused. Medical bills, lost wages, future damages, and other out-of-pocket expenses can all be recovered with the right evidence.
The bad news is that Maryland does cap non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases. These damages cover the emotional and physical pain victims experience. This includes physical pain from adverse reactions and long-term damage, emotional trauma, diminished quality of life, and many other losses.
However, non-economic damages will be limited to $905,000, regardless of the actual level of pain and suffering, according to § 3-2A-09. This limit increases by $15,000 each year on the first January.
Contact Our Medication Error Lawyers in Maryland Today for Help Filing Your Claim
Contact Rice Law today at (410) 694-7291 for a free, confidential case assessment with our medication error attorneys in Maryland.
While miscarriages are unfortunately common, they are not always purely accidental. Some people experience miscarriages because of the negligence of others. Whether a doctor or someone causes an injurious accident, you might be entitled to fair compensation for your grievous loss.
Sometimes, miscarriages happen because someone else did something wrong. You might miscarry if your doctor fails to catch a certain medical condition or approves you for medication that is dangerous for pregnancy. Alternatively, your pregnancy might have been normal and healthy until someone else injured you so badly that you miscarried. The timeframe for filing your case may depend on whom you sue, as different legal claims may be subject to varying statutes of limitations.
Contact our South Carolina personal injury lawyers at Rice Law by calling (803) 219-4906 to request a free initial case evaluation.
Suing for a Miscarriage
While many miscarriages occur naturally, others happen because of medical negligence, accidents, unsafe products, or even violence. If you experienced a miscarriage because of someone else’s negligent or wrongful actions, you may be entitled to fair financial compensation.
Medical Negligence
During pregnancy, people rely on doctors to guide them through the experience and deliver a healthy newborn. Unfortunately, not all doctors are as careful as they should be. Your doctor might give you inaccurate or dangerous medical advice that could cause a miscarriage.
Not all pregnancies are the same, and your doctor must be ready to help you through various complications. If they prescribe unsafe medication or fail to identify medical conditions, you might have a miscarriage. While medical mistakes can happen, they must fall below the standard of care to be considered malpractice.
Medical negligence that results in a miscarriage might be grounds for a medical malpractice claim against the doctor and possibly the hospital they work for.
Accidents
Miscarriages might result from accidents that cause serious bodily harm. For example, a pregnant person might be driving to work when they are struck by another vehicle, and their injuries cause a miscarriage. In such a case, our South Carolina personal injury attorneys may work to hold the other driver responsible for their negligence and make them cover your damages, including the loss of the pregnancy.
Other possible accidents might include slip and falls, where a pregnant person slips and falls forward, landing on their abdomen. Such an injury can be extremely dangerous for the pregnancy and cause a miscarriage. The owner of the property where you fell may be responsible if they negligently failed to clean up the spill or debris that caused you to fall.
Acts of Violence
While it is uncomfortable to consider, miscarriages may occur when a pregnant person is violently assaulted. Perhaps you got into an argument with someone, and they snapped and pushed you, causing you to fall on your stomach, leading to a miscarriage. Maybe a pregnant person is injured during a robbery. Violence can be traumatic, and a miscarriage can make the ordeal even worse.
Always report violence to the police, especially if you are injured. The police may investigate, turn up evidence, and arrest the person responsible, making it easier for you to sue them in civil court later.
Product Liability
Pregnant people must be careful about what they put in their bodies, as not all food, drinks, or medications are safe during pregnancy. For example, your doctor might prescribe medicine that is supposed to be safe for pregnant patients, but it turns out to be dangerous and leads to a miscarriage.
Food poisoning may increase the risk of a miscarriage. If you unknowingly consume contaminated food at a restaurant and later suffer a miscarriage, you might have a claim against the restaurant. We would need to prove that the miscarriage was a direct result of the food poisoning.
When You File a Civil Case for a Miscarriage in South Carolina
Exactly when you must file your civil case may vary based on how we believe your miscarriage happened. Miscarriage might involve medical negligence or result from other, more common forms of negligence.
Different statutes of limitations may apply depending on how the miscarriage occurred. For example, if you were injured in an accident, you might file a personal injury claim. According to S.C. Code Ann. § 15-3-530(5), personal injury plaintiffs have 3 years from when they are injured to file their cases.
If your miscarriage is the result of medical negligence, you can file a medical malpractice case. Medical malpractice claims must be filed according to the statute of limitations under § 15-3-545. You have 3 years from the date of the injury that caused the miscarriage to file your case.
However, if it took you some time to discover that medical malpractice caused your miscarriage , you may have 3 years from the date of discovery to file. In any case, you cannot file after 6 years of the negligent treatment.
