Personal injury lawsuits are among the most frequently filed civil lawsuits. These cases often stem from accidents, including car crashes, slip and falls, defective products, and more. If you are hurt, the person who caused the accident may be responsible for your costs and damages.
Contact an attorney as soon as possible after an accident. The sooner you begin working with a lawyer, the more likely it is that you can gather evidence before it is lost. Accident scenes will not be preserved for long, and we must gather whatever information and evidence we can right away. If necessary, we can investigate the accident to obtain more evidence, and the defendant may be required to hand over any evidence they control.
Contact our personal injury attorneys for a free, private legal assessment by calling Rice Law at (410) 694-7291.
What Should You Do Following an Accident?
Accidents often require immediate action. Do your best to get emergency help after the accident and collect any available information or evidence. Call a lawyer for help once you have received proper medical care.
Call 911
After the accident, call 911 immediately. If you do not have a phone, ask someone else at the accident scene to call for help. If you do not believe your injuries constitute a serious emergency, you should still have someone drive you to the emergency room as soon as possible.
Photograph the Scene
While waiting for help or before leaving the scene, try to take photos of the area. Your photos may preserve important details about the accident we can use to support your claims for damages in a personal injury lawsuit.
Talk to Other People Involved in the Accident
If other people are present during the accident, or perhaps they were hurt too, try to get their information. We may contact them later, talk to them about what they saw, and possibly have them testify in court.
Call a Lawyer
An attorney can help you review the details of the accident, evaluate your damages, and decide which legal options may help you get fair financial compensation. You might be in serious pain from your injuries, and your lawyer can do most of the work preparing your case while you focus on recovery.
Can You File an Insurance Claim for Personal Injuries?
If the accident is covered by someone’s insurance policy, you may be able to file a claim. We need information about the at-fault person and their insurance if you plan to file a third-party claim with their liability coverage. We should also have evidence of your injuries to show the insurance company.
Depending on the circumstances, first-party benefits might also be available, and our personal injury attorneys can help you coordinate claims between multiple policies.
How to Begin a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Glen Burnie
While most people have likely heard of a personal injury lawsuit, they might not fully understand how to begin one. This is where your attorney comes in handy.
Hire a Lawyer
Your first step is to hire an experienced attorney to help you. Just getting your case started will be a challenge. You must follow numerous legal procedures, file paperwork, and follow rules when filing a lawsuit. Minor mistakes could cost you time or result in the dismissal of your entire case.
Gather and Prepare Evidence
No case can move forward without evidence. Even before your lawsuit makes it to court, we must show that we have enough evidence to establish a valid cause of legal action. Evidence must also adhere to the Maryland Rules of Evidence to be admissible in court.
Draft a Formal Legal Complaint
Lawsuits begin with a legal complaint. The complaint is a formal document that spells out all your allegations against the defendant. We must include details about how the accident happened, how the defendant was involved, why we believe they are liable, your damages, and evidence. We do not need to include enough evidence in the complaint to satisfy our burden of proof, but we must include enough to establish a valid cause of legal action.
Can You File a Lawsuit if Insurance Already Paid Some of Your Damages?
If you accept an insurance settlement from the at-fault person’s insurance provider, likely through some form of liability coverage, your case is over. Such settlements are generally offered on the condition that you waive your right to sue the at-fault person.
However, you may still sue even if you have received certain first-party benefits. For example, many people have health insurance, often through work, that covers some of their medical bills after an accident. Even if your health insurance pays for most of your medical bills, you can still sue the person who caused the accident and include damages for medical expenses.
If you win your lawsuit, your insurance company will likely file a subrogation claim. This means you will have to repay the insurance company the money they paid to you since you have also received compensation from the defendant. You cannot recover the same damages twice.
Can You Claim Costs of Damaged Property in a Personal Injury Case?
In addition to damages for medical bills, you may claim the cost of repairing or replacing any property of yours that was damaged in the accident. This could be a small or very significant amount, depending on the accident.
In a car accident, plaintiffs often claim many thousands of dollars related to vehicle damage and damaged personal items inside their car. Cell phones, wedding rings, watches, and other common but expensive personal items should be accounted for after your accident.
How to Claim Medical Expenses in a Personal Injury Lawsuit
Medical treatment is notoriously expensive. After a bad accident, your hospital bill might be completely off the charts, and you should claim all medical costs as part of your personal injury case.
Current Medical Bills
First, we should account for all the medical bills you have incurred from the date of the accident until now. For some, this represents all the treatment they need. For others, this might only be the tip of the iceberg.
Future Medical Bills
If you expect to continue to receive medical care for your injuries even after your personal injury case is over, we must assess your reasonably expected future damages. This may include future surgeries, prescriptions, physical therapy, or any other long-term care or treatment you will need in the future because of your injuries.
What if You Cannot Work Because of Personal Injuries?
Injuries often interfere with a person’s ability to work. While some can afford to take time away from work, many others cannot, and you must claim damages for your lost earnings.
