Washington County, MD Personal Injury Lawyer

If you file a personal injury lawsuit against someone that is responsible for causing your injuries, you may be able to recover compensation that includes medical costs, lost wages, diminished earning capacity, and pain and suffering. Whether your injury happened during a car accident, slip and fall in a public place, medical malpractice incident, or under a different set of circumstances, you’ll need an experienced personal injury attorney by your side to help you fight for the compensation to which you’re entitled.

The attorneys from Rice, Murtha & Psoras are ready to help people throughout Maryland with their personal injury cases. Our Washington County personal injury lawyers can put their expertise to use to prevent victims from having to suffer the financial burden of dealing with their injuries. Statutes of limitations apply, so get in touch today by calling (410) 694-7291.

Types of Personal Injury Lawsuits in Washington County, MD

Injuries can happen in a variety of ways in daily life, which means that there are many different types of personal injury lawsuits. the potential injuries that can result from accidents can vary; they may be minor or they may be severe enough to affect every aspect of your life. Severe injuries that typically result from accidents include broken bones, fractured bones, organ damage, traumatic brain injuries, and spinal cord injuries.

If your injuries were severe and have kept you from making a living and taking care of your family, get in touch with a lawyer soon to learn more about filing a personal injury lawsuit. the attorneys from Rice, Murtha & Psoras are prepared to handle nearly any personal injury lawsuit, including the following.

Auto Accidents

Our Washington County, MD personal injury attorneys have experience with nearly every type of auto accident case, including motorcycle accidents, truck and van accidents, drunk driving accidents, accidents with uninsured or underinsured drivers, and accidents involving multiple vehicles. If you suffered from injuries after involvement in an accident that you had no part in causing, get in touch with our car accident attorneys as soon as possible. We can work to get you compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and more.

Slip and Fall Accidents

Property owners are obligated to maintain safe spaces. If you are injured after experiencing a slip and fall in a place such as a restaurant, bar, hotel, mall, retail store, or even your own apartment building, you can file a personal injury lawsuit against the owner of the property for failing to keep the premises safe. Slip and fall accidents can be caused by an array of different conditions such as icy sidewalks, missing handrails on stairs, torn carpeting, poor lighting in highly trafficked areas, loose wiring and other obstructions, defective escalators and elevators, and poorly maintained playground equipment and swimming pools.

Product Liability

Sometimes, products that have defects can be sent to market, eventually resulting in injuries for the people that use them. Products that cause injuries to users are usually power tools and electrical items, cars and car parts, prescription drugs and medical devices, contaminated food, children’s toys, and items for children and babies. If a product causes an injury to you while you were using it correctly, it is the fault of either the designer for designing a product with flaws, the manufacturer for making a dangerous product, or the marketer for making false claims about the product or failing to warn users. Get in touch with a personal injury attorney today to learn more about whether you can file a lawsuit for your injury caused by a product you used.

Medical Malpractice and Hospital Injuries

When you get treatment from a doctor or at a hospital, it is important to look at any complications that resulted and get a second opinion. If your doctor made mistakes that they claim to be common complications, that could be incorrect. it is vital to have another doctor look at your injuries and determine whether they are indeed normal complications or whether they are instead the result of medical malpractice or hospital mistakes. If they might be, contact our Washington County, MD personal injury lawyers immediately to discuss the possibility of filing a medical malpractice lawsuit against your doctor and the hospital that failed to adequately treat you.

Asbestos Exposure

Asbestos is a fibrous material that has been used in various manufactured goods that are still in use today. Prolonged exposure to it can, however, cause serious health issues such as lung cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis. People in certain industries such as construction, auto maintenance, and electrical work face exposure to asbestos as part of their occupation and may be able to file a personal injury claim if they were not warned about the risk of asbestos exposure. Some asbestos cases may be product liability cases if a product user has been exposed to asbestos while using a product without being warned; other asbestos cases may be workers’ compensation cases if someone experienced injuries following exposure to asbestos in their workplace.

Workplace Injuries

Accidents at work can come from many different types of situations, such as car accidents for professional drivers, slip and falls for grocery store workers, lifting and carrying injuries for warehouse workers, and power tool injuries for construction workers, to name a few. These injuries can be extremely severe, but sometimes the law limits you from receiving compensation through a lawsuit. Talk to a Washington County, MD personal injury lawyer about how to get compensation for your workplace injuries, whether that be through a lawsuit or a workers’ comp. claim.