When You Cannot Sue for a Miscarriage in South Carolina
While a miscarriage is tragic, it is a good idea to understand when you might not have a legal case. A lawyer can help you determine if you have a valid cause of action.
One possibility is that the miscarriage happened naturally. This is very common, especially in the first trimester of a pregnancy. While this is hard to deal with, you likely cannot file a civil case for a miscarriage that happened from natural causes.
You also cannot sue for someone else’s miscarriage. Miscarriages can be painful for numerous people, in addition to the pregnant person. Even so, you would have a very hard time filing a civil case for someone else’s miscarriage.
Talk to Our South Carolina Personal Injury Attorneys About Your Miscarriage Case
Contact our Socastee, SC personal injury lawyers by calling Rice Law at (803) 219-4906 and request a f initial free case evaluation.
There’s an old saying that the cure must not be worse than the poison. When doctors and pharmacists write and fill prescriptions, they should be taking that into consideration, accounting for the side effects and potential harm you can face from medication, and comparing it to the good it does to help with your medical condition or illness. When doctors make mistakes, and when pharmacists fill prescriptions wrong, patients can face serious harm that should be adequately compensated in a lawsuit.
A good settlement for a medication error will be enough to cover all of the economic effects of your injury. That often means paying for the medical bills you faced because of the medication errors – e.g., from an illness the proper medication would have prevented or from an illness the wrong medication caused – as well as the other economic effects of taking the wrong medication. It also means accounting for your non-economic effects – the pain and suffering you faced – which can often lead to higher damages than your total economic damages.
For help with your potential case, call Rice Law’s Maryland medication error lawyers at (410) 694-7291.
Kinds of Damages You Can Claim for Prescription Medication Errors
As mentioned, medication errors and problems with prescriptions can typically cause injuries in two areas: failing to help with the condition you have and causing additional harm from a drug you shouldn’t have been taking.
Untreated Conditions
When you get the wrong medication, it is likely that the symptoms or illness the medication is supposed to alleviate or control is going completely unchecked. While some prescription errors – such as mixing up two similar drugs or prescribing the wrong dose – might have some positive effects, they likely will not be as effective as the full dose of the correct drug would have been. This can cause various effects, given the specific situation you are in and the specific problem with the drug you were given.
Think, for example, of a heart medication that was delivered at the wrong dose – e.g., a dose measured in micrograms instead of milligrams. This might provide only a fraction of the help it was supposed to provide in lowering your blood pressure or preventing occlusion. That would practically leave your blood pressure, cholesterol, or clotting ability unchanged, potentially increasing the risk of a heart attack or stroke as though you were not even on medication.
As another example, consider pain medication that was not filled properly. You might be in agony after surgery or while dealing with a chronic pain condition, and no matter how much you take of the wrong drug, it might not alleviate the pain at all. The doctor would have, essentially, left you to feel tortured by your pain without the relief they had promised you.
This all results in additional pain and suffering and other effects, like fear of additional medical conditions, fear of a heart attack, or fear of other medical issues. It also potentially includes expensive medical care to treat anything that does happen or to try to catch up with other treatments for your unchecked conditions.
Effects of the Wrong Drug
When you get the wrong drug, it might cause additional symptoms, drug interactions, allergic reactions, or other harm, but this is not guaranteed.
Sometimes the wrong med that you do take causes no additional issues, which would result in no additional damages. Other times, the drug could be slowly poisoning you, causing you liver or kidney damage, increasing your chances of heart attacks, causing you depression, or otherwise wreaking havoc on your system. Seeking care from another doctor can help diagnose these issues – but of course, that care is an additional cost you should seek damages for.
If treatment is needed to deal with these additional symptoms or side effects, then that will also result in additional medical care. For example, if bloodwork indicates liver damage, you might need ongoing screening for your liver and potentially even a transplant if the harm cannot be reversed. This could come with serious expenses, let alone serious mental and emotional effects.
If the medication you took caused an acute condition like pancreatitis or a heart attack, or if you had an allergic reaction to the wrong medication, then you faced immediate harm that should be compensated. This should include coverage for the medical treatment you needed, as well as the mental and emotional effects of such a scary episode.
Another potential problem is drug interactions from the medication you were given. Whether the doctor gave you the wrong medication entirely or overlooked the negative interactions with the medication they intended to prescribe, drug interactions can cause a wide array of harm. In some cases, this might reduce the effectiveness of other drugs you are on, causing issues like those in the first category above. In others, the interactions will be actively dangerous, potentially causing some of the other issues like liver and kidney failure discussed above.
Calculating Settlements for Medication Errors
When you put all of these harms and areas of injury together, you arrive at two major categories of damages: economic and non-economic damages. Calculating each of these in order is important, and our medication error lawyers can help you calculate the damages in your specific case.
