Difficult Insurance Companies in Maryland Car and Truck Accident Cases
The Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog has a post about which insurance companies in Maryland are the most difficult to deal with in personal injury cases.
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September 29, 2008
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September 23, 2008
Illogical Verdicts in Accident Cases in Maryland
John Bratt recently discussed on the Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog a trial that he had where the jury awarded all of the Plaintiff’s medical bills but awarded nothing for the client’s pain and suffering.
This was not the type of case we would appeal anyway because while our lawyers were not thrilled with the verdict, the client was extremely happy with the result being more than 8 times the offer.
But if our lawyers had appealed this verdict, I think we would have failed. In Patras v. Syphax, 166 Md. App. 67 (2005), the Maryland Court of Special Appeals heard an appeal in a rear end auto accident in Montgomery County on Georgia Avenue (which is familiar to many of us). The case involved Plaintiff’s request for a new trial because of a claimed inconsistency in the jury’s verdict. The jury found the Defendant negligent but refused to award any damages even though defendant’s expert admitted the Plaintiff was hurt in the accident.
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals affirmed the refusal of Montgomery County Judge Nelson W. Rupp, Jr., to grant a new trial because a reasonable jury could have found that the Plaintiff met his burden of proof on the negligence claim but did not on the injury claim. Specifically, the court held that based on jury instruction that Plaintiff was obliged to prove by a preponderance of evidence "each item of damage claimed to be caused by a defendant," the jury could have reasonably found that as a result of the car accident, the Plaintiff was injured but had failed to meet his burden of proof to demonstrate that money damages should be required to any particular item of damage.
Essentially, I think the court is saying that while the verdicts may be illogical, they are not necessarily inconsistent and the court is look for some basis - even if unlikely - to reconcile verdicts so they are not inconsistent.
I think the same logic would be applied to pain and suffering damages in the claim John wrote about in his Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog post.
Interestingly, the Maryland Court of Appeals granted certiorari and then later determined the petition had been “improvidently granted.” I have no idea what happened there.
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September 12, 2008
Trial Against State Farm: How Fair Are State Farm's Offers
The Baltimore Accident Lawyer Blog has a great blog post on a recent trial that John Bratt had against State Farm.
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September 8, 2008
Fatal Car Accidents in Maryland: How Do We Respond as a Society?
The Baltimore Sun has an interesting story on balancing compassion and victim's rights in fatal car accidents in Maryland.
These are tough issues. What should be the criminal penalties for those who negligently (distinguished from drunk for our purposes here) kill others in fatal car accidents? Should criminal courts admit "I'm sorry" evidence from the driver accused of killing another in a motor vehicle.
My law partner blogged recently about a case in Missouri where it is pretty easy to infer that a lawsuit should not have been brought against the at-fault party in a wrongful death case. Before you disagree, read the facts here and let me know what you think.
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September 7, 2008
Times Specials Math
Accident lawyers need to avoid the temptation to talk to insurance adjusters in "___ times specials" terms. This telegraphs with a bullhorn to the insurance adjuster that you are looking at your client as simply a number, not a person. Accident lawyers that talk in "times specials" math are not the same lawyers that read and evaluate the medical records.
Often, a multiplier of the damages is a fair settlement value only by mere coincidence. Further, your are sending a loud message to the adjuster that you are a will forever mark you down as being the attorney who is not working up his/her cases individually. This can also make you appear lazy and uninformed, which is obviously never a good thing in any negotiation context.
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September 4, 2008
Maryland Court of Special Appeals Opinion on MVA Liability in Wrongful Death Case
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals today affirmed summary judgment against Plaintiffs in the case of Pulliam v. Motor Vehicle Administration, a tragic case involving the death of a man and his three children in a rear-end car accident at the intersection of Butterfly Lane and Jefferson Pike in Frederick County.
Faced with what I’m sure was a limited policy given the scope of the tragedy, Plaintiffs’ accident lawyer did what good accident lawyers do: they got creative. (I don’t know whose case this is. If you handled it, let me know so I can give you credit.)
Plaintiffs’ lawyer brought suit against the Maryland MVA and its Medical Advisory Board (MAB). The MAB required the at-fault driver to submit affidavits that he was seizure free every three months because he had caused a prior accident three years earlier due to a seizure. Even thought at-fault driver did not submit such an affidavit that he was seizure free, his license was not revoked.
The court assumed for the sake of the appeal what clearly appears to be the case: the MVA should have revoked the at fault driver’s license. But the court found that the MVA and the MAB had no duty to the people that were killed in this accident. Moreover, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals found that Maryland’s statutory scheme to empower the MVA to issue or revoke licenses for people with seizure disorders cannot be the basis for a negligence claim resulting from a car accident.
I largely agree with the Maryland Court of Special Appeals holding, but this case underscores that serious auto accident victims are rarely fully compensated because of the limitations of automobile insurance. The only way car accident victims can avoid unreasonable outcomes is to make sure you have high uninsured motorist coverage.
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