Personal injury lawyers help injury victims seek compensation for a wide range of injuries and accidents. Basically, if your accident was someone else’s fault, our lawyers can help you pursue damages from their insurance or even take them to court to get you compensated for the medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering they caused you.
We represent clients in all kinds of cases, from car, truck, bus, and motorcycle accidents to slip and falls, medical malpractice, and more. We also represent families whose loved ones were killed in wrongful death cases.
For a free case evaluation, contact our personal injury lawyers at Rice, Murtha & Psoras today by dialing (410) 694-7291.
How a Personal Injury Case Works in White Oak, MD
When you get hurt, your case has already begun. Everything you need to have a case, in the abstract sense, is there from the moment you are injured: you have damages (your injuries), you have a victim (you), you have a defendant (the person who injured you), and you have them causing the accident through some kind of mistake or error (negligence). In addition to these factors, you need to collect evidence, and then you can start your case.
Filing
Our personal injury lawyers can help you file an insurance claim and a lawsuit for your injuries. Depending on the specific situation and likelihood of you getting paid in a settlement, we may wait to see if insurance pays your damages first, but we can often pursue both tracks toward damages from the outset.
When we file your case, we need to submit a “complaint” and serve the defendant with a copy. This document lays out the legal grounds for your suit and the argument as to why the defendant is responsible. In most cases, this is going to be a claim for “negligence,” where we need to explain that the other party breached a legal duty they owed you and that their breach caused your injuries and other damages. In some cases, we might file a claim for intentional injuries instead, such as in assault and battery lawsuits.
Our complaint also needs to lay out the damages you are claiming and the specific amounts.
Motions
Most cases then move to early motions in the case – requests that the court do certain things. The defense will likely file a motion to dismiss, claiming we did not make out our initial case, which we can respond to with arguments that we did meet that burden. From there, certain issues might be dropped from the case if there is no argument or defense to them, and the case might move forward on the whole or just for certain parts – e.g., if they accept blame but argue the damages should be far lower. Motions about admissibility of evidence are also filed before trial in many cases.
Discovery
At the discovery stage, both parties exchange evidence, depose witnesses, and send interrogatories to make sure both sides have all of the evidence available. Trials are not based on surprise or who can hoard the most evidence; both sides need to turn everything over and make sure there is a level playing field so that the court can sort out issues with all of the information available.
After this stage, most cases settle. Once the defense can see all of the evidence against them, they might realize they have no chance of winning at trial and offer to settle – or raise their offer if they have previously given you a low-dollar offer. If you accept, the case ends; if you deny the offer, you can still proceed to trial. If they do not offer to settle at a fair value, we can press on.
Trial
At trial, we present our case, and the defense presents their case, all with the goal of convincing the jury that your own side is right. The judge is allowed to determine what evidence comes in and what legal rules apply – most of which is settled by pre-trial motions – and the jury makes the ultimate decision on who is at fault and how much the damages are for.
If you can reach a settlement before the jury decides the case, you can still have a “courthouse steps” settlement and avoid the jury’s verdict.
When to File with Insurance vs. File a Lawsuit vs. Taking a Settlement in White Oak, MD
As mentioned, most cases begin with an insurance claim, as insurance is often available in the form of auto insurance, business liability insurance, homeowners insurance, or some other kind of insurance to cover accidental injuries. However, insurance is meant as an alternative to lawsuits, paying damages faster and with less hassle in the ideal case. If the insurance payout will cover all of your damages, there is likely no need to go to trial; our lawyers only advise taking the case to trial when a fair payout is unlikely or when the insurance company has already shown an unwillingness to pay the full amount.
A “settlement” includes insurance payouts, direct payouts from the defendant, or any other ending to the case where the parties agree on a payment amount and decide not to take the case to court. Settlements can occur at any stage of the case, and it is never too late to settle as long as the defendant/their insurance company still has left the offer open. Once your case goes to trial, you might still have a chance to settle.
Our lawyers can help you decide whether to take a settlement or go to court based on a few factors. First, will the settlement cover your needs? If not, going to trial might get you a better payout. Second, is the settlement satisfactory when it comes to nondisclosure agreements or other agreements not to tell your story? If not, you may want to continue on to court. Third, does the insurance company seem like they will budge? If they will not move on the settlement amount, you may need to go to trial, but if they seem amenable to negotiation, you may be able to pressure them into settlement with the pressure of a looming trial. Fourth, the strength of your evidence will be vital; settling a weak case might be the best you can hope for if there is a chance of you losing at trial. Lastly, if you want your day in court, you do not have to settle, even if we recommend that you do settle. The final decision to accept a settlement or not is yours and yours alone.