Economic Damages
The total cost of any bills or expenses you faced because you got the wrong medication should be added up to get your total economic damages. This includes all medical bills, the cost of screening, and the cost of additional medication to reverse the issues you faced or catch up on your care. It also includes the cost of any missed time at work if your condition or reaction caused you to miss time at work for medical care or to develop a disability.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages like pain and suffering are usually paid in reference to how serious your injury or condition was overall. More serious conditions get higher non-economic damages.
As such, these damages are usually calculated either by taking a multiplier based on your case’s severity and applying it to the total economic damages or by assigning a per-day value for your pain and suffering and paying you that amount for each day you suffered. A “good” settlement often pays at least double or triple the economic damages for pain and suffering.
In some states, such as Maryland, there is a cap on non-economic damages, so it is important to have your lawyers determine what that cap would be in your case, as you cannot typically settle for more than the capped amount.
Call Our Prescription Medication Error Lawyers Today
For a free case evaluation, call Rice Law’s Baltimore medication error attorneys at (410) 694-7291 today.
We often learn about prescription drugs either through advertising or because our doctor prescribed them to us. From there, patients often get their prescriptions filled and take the pills as instructed, but they may have varying levels of concern and questions about the medication. What responsibility lies with the doctor for explaining the medication and its side effects – and what duties lie elsewhere?
Typically, a doctor should explain the side effects of a drug that you should watch out for, but acceptable medical practice might not require them to divulge all possible side effects. In some cases, there is even an argument that discussing side effects too much might actually cause additional problems. Rather, drug manufacturers often have the burden of listing side effects on the drug’s labels. Even so, there may be ways to hold doctors responsible for failing to explain important side effects or for failing to inform you of the risks of taking certain medications.
For help with a potential medical malpractice claim, call Rice Law for a free case evaluation with our Maryland medication error lawyers at (410) 694-7291.
Do Doctors Have to Explain Side Effects for Drugs Before Prescribing Them in Maryland?
When doctors perform procedures or exams on patients, they need to get their consent. This is what makes something like surgery different from assault and battery. However, we usually discuss consent for medical procedures as “informed consent,” given that medicine is often something the patient doesn’t understand, and they need a bit of an explanation before they truly have enough information to consent to the procedure.
When it comes to medication, patients should have informed consent as well, but the rules are often a bit looser as to what doctors are absolutely required to tell patients.
Informed Consent for Medication
Before a patient can truly understand what drugs they are taking and what the risks of those drugs are, they need to understand some potential side effects. For example, blood thinners can increase a patient’s risk of heavy bleeding, given that their blood is slower to clot. This can be dangerous if the patient doesn’t know about it. Similarly, some drugs have an increased risk of suicidal thoughts or liver harm, so patients may need to watch out for themselves or undergo additional testing to catch these effects.
Patients need to understand some of these most common and most serious dangers so they can make an informed decision about what they are putting in their bodies. Without this understanding of these risks, it is hard to say they truly consented.
Doctors often aim to divulge as much information as they can so their patients are fully informed about the risks and side effects of medication – often with the goal of reducing their potential liability. However, there are factors that might hold a doctor back from explaining every possible effect.
Risk of Noncompliance
Sometimes doctors have good reason to fear that if they explained every potential side effect of a drug, patients wouldn’t take them. Certain side effects – especially effects on sexual performance and any risk of death, however small – often scare patients away from medication. For this reason, doctors have to weigh their responsibility to inform the patient of risks against the risk that the patient will be in greater danger if they refuse to take the medication they prescribed them.
On the other hand, patients often distrust doctors who fail to inform them about everything, and this distrust is often what leads to even worse noncompliance or to medical malpractice lawsuits. Doctors can often increase compliance by helping patients be aware of side effects and ushering them through the rough spots.
“Nocebo Response”
Another potential issue with telling patients about side effects is that doctors might actually induce side effects. Many are familiar with the “placebo effect,” the phenomenon of receiving the good benefits of a medication when you actually took a sugar pill or “placebo” instead of the real thing. A related phenomenon called the “nocebo” or “negative placebo” effect has been studied to show that a doctor informing a patient about side effects can cause side effects even with a placebo.
In the same way that placebos can cause positive effects based on the patient’s expectation, they can also cause side effects this way. This ultimately means that the warning itself is sometimes what induces side effects, potentially encouraging doctors to avoid disclosing all side effects so as to reduce nocebo effects.