Proving Fault in a Personal Injury Claim in Washington County, MD

Winning your personal injury lawsuit in Washington County, MD requires demonstrating to the court that you suffered injuries as a direct result of the defendant’s negligent behavior. There are four components to proving this kind of case. First, you have to show that the defendant owed you a legal duty of care. Secondly, you have to show that the defendant breached their duty through either committing or failing to perform certain actions. Thirdly, you have to show that you suffered injuries because of the defendant’s breach of duty. Finally, you have to show that your injuries caused you to suffer damages for which you can be compensated.

Duty and Breach

Part of your case will depend on explaining to the judge and jury what legal duty was breached. Depending on the circumstances of the accident and what the victim’s relationship to the defendant is, the duty could be different. For example, doctors who commit medical malpractice may have breached a duty to follow the medical standard of care in the case while a driver who injured someone in a car crash might have violated the duty to avoid speeding or drunk driving. Premises liability cases often involve the duty to keep property safe to avoid injuries caused by hidden dangers. As a final example, products liability cases often involve the duty to ensure that dangerous products have adequate warnings.

In many cases, the legal duty is based on the objective standard of what a reasonable person would do in the given situation. This means that it is often up to the jury to determine whether the defendant’s actions were “reasonable” or not – and if they acted unreasonably, the jury should rule in your favor.

Causation

To get compensation for your injuries, you need to prove that the defendant’s negligence was what actually caused your injuries. In some cases, the conditions involved in the case may not have been preventable, and the accident was going to occur regardless of what either party did. In these cases, even if the defendant actually did something wrong, that mistake might not have actually caused the injuries. This is often the kind of defense that comes up in these cases – or the defendant tries to blame the victim for causing the accident themselves.

Unfortunately for injury victims, Maryland uses a “contributory negligence” system. This means that if the defendant successfully shows that you were partly responsible for the conditions that caused your injuries, you cannot receive compensation. it is important to work with an attorney who can control the evidence presented to avoid admissions that could be misconstrued as the victim admitting fault. it is vital to prove that it was the defendant who caused the injuries, not you.

When to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer for a Washington County Injury Case

After an injury, it can be difficult to know whether someone else is at fault and whether what they did was “bad enough” to hold them responsible. it is important to understand that, in many cases, severe injuries can result from even slight negligence, and that the severity of your case is typically based on how bad your injuries are, not how bad the defendant’s actions were.

Even a well-meaning defendant could be responsible for injuries from a car accident, a dangerous product defect, or other accidental causes of injury. In many cases, these defendants have insurance coverage that can pay for your damages and get you the compensation you need without any need to prove that the defendant’s actions were intentional or that there was any sort of malice behind them.

Talking to a lawyer as soon as you can after an injury can help you get your case moving down the right path. Your lawyer can analyze the severity of your injuries, the expenses your injuries caused, and the conditions leading to your accident to help you understand whether you have a case and how strong it is.

One other important thing a Washington County, MD personal injury lawyer can do is help you understand how much your case is worth. Many personal injury cases are ultimately worth a substantial sum of money because they pay for medical expenses, lost wages, and even noneconomic damages like pain and suffering.

It can be difficult to know whether you have a case and how much it might be worth, so it is vital to work with a lawyer who has the legal experience and knowledge of the law to help you understand how to move forward with your case. Call our Washington County personal injury lawyers for this kind of legal assistance.

Calculating Damages in a Washington County, MD Personal Injury Lawsuit

It can be difficult to know from the beginning how much your injury case is worth. A personal injury attorney can only assess the damages in your case after looking into the specifics: how much your medical bills cost, how much work you missed, how much your normal wages are, and how the injuries affected your day-to-day life. This kind of information is vital in helping your lawyer calculate your damages.

In many cases, damages you already realized can be added together to help you determine their full value. However, many damages you can claim in a lawsuit are projected future damages. This can include compensation for future lost wages or future lost earning capacity if you suffered serious injuries that keep you from going back to work. Sometimes your personal injury lawyer will need to hire a financial expert to calculate these kinds of projected damages and present the calculations to the jury.

Pain and suffering damages are also difficult to calculate in many cases and should be done with the help of an experienced Washington County personal injury attorney.

Washington County Personal Injury Attorney Offering Free Case Consultations

The attorneys that work with Rice, Murtha & Psoras have a commitment to providing clients with quality legal services as they pursue a personal injury lawsuit against the person or entity that was responsible for their injuries. Our Washington County and Maryland personal injury attorneys are available to speak with you today. Just call (410) 694-7291.