Our lawyers can also negotiate settlements; we do not have to rely solely on what they have offered with no counteroffers.
Car Accident Attorneys in White Oak, MD
Our attorneys handle car accident claims for all sorts of vehicle accidents, from truck crashes to bus crashes to motorcycle crashes and even pedestrian accidents. Our goal is to stand up against insurance companies, oppressive transportation companies, and wealthy defendants who might seek to shut down your case by offering low settlements or denying your case based on intricate Maryland laws.
All in all, car accidents are one of the most common areas of cases we handle, and we have experience fighting all sorts of cases that we can apply to your case. For instance, many car accident cases focus on Maryland’s contributory negligence laws, which shut down claims when the driver shares even 1% of the fault in causing the crash. Our attorneys have arguments we can use – such as the argument that the defendant had the last clear chance to avoid the crash – that might cut out any blame for you and allow you to still seek compensation for your damages.
Slip and Fall and Premises Liability Lawyers in White Oak, MD
Slip and fall accidents are one of the most common types of accidents after car crashes. In these cases, victims can face broken bones, head and brain injuries, back injuries, and many surprisingly serious damages. In other accidents caused by dangers on someone else’s property, serious injuries and death are also quite common.
Our lawyers work to hold property owners accountable, whether they be private homeowners, business owners, or even public agencies and government departments (though damages are often limited in cases against the government). In claims against negligent apartment owners, we can often help victims sue for dangerous stairwells, parking lots, and other shared areas. We can also help tenants sue for defects with smoke detectors, fire doors, and fire escapes that lead to injury or death during an emergency. When it comes to dangerous property, we can sue for tripping and slipping hazards that cause you to fall, such as exposed tree roots, icy sidewalks, and uneven stairs. In other situations, we can help victims sue for collapsing structures, electrocution, drowning, falls from heights, and more.
Work Injury Lawyers in White Oak, MD
Many work injuries fall under the rules of Maryland’s Workers’ Compensation system, which prevents lawsuits directly against employers for work-related injuries. However, injuries on the job can happen because of outside parties, too, and we can often hold them liable in a lawsuit. This can help you claim compensation after being in a car accident at work, after facing injuries from defective equipment or safety gear, after being injured or assaulted by a customer/client/patient, or after being hurt by a vendor or supplier’s negligence.
Medical Malpractice Lawyers in White Oak, MD
Medical malpractice is a field of law directed at suing hospitals, doctors, and other care providers for the mistakes they make in the course of treating or refusing to treat a patient. In most cases, the initial injury or illness is not the doctor’s fault, but later complications, worsened conditions, or mistakes during surgery are their fault, and they should be made to pay for the negative effects on your life.
Some injuries are more obvious, such as surgical errors and mistakes during a procedure that cause severed nerves, ruptured blood vessels, nicked arteries, and anesthesia-related injuries. Others involve a doctor’s mistaken diagnosis, resulting in misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose, and a patient going without the treatment they need. Doctors and hospitals can also be responsible for turning away patients in need after failing to properly assess their condition, e.g., by telling a patient they are not having a heart attack when they are and dismissing them from the ER. Our lawyers also handle birth injury cases, where a doctor’s improper response to a mother or baby in distress can lead to serious medical complications for the rest of the child’s life.
In many of these cases, the facts are not in dispute, but the defense says that what happened was acceptable under the standard of care. We usually need to hire experts – doctors and other professionals – who can explain the science to the jury, state with authority that there were mistakes, and explain that they were unreasonable and worse than mere “complications.”
Wrongful Death Lawyers in White Oak, MD
As referenced above, many of these injury cases result in death. Our personal injury lawyers can also represent the families of those killed in accidents, helping them file claims to get their own damages compensated. In many injury cases, the victim’s own damages from before death can still be claimed – such as lost wages, medical bills, and pre-death pain and suffering – and these damages are paid into their estate. However, the victim’s family also faces its own economic and non-economic damages, such as burial expenses, lost wages, lost companionship, and more. These damages are vital to helping a family continue on after a death, especially if a parent was killed.
Other Injury Cases
While the cases discussed above are some of the most common cases our attorneys handle, there are many other areas we can also assist you with. Were you injured by a dangerous or defective product? Were you assaulted? Our lawyers can help with these and many other personal injury cases as well.
Call Our Personal Injury Attorneys in White Oak, MD Today
For a free review of your potential injury case, contact our personal injury attorneys at Rice, Murtha & Psoras by calling (410) 694-7291.