Factors in Holding Doctors Liable for Failing to Warn About Side Effects in Maryland
All in all, whether a doctor is liable for damages for failing to warn a patient comes down to weighing the good versus the bad and making a case-by-case decision. If your case were to go to court based on injuries from a lack of informed consent/warnings, our Maryland medication error lawyers would have to show that the doctor failed to uphold the standard of care by keeping information from you to the point that that caused your injury from the side effects. This often means showing the side effects would have been avoided (usually because you wouldn’t have taken the drug) if you had been given the full information. You may also be able to show that what happened was effectively non-consensual because of how much was withheld.
Because side effects so rarely cause serious harm – and because patients are, in fact, typically informed about the most common and most serious side effects – this kind of case rarely comes up. Instead, medication injury lawsuits are usually based on mistakes in prescribing the wrong medication or wrong dosage or from allergies or drug interactions the doctor or pharmacy should have caught.
Other Warnings, Drug Labeling, and Advertising
In many cases, the question of whether the doctor informed the patient of the risks is not at issue because the drug manufacturer was probably required to inform the patient instead. The FDA has strict rules about advertising and labeling drugs, requiring side effects to be listed in advertisements, on packaging, and in the inserts that come with prescription medication. These labels also warn you that you should ask your doctor or pharmacist about any concerns. All of this works to try to shift the burden of learning about side effects from doctors and drug manufacturers onto the patients taking the drugs.
Many of these warnings are important for the patient rather than the doctor, given that the risks involve other behaviors, like mixing the drug with alcohol or operating heavy machinery while taking the drug.
If there are any issues that would still fall to the doctor, they often come up when the doctor gives you medication in the hospital (i.e., you are not voluntarily taking it yourself), when you rely on their professional judgment in place of doing your own research (e.g., the doctor undertook to explain the side effects, but did so inaccurately, poorly, or in an incomplete manner), and when doctors prescribe drugs for off-label uses that are not discussed in the documentation and labeling that comes with the prescription.
Call Our Maryland Medication Injury Lawyers for Help Today
For help with your potential case, call the Maryland medication error lawyers at Rice Law at (410) 694-7291.
Premises liability claims deal with injuries caused by unsafe conditions on someone else’s property. Whether you were injured because of a slippery sidewalk, a puddle in a grocery store aisle, a loose handrail on a staircase, or a blocked fire escape, most injuries based on a defect or hazard on the property are assessed the same way.
Premises liability claims are personal injury claims based on the property owner’s negligence. This means that they follow the same four elements of any other negligence claim: duty, breach, causation, and damages. This generally means that, in order to have a premises liability claim, you have to show that the property owner failed to keep the property reasonably safe for you, and that that failure caused the injuries you sustained. There are, however, more details that go into a claim like this.
For help with your potential premises liability case, call the Maryland slip and fall lawyers at Rice, Murtha & Psoras today at (410) 694-7291.
Premises Liability Basics in Maryland
As mentioned, premises liability claims are a type of personal injury claim based on “negligence.” Negligence is what is known as a tort – essentially the civil law version of a crime. In premises liability cases, you sue for the tort of negligence. This means that you must show the defendant owed you a legal duty, breached that legal duty, and that the breach caused your injuries.
In most cases, you file your claim against the property owner, though rented houses, apartments, and commercial properties might involve a claim against the tenant instead. For simplicity, we will primarily discuss things below as though the property owner is the one responsible.
Duty
The first element of a premises liability claim is duty: you must show that the property owner owed you a duty to keep you safe or prevent the injury in some way. The duty that the property owner owes you will depend on why you are on their property in the first place.
Categories
The law in Maryland has two potential burdens based on your classification as an “invitee” versus a “licensee” or “trespasser.” According to Richardson v. Nwaduiko (2009) and a line of similar cases, the duty owed to an invitee is the duty to keep the property safe and to protect them from unreasonable risks. With a licensee or trespasser, you only have to avoid willfully injuring them.
How Categories Affect Duty
To determine which category you fall into, we need to look at why you are on the property and what you were doing.
In most cases, invitees are there for “mutual benefit” – e.g., they are there to do business as customers or clients to the property owner. Alternatively, they can be seen as an invitee if there is an implied invitation to the public to come to their property even if they’re not buying anything. Typically, social guests – e.g., a friend coming over – also qualify as invitees.
A licensee is someone who has permission to use the property for their own benefit, but it doesn’t benefit the property owner.
A trespasser is the same as the typical definition: someone who does not have permission to be there.
Breaking this down into simpler terms, if you are on the property doing business with the property owner, as a customer, or as a social guest, they have to avoid any unreasonable dangers. If you are there just for your own benefit or while trespassing, they only need to avoid injuring you on purpose, through wantonness, or by putting up traps to injure you.
