Howard County Personal Injury Lawyer

A severe injury could adversely affect your life in many ways. You might find yourself facing overwhelming medical bills and a substantial reduction in income. Often, injures have long-term effects that impact you, your ability to enjoy life, and your family’s wellbeing. If someone else was the cause of your injury, they should be held accountable for your pain and misfortune.

Our Howard County personal injury attorneys have been vigorously representing our clients for over three decades. If you or a loved one suffered harm due to another’s negligent behavior, call Rice, Murtha & Psoras at (410) 694-7291 to schedule a free consultation.

Types of Personal Injury Cases in Howard County, MD

Our office has represented people injured in a wide variety of ways. Some of the types of personal injury claims our experienced lawyers have filed include the following.

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Accidents involving cars, trucks, motorcycles, and ATVs are common throughout Howard County and the state of Maryland. Often, a motorist is driving recklessly or carelessly, resulting in a crash that hurts other drivers, passengers, or pedestrians.

Medical Malpractice

While we put our faith in our medical professionals to alleviate our pain and suffering, that is not always the case. Sometimes medical errors or carelessness result in severely adverse medical consequences.

Slip and Fall

If a property or sidewalk is not maintained properly, it could present an unreasonable hazard. If you suffered an injury due to a sudden fall, the property owner or manager could be held accountable for your damages.

Products Liability

Not only do you have a reasonable expectation that a product should function the way it was intended to, but you also expect the product is safe to use. When an injury occurs because a product was poorly manufactured or had a design defect, it might be possible to hold the maker or designer of the product responsible.

Premises Liability

Depending on a property’s purpose or use, a property owner owes anyone on the premises a reasonable expectation of safety. When known hazards are not addressed or if the property is allowed to fall into disrepair, the owner could be held liable for any injures that result from their neglect.

Fault and Negligence in Howard County Personal Injury Claims

Determining fault depends on the circumstances of your situation and the facts surrounding your injury. Our attorneys will thoroughly investigate your case, including accident or police reports, your medical records, eyewitness testimony, and expert analysis to figure out what party, or parties, were responsible for your injury.

After fault has been established, a successful personal injury claim requires demonstrating negligence. Our Howard County personal injury lawyer will have to show four elements.

Duty of Care

Our attorney must prove that the defendant owed you an obligation not to create an unreasonable risk of harm. This duty has limitations and a court will consider factors such as the reasonable foreseeability of harm.

Breach of Duty

Once a duty is established, we must show that the defendant’s conduct constituted a breach of that duty. That means that the behavior or conduct severely deviated from what a reasonably prudent person would do under the same circumstances. For instance, driving at an excessive speed during a heavy thunderstorm could be a breach of the duty to operate a vehicle safely.

Causation

For a personal injury lawsuit to prevail, you must demonstrate that the defendant’s conduct caused the injury. To establish this, we must show that the conduct was the “cause in fact” and the “proximate cause.” This means that the defendant’s actions directly caused the injury and was a foreseeable possibility. Factors such as reasonableness, foreseeability, and direct causation contribute to establishing proximate, or legal, cause.

Damages

If you were not injured, or if your injury was not severe enough to result in actual damages or harm, you cannot file a personal injury claim. the reason for personal injury lawsuits is to be compensated for economic or non-economic damages resulting from the harm — for example, lost wages, medical costs, or pain and suffering.

Contributory Negligence and its Effect on Howard County Personal Injury Claims

When filing a personal injury claim in Maryland, our Baltimore injury attorneys must contend with the legal doctrine of “contributory negligence.” Under this doctrine, if an injured party contributed to the cause of their injury, they are unable to collect any compensation. For example, you are injured in a four-car collision and file a personal injury claim against the three other drivers involved in the accident. After hearing the testimony and seeing the evidence, the jury holds that the other drivers were collectively 98% at fault. However, they found that your behavior contributed 2% to the crash. Therefore, you are prohibited from collecting any compensation.

When filing a personal injury claim, you need the assistance of our experienced Howard County attorney. By carefully reviewing all of the evidence and facts surrounding your case, we will try to counter any allegations made by the defense to shift blame.

Call Our Howard County Personal Injury Attorney for a Free Consultation

The negative impact of a severe injury could have long-lasting effects for you and your family. If you are unable to work, the mounting medical cost and everyday expenses could quickly overwhelm your financial resources. You need our Howard County personal injury attorney fighting for your just compensation. If you are injured because of another person’s, or entity’s, conduct, call Rice, Murtha & Psoras at (410) 694-7291 to schedule a free consultation.