Potomac, MD Personal Injury Lawyer

Being in a serious accident is a traumatic experience. The injuries can be life-altering, leaving permanent physical and emotional scars behind. If you or one of your family members was hurt in an accident in Maryland, you need a skilled and compassionate attorney who can fight for your family’s interests while you focus on getting the care you need.

When you hire Randolph Rice to represent you in your personal injury lawsuit, you can expect professionalism, communication, focus, and support. Randolph will explain what your legal rights are, discuss the potential strategies your family could pursue, manage all your legal and insurance documentation, handle negotiations with insurance adjusters, manage the collection and analysis of evidence, and fight to ensure that you are compensated fairly. We work on a contingency basis, which means you won’t pay a penny unless we recover for you.

The Potomac personal injury lawyers at Rice, Murtha & Psoras, are here to provide a voice for your family, fighting aggressively to maximize your compensation. For a free case evaluation, call our offices at (410) 694-7291.

What Types of Accident Claims Do You Handle for Potomac Residents?

Some personal injury firms only handle certain types of accidents, which means that not all attorneys possess the experience necessary to handle your claim properly. Make sure you choose an attorney with a strong background handling claims like yours. Proudly serving the Potomac, Maryland area, Rice, Murtha & Psoras provides strategy-driven, hard-hitting legal representation in a wide variety of personal injury matters, including but not limited to the following:

• Assault injuries
• Back injuries
• Bone fractures (broken bones)
• Burn injuries
• Bus accidents
• Car accidents
• Dog bite injuries
• Head and brain injuries
• Medical malpractice
• Motorcycle accidents
• Nursing home abuse
• Pedestrian accidents
• Premises liability (property hazards)
• Product liability (defective products)
• Slip and fall accidents
• Spinal cord injuries
• Truck accidents
• Uber and Lyft accidents
• Workplace accidents
• Wrongful death

If you or a family member was injured by another person or suffered injuries due to the improper actions of a business, ask our law firm how we can help.

Can You Help Me File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Maryland?

When you contact Rice, Murtha & Psoras, an attorney can listen to your situation and determine whether you may have a personal injury claim against one or more parties. You may have a case if certain elements or facts can be proven. The facts that need to be proven revolve around a concept called “negligence,” which is the basis of most personal injury claims. You must prove that you were injured due to the negligent acts of a person or business, which means you will need to show that the defendant acted in a careless way that did not meet reasonable standards.

There are many ways that a person can be negligent, depending on the type of case involved. For example, in a medical malpractice case, negligence might involve failing to order certain tests or failing to perform a necessary procedure. In slip and fall cases, negligence often involves failure to clean or maintain the property where the accident took place.

Our team can also help you assess damages and gather evidence to prove your claims. Damages are often difficult to keep track of, and plaintiffs with severe injuries might have numerous considerable damages.

Evidence is also tricky. In some cases, plaintiffs are fortunate enough to have a plethora of evidence to draw upon. In other cases, evidence is more scarce, but that does not mean your claims cannot be proven. An attorney can help you find the evidence you need and effectively use it to prove your claims and get valuable compensation.

When to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Potomac, MD

Many people do not file lawsuits right away after being injured. Injured victims often have a lot to deal with while recovering from their injuries, and adding a lawsuit to the mix can feel overwhelming. Even so, you must also keep certain legal deadlines in mind. If you wait too long, you might lose your right to file the case. Our Potomac, MD personal injury attorneys can help you determine when your filing deadline is so you can get your case submitted to the court on time.

Different types of lawsuits must adhere to deadlines imposed by statutes of limitations. For example, the Maryland personal injury statute of limitations generally allows up to three years from the date of the injury for a plaintiff to file suit. However, while the law provides up to three years, there are advantages to acting as soon as possible:

• There is less risk that evidence will be destroyed or that witnesses will be lost.
• Eyewitnesses to the accident will have fresher, more accurate memories of the event.
• There will be more time to build a comprehensive, robust case supported by all available evidence.
• If you prevail, you will receive your compensation that much sooner.