How Duty Affects Liability
Some cases will come down to arguments as to which duty is owed. If they injured you through unreasonable actions/inaction but not willfully/wantonly, then you want to be treated as an invitee to get the heightened duty. They will, in turn, argue you were a mere licensee so their duty was met by not intentionally injuring you.
One example of this is in the 2009 case cited above – Richardson. This case involved a husband and wife who went to the same doctor. The wife slipped and fell in the doctor’s wet office lobby one day. The issue of whether she was an invitee or a licensee came up because she was there for her husband’s doctor’s appointment that day, not her own appointment. The court found even though she wasn’t doing business that day, there was still an implied invitation that spouses were welcome along with the patient, so she was an invitee, requiring the heightened duty.
Breach
If there are unreasonable dangers that injured a social guest or customer, that would qualify as a breach of the owner’s legal duty. If the property owner left a trap or willfully injured a licensee or trespasser, then they would have breached that duty.
For a breach to occur, there must also be proof that the property owner knew about the danger and had an opportunity to fix it. On some properties, it is reasonable to assume that a property owner inspects their property regularly to stay aware of dangers that have been there for a while, giving them a chance to fix the danger. However, with things like a spill in a store aisle, there needs to be evidence it was there for some time or that the staff was actually notified about the danger to show that they could have reasonably cleaned it up or repaired the hazard. Without this chance to actually fix the danger, there can be no breach of duty.
Causation
You need to show that what the owner did – or, more commonly, failed to do – was what actually caused your injuries. If you were instead the one who did something wrong, the blame might shift to you, even if your shared fault was slight. If the injuries would have been unavoidable, even if the owner did everything right, then your case might also fail.
Damages
You need to have actual injuries and monetary damages (e.g., medical bills, lost earnings) for an injury case to succeed. Injuries themselves are enough to qualify; however, injuries also potentially come with medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages you can sue for.
Call Our Maryland Slip and Fall Lawyers Today
Call (410) 694-7291 to speak with the Baltimore slip and fall lawyers at Rice, Murtha & Psoras in a free case evaluation.
As a driver in Maryland, it benefits you to know which roads in your state are the most dangerous and see the most fatal accidents.
Some of the deadliest roads in Maryland include I-95, Route 210, and the Jones Falls Expressway on I-83, all common highways in the state. The high traffic volume on these roads makes them dangerous, as well as drivers excessively speeding or making unsafe maneuvers during rush hour. While highways are more common locations for fatal accidents, deadly collisions could happen on local roads as well, entitling victims’ survivors to compensation. Our attorneys can help get your deserved damages by filing a wrongful death lawsuit within three years of your loved one’s death and proving the at-fault driver’s negligence caused it.
To discuss your case for free with our Maryland car accident lawyers, call Rice, Murtha & Psoras today at (410) 694-7291.
What Are Some of the Deadliest Roads for Car Accidents in Maryland?
While any road could be dangerous, depending on the people driving on it, some are more common sites for fatal accidents than others. These include I-95, Maryland Route 210, and the Jones Falls Expressway, to name a few.
I-95
Maryland’s section of I-95 is about 110 miles long, a popular route for people traveling up or down the coast or even commuting in and out of cities like Baltimore for work. Some of the most common types of accidents on I-95 are sideswipe collisions. Negligent drivers attempting to merge from ramps might speed up or try to squeeze between cars, sideswiping them. Recklessly changing lanes is another major cause of crashes on this corridor, as are negligent truck drivers. Because I-95 gives commercial truckers access to many states, it is a common route for these drivers. Fatigue, speeding, and reckless driving might lead to a truck crash on I-95, which could turn fatal regardless of the speed because of the sheer force of impact from the truck.
State Route 210
Maryland Route 210 is one of the most notoriously dangerous roads in the state, spanning about 20 miles. According to a late 2023 report from the Maryland Department of Transportation and State Highway Administration outlining the dangers of Route 210, there were about 39 fatal accidents on that road alone over the past decade, four of which involved pedestrians. Though efforts have been made to make this section of road less dangerous for drivers and pedestrians, such as adding new pedestrian crosswalks, it remains a common stretch for accidents in Maryland.
The Jones Falls Expressway
I-83, more particularly the stretch that includes the Jones Falls Expressway, is another dangerous route. Despite speed cameras operating on this section of road to deter excessive speeding, which is a top cause of fatal accidents because of the risk of cars flipping over, airbags deploying, glass breaking, or engines catching on fire, the Jones Fall Expressway remains a relatively dangerous roadway in Maryland. Where the Jones Falls Expressway intersects with Northern Parkway and West Cold Spring Lane are specific spots for bad accidents, largely due to the high volume of merging traffic.
