Woodlawn, MD Personal Injury Lawyer

Getting injured is not an enjoyable experience. While a minor injury might merely ruin your plans for the day or make you late for work, more serious injuries could land you in the hospital with a large medical bill. When you are injured, be it a minor injury or a serious one, you deserve to be compensated.

Our experienced lawyers can help fight for you in court to get the damages you are owed after an injury. We can interview witnesses, obtain and examine medical records, retain experts, and more to build the best case we can for you. Time is of the essence when deciding to file a personal injury lawsuit. The sooner you start planning, the better.

Start planning your lawsuit with a free case analysis with our personal injury lawyers at Rice, Murtha & Psoras at (410) 694-7291.

What to Do Right After a Personal Injury Incident in Woodlawn, MD

Depending on the nature of the accident that led to your injuries, you should take certain steps to give your lawsuit the best chance of success. You should get as much information as you can from as many sources as possible to strengthen your case. Potential defendants will certainly be doing the same. If a court is presented with only their information and you have none, the case will not likely turn out in your favor. Our personal injury lawyers can help you with this process by interviewing witnesses, gathering evidence, and advising you of your options as we prepare your case.

Seek Medical Attention

The first thing you should do right after an accident or injury is get examined by a medical professional as soon as possible. The best way to do this is to stay around where the accident took place, let medical first responders attend to you, and follow their instructions.

Even if you do not think you are injured, you should still see a medical professional to be examined soon after an accident. Some injuries do not reveal themselves right away, and the adrenaline spike of dangerous situations can mask more serious injuries for a short time. For example, if you are in a car accident, you might feel fine for the rest of the day, only to be incredibly sore and in pain a few days later.

Additionally, failure to seek medical treatment hurt your case.

Retain Legal Counsel

Call our lawyers as soon as possible. The earlier an attorney can start working on your case, the more time they have to prepare a strong argument on your behalf.

Moreover, a law called the statute of limitations puts a time limit on how long you have to sue. In Maryland, Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. Art, § 5-101 sets the general statutory period for personal injury cases at three years. For medical malpractice actions, Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. Art., § 5-109(a) lets you bring an action within three years of discovering the malpractice with an outside limit at five years from the medical procedure that caused the injury.

Obtain Medical Records

Almost all personal injury cases will have some medical records that will need to be examined. Bills for surgery, physical therapies, hospital stays, or even just a minor doctor’s visit can all be relevant to proving liability or establishing the amount of damages you are owed.

In medical malpractice cases, medical records will be especially important since they can help to establish whether a doctor who treated you was negligent or not.

Obtain Other Information

Outside of medical records, there is other important information you will need to track down. For example, in a car accident, you should get the other driver’s name, license plate, and insurance information. If that driver is working for a company, acquire the company’s name, address, insurance, and other information about the company.

If you were injured on someone else’s property, you and your lawyer might want to look into safety standards for buildings in Woodlawn.

Interview Witnesses

If there were any witnesses to your injuries, you need to find them and get their side of the story. Firsthand accounts of events can be pivotal in swaying the outcome of a case one way or the other. Your lawyer can help you track down witnesses for this process.

Should You Settle a Personal Injury Claim in Woodlawn, MD?

You might think that the only option available to you is to take your case all the way to court to get compensated for your injuries. That is not always the case. Depending on the particular facts of your situation, it might be more beneficial to take another avenue of approach.

Settling a case means that the dispute ends before it goes to a jury trial. In a settlement, there is usually no admission of wrongdoing by either party, and both parties agree to a mutually beneficial resolution. A common reason for settlement in a personal injury case is that the defendant knows that they are very likely to lose a case if it goes to trial, and they want to preserve their reputation or are genuinely clement and want to make things right.

Many people think of “winning” a lawsuit as getting a jury to render a verdict in their favor. A “win” for you is getting all the compensation you need to move on with your life. Talk with your lawyer about whether settling is the right decision. Of course, the ultimate decision on whether to settle or go to trial is up to you.

Talk to Our Woodlawn, MD Personal Injury Lawyers Today

Call the personal injury lawyers at Rice, Murtha & Psoras at (410) 694-7291 to talk about your case.