In certain circumstances, the statute of limitations can be tolled, meaning the deadline might be pushed back. Whether the statute in your case can be tolled and for how long depends on your unique circumstances. For example, if your injuries happened when you were a minor, the statute of limitations might be tolled until you are 18, and then it will begin to run as normal. This means you would have 3 years from the day you turn 18 to file a lawsuit for your injuries.

Potential Damages in a Potomac, MD Personal Injury Case

Various types of compensation (“damages”) may be recoverable, including compensation for your medical bills, compensation for pain and suffering, compensation for lost earnings and reduced earning ability, and compensation for damage to your personal property. While some law firms might rush to settle as quickly as possible, our Potomac, MD personal injury lawyers will investigate your claim thoroughly and follow the strategy that gives you the greatest likelihood of a higher recovery, whether that means negotiating a settlement or taking your case to court.

Compensatory damages fall into two broad categories. First, economic damages encompass your losses and injuries as they relate to money. Common economic damages include medical expenses, lost income, and the value of damaged property. In cases where injuries are severe, medical bills are likely much higher, and your economic damages might be greater. Even if you have health insurance, you can still claim the value of expensive insurance deductibles.

Non-economic are the second category of compensatory damages and are somewhat harder to define. Most non-economic damages are not related to money at all but instead stem from subjective personal experiences. Pain and suffering are some of the more commonly known forms of non-economic damages and include both physical and emotional experiences. Depending on how you were injured, you might also claim non-economic damages for humiliation, damage to your reputation, or other painful experiences. These damages are usually evaluated based on their impact on your daily life.

How to Find Evidence for a Potomac, MD Personal Injury Lawsuit

Our Potomac, MD personal injury lawyers can help you gather evidence to prove your claims and get compensation for your injuries. Not only are you unlikely to win your case without evidence, but a court might reject your case for lack of evidence. A lot of evidence might come from the scene of your injuries, while other important information might be obtained elsewhere.

Immediately after you are injured, you should take as many photos as possible of the accident scene, your injuries, and the surrounding area. In many cases, law enforcement will clean up the accident scene after you leave to get medical care, and important evidence might be lost. Photos help preserve these details so we can show a judge and jury exactly what the accident scene looked like when you were injured.

Witnesses are the backbone of the judicial system and the more witnesses who can testify in your favor, the better for your case. Witnesses should have some first-hand knowledge relevant to your case that tends to show how the defendant was negligent or otherwise responsible for your injuries. Some witnesses might have actually witnessed the accident, while others were not at the scene but might have other valuable information about the case or the defendant.

In any personal injury case, the plaintiff’s medical records are very important. At the center of a personal injury lawsuit is the plaintiff’s bodily harm, and medical records may be used as reliable evidence of your injuries. The sooner you get medical treatment, and the more often you have follow-up visits with your doctors, the more accurate your medical records will be. Medical records are also important because, by the time many plaintiffs get to trial, their injuries have healed.

Should I Accept a Settlement Offer in a Potomac, MD Personal Injury Lawsuit?

Lawsuits can be very time-consuming, stressful, and emotionally exhausting. While many plaintiffs believe in the pursuit of justice and want their day in court, other plaintiffs would rather resolve their legal issues a bit faster. Most cases never actually make it to a full trial but are instead resolved through settlements. Our Potomac, MD personal injury attorneys can help you quickly negotiate a good settlement with the defendant, so you can cover your damages and get back to your normal life.

How quickly we can reach a good settlement depends on multiple factors surrounding your case. It might take longer to parse through all the details and come to an agreement with the defendant if the case is particularly complicated. Settlement negotiations also depend on your and the defendant’s willingness to compromise. If you accept a settlement, you likely will not get every single one of your damages paid for, but you should at least get most of your expenses covered.

Negotiating a good settlement requires effective negotiation tactics and strong evidence. The stronger your case is, the faster the defendant is likely to settle. In some cases, defendants settle quickly because they know they do not stand much of a chance at a full trial. In other cases where the parties are more evenly matched, settlement negotiations might be more contentious.

Potomac Personal Injury Attorney Serving Maryland

At Rice, Murtha & Psoras, we know that you are going through one of the most difficult periods of your life right now, and we will work tirelessly to provide the support and advocacy you need. Call our skilled personal injury lawyers to discuss your potential claim in a free case review at (301) 381-4912.