What Makes Some Roads Deadlier Than Others in Maryland?
The majority of fatal car accidents in Maryland in 2024, 358, happened on state roads, while 153 happened on local roads. Over 100 fatalities occurred on roads with speed limits higher than 55 miles per hour, emphasizing the fact that deadly collisions typically happen on highways in Maryland.
Fatal accidents often occur because of speeding. High-speed collisions might force vehicles to roll over and hit other cars or fixed objects like medians, compounding victims’ injuries and increasing the likelihood of fatality.
Traffic volume can also increase the risk of serious collisions and make certain roads deadlier. During rush hour, frustrated drivers might make riskier maneuvers, endangering others on the road. In addition to aggressive driving, drunk and distracted driving are other common primary causes of fatal crashes in Maryland. Such negligent conduct could happen anywhere, from high-speed expressways to residential roads.
While highways are widely understood as likely locations for fatal collisions, victims could suffer serious or deadly injuries on local roads as well. Low visibility at night, drunk drivers speeding nearby pedestrians, and any number of negligent or reckless acts could cause fatal collisions, even if they occur on less dangerous roads, generally speaking.
Getting Compensation for Fatal or Serious Injury Crashes in Maryland
When fatal car accidents happen, victims’ survivors may be able to file lawsuits to hold at-fault drivers accountable, and our attorneys can take the appropriate steps to ensure their recoveries in Maryland.
According to Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. Art., § 3-904(a)(1), wrongful death claims for fatal accidents are for the sole benefit of the victim’s spouse, parents, or children, barring some rare exceptions. The statute of limitations for these lawsuits is typically three years. Not all deadly car accidents are immediately fatal, and if a victim succumbs to their injuries days or weeks later, that will be the accrual date for the statute of limitations since the clock begins to count down on the date of death.
Our Baltimore car accident lawyers can also contact the law enforcement agency that responded to your loved one’s fatal car accident to get the crash report. While roads like I-95 and I-83 have traffic cameras, the Maryland Department of Transportation does not store footage from these devices. We may get footage from nearby security cameras for fatal accidents or interview eyewitnesses to preserve their firsthand accounts.
According to § 3-904(d), compensation for fatal car accidents in Maryland is not limited to economic damages and may cover pain and suffering for the death of a spouse, minor child, parent of a minor child, and unmarried adult children in some situations, which our attorneys can explain.
Call Our Maryland Lawyers About Your Car Accident Case Today
For help with your case from our Ocean City, MD car accident lawyers, call Rice, Murtha & Psoras now at (410) 694-7291.
For Immediate Release
Update – Rachel Morin Murder Case: Motions Hearing Scheduled for Friday, January 31, 2025
January 28, 2025, Bel Air, MD – The family of Rachel Morin is preparing for the upcoming Motions Hearing scheduled for Friday, January 31, 2025, at 9:30 a.m. in Harford County Circuit Court, Courtroom 2-01, before the Honorable Judge Yolanda L. Curtin.
Read the Motion for Change of Venue here: Victor Martinez-Hernandez (Motion for change of venue)
This hearing represents a significant moment in the pursuit of justice for Rachel Morin, who was tragically raped and murdered in August 2023 while walking on the Ma & Pa Trail. The defendant, Victor Martinez-Hernandez, an alleged illegal immigrant, is now facing charges for this heinous crime that devastated the community and captured national attention.
A motions hearing in Maryland allows the State and the Defense to argue over critical issues, including which evidence will be admitted for trial. Motions hearings can also address procedural matters such as venue, witness admissibility, and constitutional rights. The trial is currently scheduled to begin on April 1, 2025.
At this hearing, it is anticipated that the Defense will argue for a change of venue, citing the widespread media coverage and the intense public reaction to the case.
According to a previously filed motion, the Defense claims that “the impending trial and the events surrounding this incident have been the subject of numerous inflammatory and prejudicial reports in both legacy and social media. Public reaction to these reports has been uniformly derogatory against the Defendant. The numerous comments which accompany media reports indicate that the Defendant has been the subject of nationwide public hatred and vilification, notwithstanding that no trial has yet occurred.”
Attorney Randolph Rice expressed the family’s focus on this critical step in the judicial process. “This hearing is an important milestone as we move closer to justice for Rachel. The family remains committed to seeing this process through and ensuring the evidence is presented fairly at trial. They are prepared for this step and remain resolute in their pursuit of accountability.”
For interview requests, please contact attorney Randolph Rice at rr@ricelawmd.com, or the office at (410) 583-6969.
Images and logos are available upon request.
After a car accident, it can be difficult to figure out your next moves. The at-fault driver might want to “keep insurance out of it” or “handle it privately,” but getting the compensation you need often means filing with insurance or even suing in court. So what should you do?
