Our law firm has recently put up a page on our website analyzing claims against Travelers Insurance. The short version: Travelers is a better draw in car accident claims in comparison to the usual suspects in Maryland accident cases. Still, they are, how do you say... still an insurance company. Which, by definition, makes tham a challenge to deal with when trying to settle an auto accident claim.
One thing I have noticed lately is how many injury victims are looking for a female malpractice or accident lawyer. I think some people - almost invariably women - are more comfortable with a female personal injury lawyer. There are times, particularly on sensitive issues such as pain and suffering from an accident, when women prefer to share, confide and trust in another woman.
Women are graduating from law school in massive numbers. But, for whatever reason, few women are becoming malpractice or accident lawyers.
If you are looking for a female personal injury lawyer or just want to discuss your case, call me at 800-553-8082 or get a free on-line consultation and ask specifically to deal with me.
After a deposition in a Maryland accident case, parties have the right to review and make changes to their deposition testimony. The court reporter sometimes makes mistakes, the witness sometimes talks too fast to be clearly understood, or the witness just got it wrong. It most accident cases, when a witness says the car was going north, there is a 50% probability the witness meant south.
But here is one for the ages. In a Florida case, the witness' errata sheet was 63 pages long and included 868 changes to her deposition.
The South Florida Lawyers have a good blog post on the case and the sanctions imposed against the Plaintiff's lawyers that total nearly $400,000.
The CDC reports that Maryland is 9th in the nation in the percentage of people who report they always wear a seat belt. Oregon is first which is surprising because the study also found that seat belt use among rural drivers is much lower than usage in urban and suburban areas. So whatever Oregon is doing, we should be copying them. Ninth is not bad but why can't Maryland be first? Couldn't someone start some sort of campaign? Nothing like competition to bring about the best results. The fact that seat belts reduce car accident deaths is underscored by this study: seat belts reduce the risk of death in car accidents by 45-50%.
Wearing a seat belt may become more and more important if oil prices continue to rise. Oil prices so far have not led Americans to buy more fuel efficient but less safe vehicles. Oil is now at $93 a barrel. If it goes to $150, as some have predicted, we are going to see $5 to $6 per gallon at the pump and it is going to cause people to buy smaller cars. If cars are going to get smaller, they need to build safer small cars and we need to improve our driving habits or the recent improvements in the number of car crash fatalities are going to diminish.
Another interesting finding from the study is that seat belt compliance is significantly higher among women, older drivers and Hispanics.
Another interesting graph from Metro Verdicts Monthly, this time on the median verdicts in leg amputation cases for Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia. The District of Columbia and Maryland have comparable verdicts, $2.1 million and $1.97 million, respectively. Virginia? $500,000. I expect some verdicts in Virginia to be lower because the rural areas of Virginia have conservative juries. But one-fourth of the amount?
Obviously, this data is not to be taken too seriously by accident lawyers in Maryland or in Virginia., as I discussed earlier this month. But in that post, I noted that Virginia's verdicts in femur fracture cases is twice the Maryland average. So I cannot figure out the rhyme or reason to these comparative numbers.
I think it is fair to say that with respect to pain and suffering, you have to value a leg amputation case in Maryland on damages as the statutory cap on damages plus Plaintiff's economic expenses. In terms of making the noneconomic damages case, it is important to consider future costs of a prosthetic leg. Last time we tried a leg amputation accident case, we brought in a prosthetic's expert from the client's prosthetic manufacturer from Hanger Orthopedic in Minnesota who I thought was a very effective witness at trial.
Laura G. Zois