Claiming Lost Income
First, we should determine how much income you have lost so far because of your injuries. We may need to consider your salary, hourly pay rate, and any side work you do. We can calculate how much income you have lost based on how long you have been unable to work.
Lost Future Income
You may also claim income you will likely lose in the future. If you cannot return to work for a long time, or if you can never return to work because of your injuries, your future lost earnings might be quite substantial. We may also account for promotions or pay increases you likely would have received.
What if You Are Accused of Contributing to the Accident and Your Injuries?
Defendants often accuse plaintiffs of causing, or at least contributing to, the accident to shift blame and avoid liability. In Maryland, civil courts adhere to a pure comparative negligence rule. Under this rule, if a plaintiff’s negligence contributed to their accident even slightly, they may be totally barred from recovering any damages.
This is a harsh rule, and we must have evidence showing the defendant is 100% responsible for the accident.
What Kind of Evidence is Necessary for a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Glen Burnie?
We need various pieces of evidence to fully prove your claims in court. While each case is unique, certain kinds of evidence are common in many personal injury cases. Your evidence may include, but should not be limited to…
- Medical records about your injuries
- Photographs of the accident scene
- Security camera footage
- Witness testimony
- Expert witnesses (if necessary)
How to Obtain Evidence Under the Defendant’s Control
While we may be able to gather much of our own evidence, some evidence might be under the defendant’s control. For example, if you were injured in an accident on the defendant’s private property, they might have private security cameras that recorded the accident, and they control the footage.
Exchanging Evidence in Discovery
We can obtain evidence that the defendant controls during the discovery phase of your case. At this time, both sides must exchange all relevant evidence, thereby allowing each side to build the strongest case possible.
Court Orders to Turn Over Evidence
If the defendant refuses to hand over evidence, we can ask the court to order them to do so. If they still refuse, the court may impose serious sanctions.
When Should You File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Glen Burnie?
Maryland has a 3-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims. If you do not file a personal injury lawsuit within 3 years of the date of the initial accident, you may be time-barred from ever filing the case. While special legal exceptions may allow some plaintiffs to have more time, these circumstances are very limited and uncommon.
What if You Win a Personal Injury Lawsuit, But the Defendant Cannot Pay?
If you win your case and are awarded damages that the defendant cannot or will not pay, our personal injury lawyers can help you take action to recover the compensation you are legally entitled to. Possible actions may include…
- Wage garnishment
- Bank levies (i.e., seizing funds directly from the defendant’s bank accounts)
- Property liens
In some cases, a defendant might have no money or assets to pay, and there is nothing we can do to get your compensation. In such cases, defendants are considered judgment-proof. If this happens, we may need to find other defendants who can afford to pay.
Finding Alternative Defendants in Personal Injury Lawsuits
More than one person or entity may be named as a defendant. It is wise to include all possible defendants. If one cannot pay, the others may, and you can still get the compensation you deserve.
Suing Defendant’s Employer for Role as Employee
In many cases, plaintiffs can sue the person who caused the accident as well as their employer. If the defendant was working at the time of the accident and caused the accident while acting within the normal scope of their employment, their employer may be held vicariously liable.
Suing Defendant’s Employer for Shared Fault
In other cases, even if vicarious liability does not apply, an employer may be held directly liable for negligent hiring or entrustment. This usually involves employers hiring or retaining employees despite knowing that they are unfit for the job and likely to cause an accident.
Adding Other Parties
Other parties that contributed to the accident can also be sued, potentially spreading the cost among multiple people, companies, or insurance policies.
How Long Does it Take to Get Compensation for Personal Injuries?
The time it takes to obtain financial compensation for personal injuries depends on what legal action we take. Lawsuits tend to be time-consuming, with many taking over a year to complete. Settlements, on the other hand, tend to move faster, and injured victims often receive compensation in a few months.
While lawsuits may be slower, they often allow plaintiffs to claim more compensation. Settlements often result from negotiation and compromise. You may get the money sooner, but you may not get as much as you would in a lawsuit.
Should You Report Personal Injuries to the Police?
Not all accidents are serious emergencies or criminal offenses, and you might not need to contact the police. For example, if you slip and fall in a store and decide to sue the store for negligence, you probably do not have to alert the police. However, if you are injured in a car accident, you likely need to call 911 and involve the police.
It is generally a good idea to call the police if your injuries are severe or the accident constitutes some kind of emergency.
What if You Do Not Know Who is Responsible for Your Injuries?
Some injured victims are unsure who is responsible for their accidents. For example, property owners are often legally responsible for accidents on their land. However, if you do not know the name of the property owner, you might not know whom to sue.
Your attorney can help you investigate the accident to determine who is at fault and who may be included as a defendant in a lawsuit. If the accident is a serious emergency, you can call the police, and they can investigate.
Contact Our Glen Burnie Personal Injury Lawyers if You Were Hurt in an Accident
Contact our personal injury attorneys for a free, private legal assessment by calling Rice Law at (410) 694-7291.