If you did not cause a car accident, you should have no problem contacting your insurance company and perhaps the at-fault driver’s insurance company – depending on your state’s laws – and filing a claim. This is the typical way of getting compensation, and you should never rely on the defendant to pay you privately. In general, your insurance does not go up if you were not at fault, and you may be required under your policy to report all accidents to your insurance whether they were your fault or not. All in all, a lawyer can help you determine what to do next and help you get paid for your accident.
If you were hurt in a crash, call our Maryland car accident attorneys today for a free case review at Rice, Murtha & Psoras at (410) 694-7291.
Do I Have to Tell Insurance About My Car Crash?
As part of your insurance policy, there is probably a requirement that you report all accidents to your insurance company. Whether you want to keep your case away from insurance or not, it is important to keep up with the terms and requirements of your insurance policy, which means you might need to report your crash either way. Your insurance company can then help you figure out how to get compensation, either through your first-party benefits that you already pay for or by filing a claim against the at-fault driver’s policy. In any case, you should work with our car accident lawyers as well; we have to put your needs and best interests first, while insurance companies – even your own insurance company – might put their bottom line first.
Can My Insurance Company Increase My Rate if I Report a Crash?
One reason people are afraid to file an insurance claim after a crash is that they think their rate will go up. Generally, insurance carriers only count things against you if you caused the crash; if you were not at fault, it is not supposed to affect your rate. There may be some exceptions if you have been involved in a high number of crashes that weren’t your fault, given that it is just more expensive to insure you. However, when you didn’t cause the crash, you should never be afraid to file an insurance claim.
Can I File an Insurance Claim with My Insurance Company After a Car Crash?
One factor that often makes people hesitate to call an insurance company or file a claim is the fear of revealing information to the at-fault driver’s insurance company. This kind of hesitation is actually great: you should not talk to the at-fault driver’s insurance company until you have spoken with a lawyer about your case first. You also should be hesitant when talking to insurance companies generally so as to not reveal any information they might misread as an admission of fault. However, talking with the at-fault driver’s insurance might not be an issue in the first place until after you have already talked to your insurance company.
Many drivers have first-party benefits that can pay them regardless of who was at fault. For example, Maryland law requires all drivers to carry a small amount of PIP (personal injury protection) insurance. This no-fault coverage pays you and anyone injured in your car for some of their medical expenses and lost wages, regardless of who caused the accident. This coverage must provide at least $2,500 to defray some of the initial costs, all before you file a claim with the at-fault party.
You may have higher PIP insurance or, depending on your state and the coverages available, different types of first-party benefits that pay you regardless of fault. In some states, you might even be required to use this coverage, blocking you from filing a lawsuit unless your injuries meet certain thresholds.
Can I Sue Instead of Using Insurance?
In some cases, filing a claim against the at-fault driver’s insurance is a trivial matter, given that the insurance company will either offer you a low-ball settlement that will not pay for your damages or they will simply deny your case and force you to take them to court anyway. In some cases, we might be able to just file in court right away, doing away with any need to worry about the insurance claim.
Our attorneys can file both an insurance claim and a lawsuit and pursue damages down both tracks. If the insurance claim happens to pan out and pay you what you need, we can end the court case, and you can walk away with the compensation you needed. But if we need to press on and take the case to trial, we are already on the right track. In any case, our lawyers can break down your case, investigate the fault and actions of every driver involved, look into your damages, and help you determine your best course of action.
In most cases, if you sue a driver who has insurance, you are going to file your lawsuit against the person, but their insurance company will end up providing them with a lawyer and paying for damages up to policy limits. So, at the end of the day, your case is still against their insurance even if you sue; it’s not a separate claim altogether, and their insurance still gets involved.
Should I Avoid Insurance if The At-Fault Driver Doesn’t Want to Use it?
If the other driver says they want to keep insurance out of the case, do not listen to them. This might be because they know they are at fault and want to avoid any official reports or records, or they want to avoid their rates going up. They do not get to make this choice for you, especially if they’re the ones who caused your injuries. Talk to a lawyer and file any insurance claims or lawsuits you need rather than relying on the at-fault driver to dictate what happens next.
Call Our Car Accident Lawyers Today
For a free case evaluation, call (410) 694-7291 for a free case review with the Aberdeen, MD car accident lawyers of Rice, Murtha & Psoras.
Depending on how you suffered injuries while hunting in Maryland, will you be able to file a lawsuit to cover your damages?
