Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released the 2007 numbers for motorcycle fatalities and injuries. The news on the safety of motorcycles comes as no surprise to any lawyer handling motorcycle accident cases in Maryland: it is bad and it is getting worse. Fatal motorcycle accidents rose 7% in 2007 to 5,154. Motorcyclist are 35 times - think about that - more likely to die in an accident. Motorcycle injuries have also increased, there were 103,000 reported injuries—a 15 percent increase from 2006’s 88,000 injuries. Motorcycle riders are also 8 times more likely to suffer an injury in an accident than an occupant of a car.

Our motorcycle accident lawyers have handled a lot of wrongful death motorcycle accident cases in Maryland. I cannot remember one fatal motorcycle accident we have accepted where I believed that the victim was at fault for the accident. But have I often wondered what would have happened if the victim had been in an automobile? Of course.

The Maryland Daily Record reports that a federal court awarded less than $10,000 to a Montgomery County woman claiming permanent injuries to her arm as the result of negligence at a Gaithersburg Sam’s Club.

Bizarrely, the plaintiff got rid of the outdoor fireplace just before trial that she still bought that she claimed was mishandled by a Sam's Club employee. How do you get rid of that just before trial? It could have been innocent enough but still buying it and then getting rid of it before trial had to seem odd to jurors.

Moreover, this case was mostly about reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome, which can be caused by trauma but can also be caused by a thousand other things as well. So, the jury obviously did not buy that the plaintiff had reflex sympathetic dystrophy syndrome or they did not buy that it was caused by the accident. Incredibly the demand was $1.2 million, which I have to think represented the thinking of the victim, not her accident lawyer. The accident lawyer already has a difficult case, coupled with the fact that it was in front of a federal jury which tends to be conservative on damages in all but serious accident cases.

Continue reading " Accident Lawsuit Against Sam's Club Leads to Small Verdict " »

The recession has created another problem for Maryland accident victims: more uninsured motorist accident lawsuits. A new study indicates that one in six drivers in the U.S. might be driving without insurance by 2010. Uninsured drivers had been declining due to sharper enforcement efforts. (In Maryland, the hammer is the FR-19 which Maryland sends out every time you leave your current insurance company.) In fact, the estimated percentage of uninsured motorists in the United States decreased to 13.8% in 2007 from 14.9% in 2003, but it’s expected to sharply increase because of the recession.

A recent study estimated the number of uninsured motorists by using a ratio of insurance claims made by people injured by uninsured drivers to claims by people injured by insured drivers. I'm not sure about the accuracy and I doubt there is an entirely linear relationship but the theory is that an increase of 1 percent in the unemployment rate causes a nearly three-quarters of a percent increase in the uninsured motorist rate.

That sounds incredibly high but I don't know. In Maryland, we have never really gotten a handle on the number of Maryland uninsured drivers. A study from 1977 - sorry it is all I have - suggested the uninsured motorist rate in Maryland was 2.8%. I cannot imagine it was that low, either.

I think most uninsured drivers probably had low policy limits close to the Maryland minimum of $20,000 per accident, $40,000 per occurrence. So from the perspective of the Maryland car accident lawyer, I don't think it matters a great deal practically if the uninsured motorist rate in Maryland is on the rise if - a big IF I know - your client has insurance coverage.

A Jury Verdict Research report came out this month that found that 55% of plaintiffs involved in motorcycle accidents received a verdict awarding damages. I have not seen Maryland specific motorcycle accident verdict data but the numbers are probably a little bit worse in Maryland because Maryland is one of the few states that still has contributory negligence.

Our Maryland motorcycle accident lawyers have seen far too many times insurance companies denying liability because the vehicle involved was a motorcycle? Why? Do insurance companies just hate motorcyclists? No. The reason is because Maryland juries are more likely to find a motorcyclist responsible. This is just one reason why people who are injured in serious motorcycle accidents in Maryland almost invariably need a good Maryland motorcycle accident lawyer.

The Maryland Gazette reports that given the lack of evidence of gross negligence – for which mere speeding does not meet - the State's Attorney for Prince George's County said he will not prosecute the Prince George's County police officer involved in a fatal car accident collision with a Bowie man in December 2007.

The victim’s family has a wrongful death lawsuit pending for this accident. Regardless of where you stand on the question of whether there should be criminal prosecution in these cases (you can read my thoughts on this here), any Maryland accident lawyer will tell you that this question is of little consequence to the family’s wrongful death lawsuit because there is little difference to the accident case whether the conviction is for vehicular manslaughter or for the ticket that this P.G. County police officer did receive in this case (assuming the ticket is involves something beyond speeding).