Victims can sue after several types of hunting accidents, like accidental misfires that cause bad gunshot wounds. This is a frequent cause of injuries among hunters, though equipment failure can also cause injuries that warrant compensation. If an investigation reveals willful or malicious conduct on the landowner’s behalf, our attorneys may be able to file a lawsuit against them. In your claim, we will seek compensation for all recoverable damages, starting with your medical expenses. Though these may be the most consequential, we will not leave out damages for lost wages or pain and suffering in our requests for relief.
Call our Maryland personal injury lawyers at (410) 694-7291 for a free case evaluation from Rice, Murtha & Psoras.
What Types of Hunting Accidents Can You Sue for in Maryland?
You can sue for several different types of hunting accidents in Maryland, such as accidental misfires because of operator recklessness or negligence. Our attorneys can also file lawsuits against manufacturers who produce defective products or against landowners for willful or malicious conduct. Regardless, we must file within three years of the accident’s date to get compensation, so do not delay your case.
Negligent Hunters for Accidental Misfires
Typically, the most common cause of hunting injuries comes from accidental misfires. Operating firearms requires experience and skill, and those who lack these attributes might mistake other hunters for game or accidentally pull the trigger, injuring victims. Gunshot wounds from hunting firearms can be especially dangerous and typically require immediate medical attention. Our lawyers would have to establish negligence or recklessness in your case against the at-fault hunter, so we may also interview witnesses present during the accidental misfire in Maryland.
Manufacturers of Defective Equipment
If you bring a portable tree stand with you to hunt on private land and it fails, you could fall from great heights and suffer serious injuries. When this happens, victims may be able to file product liability claims against manufacturers. We can point to the equipment’s specifications and weight limits to show you were using it properly when it failed, entitling you to damages.
Typically, landowners don’t have to maintain fixed tree stands or other structures on private grounds in Maryland, according to Md. Code, Nat. Res., § 5-1103. If a permanent tree stand on the property collapsed, our lawyers may examine the tree stand’s design to see if it was ineffective in bearing weight, making the manufacturer liable.
While many accidental misfires happen due to operator negligence or inexperience, they might also occur because of defective design. This could divide liability between the operator and the firearm manufacturer, allowing our lawyers to maximize the compensation in your case. For example, if we can prove gross negligence on the manufacturer’s behalf, we may get punitive damages on top of economic and non-economic damages.
Landowners for Willful or Malicious Conduct
According to § 5-1104 and § 5-1106(a)(1), hunters can only sue landowners for willful or malicious failure to warn them of harmful property conditions, property use, activities performed on the property, or structures on the property. Furthermore, charging hunters a fee to use private lands for recreational purposes could create liability for landowners, with exceptions, which our attorneys can explore after reviewing your case in Maryland.
What Types of Damages Can You Sue for After a Hunting Accident in Maryland?
Once our Baltimore personal injury lawyers identify a cause of action, we can start preparing your compensation claim. This will involve tracking all recoverable damages, such as your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Knowing your deserved compensation before filing will let you better evaluate settlement proposals and decide whether or not to go to trial.
Economic Damages
Economic damages cover the financial expenses of a personal injury. For example, if a negligent hunter misfires and their bullet strikes you, you may need urgent medical treatment, possibly including surgery and other trauma care. The long-term economic consequences often include lost wages, as physically recovering may require time off from work.
From the start, we can organize medical records so we have clear proof of your injuries and recovery timeline. Statements from treating physicians can strengthen relief requests for future damages, as medical expenses might continue to accrue even after victims’ lawsuits end. We will also consider other costs incurred since the accident, like home modifications to accommodate permanent injuries or transportation costs to get you to and from doctor appointments.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages refer to the victim’s intangible losses, which are subjective. To express the physical pain and mental suffering you’ve experienced because of a hunting incident, you may testify in court, along with mental health experts who have evaluated you. Often, juries look to various factors when awarding non-economic damages, such as a plaintiff’s age and the severity of their injuries. For example, if a tree stand failed and you suffered a paralyzing spinal cord injury, the jury might award you greater non-economic damages. This compensation can come from settlements, but typically only after staunch negotiations from our lawyers. Currently, Maryland’s cap on non-economic damages in hunting accident lawsuits stands at $950,000, according to Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. Art., § 11-108(b)(2).
Punitive Damages
As mentioned, punitive damages are recoverable when plaintiffs prove gross negligence and take their cases to trial instead of settling out of court. Unlike non-economic damages, punitive damages in Maryland are not capped. Because there are no limits, punitive damages can greatly increase the awards plaintiffs receive at the ends of their lawsuits, so our lawyers assess if they are available in your case.
Call Our Injury Attorneys in Maryland to Discuss Your Case for Free
Call our Towson, MD personal injury lawyers for help with your case from Rice, Murtha & Psoras at (410) 694-7291.