Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog

A lawsuit has been filed in a fatal car accident that caused the tragic death of a 7-year-old girl in Pittsburgh. Plaintiff's lawsuit is against the driver who was, according to the claim, driving at twice the legal BAC limit. The suit also names the bar that allegedly continued to serve the Plaintiff.

This case would not survive summary judgment in Maryland. Famously - okay, maybe not famously but I think someone read it - the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog changed its position on dram shop laws in this post.

Jury Verdict Research did a study that found that the average money damages verdict in a car/truck accident case brought by the passenger is $486,098. Sounds like a lot but high (and maybe uncollectable) verdicts distort the average. The median passenger verdict is $30,000.

Here is where it gets interesting. I think it is difficult to lose a passenger accident case. Certainly the passenger is not responsible for the accident (ignoring for a second the "I knew he was drunk out of his mind and I got in the car with him anyway" passenger). Yet plaintiffs only receive money damages in 62 percent of passenger cases that go to verdict.

I just can't make sense of the numbers. Here is how it breaks out:

Host Driver's Negligence: 58%
Both Drivers' Negligence: 64%
Driver & Business Negligence: 73%
Driver & Government Negligence: 74%
Passenger Suits Generally: 62%

I would love to grab a random handful of the defense verdicts and look at the fact pattern. Because it makes no sense to me. These should be very easy cases for accident lawyers to always win.

Google "personal injury settlement calculator." A lot of people get on-line looking for a personal injury settlement calculator as if there is some formula that will calculate the amount of money they will get for their personal injury car accident claim.

The reality is that trying to find a calculator to determine your personal injury settlement is fool's gold. Please trust me, if you find an answer on the Internet that values your car accident settlement, it is utter nonsense.

Generally speaking, the personal injury settlement formula for a car accident cases is:

Past and Future Medical Bills
+
Past and Future Lost Wages
+
Past and Future Pain and Suffering Damages

How does that formula apply to you? The first two you may be able to knock down pretty simply if there are no future medical bills or future lost wages. But, ultimately, the money in personal injury car accident cases is your pain and suffering damages. And there is no personal injury settlement calculator that you can find that is going to give you pain and suffering damages that are specific to you. Because each case - your case - is unique.

Our website does discuss some of the major factors of case value that apply in most personal injury cases.

If you still feel like you just need some sort of personal injury settlement calculator and you don't care that the result that it churns out are stupid and useless of no help at all, go here. These kind folks pretend there is a formula. Granted, these people are not lawyers, they are a consulting company that presumably generates leads for accident lawyers by creating a website called... wait for it... Personal Injury Calculator.

The FDA said last week it is telling Americans that Topamax causes an increased risk of oral birth defects - specifically cleft lips and cleft palates - in children whose moms took Topamax during pregnancy.

Topamax is approved to treat epileptic seizures and to prevent migraines, which it reportedly does quite effectively. But all of the evidence suggests that Tomamax can raise the risk of cleft lips and cleft palates in infants exposed to the drug during pregnancy.

If you delivered a child with an oral birth defect after taking Topamax while pregnant and want more information from a lawyer, visit our Topamax lawsuit information center to learn more about Topamax birth defects. You can receive - even anonymously - a no cost, legal evaluation of your potential Topamax claim.

Defendants in car accident cases frequently look to pass the buck of responsibility, usually claiming the injury victim caused or contributed to the car accident. In some cases, the facts are such that the idea of such an allegation would fall flat before it even began. In these cases, when the facts allow, defendants will often place blame on the culprit that cannot defend themselves: the phantom car or truck.

These claims vary from "I could see that" to "that's impossible." Either way, smart Maryland accident lawyers do one of two things when this happens: place the uninsured motorist carrier on notice of the potential uninsured motorist claim (it can intervene if it wants) or file an amended complaint pointing alternatively to the phantom car.

Personally, I find it a little odd when car accident victims begin swearing at the at-fault driver after an accident. I know people cause car accidents and I don't have great expectations of those strangers.

But that is a minority view. The f-bomb is de jure at car accident scenes in Maryland (and probably in every town from here to Tripoli).

In Johnson v. Downing, federal District Court Judge Ellen L. Hollander weighed in on the admissibility of heated conversations between drivers after the accident. Plaintiff's car accident lawyer filed a smart motion in limine to bar testimony at trial that the Plaintiff was cursing at the scene of the accident. This is smart: the jury is far less likely to like a plaintiff who is cursing at the scene of the accident. More importantly, a jury might conclude that the person who overreacts to the happening of an accident might excessively complain about their injuries. It is not a leap.

Continue reading " Cursing at the At-Fault Driver After a Car Accident " »

The Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog has listed Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog in the #2 spot for Maryland attorney blogs.

The fact that (1) my partner made the list, and (2) the list is not intended to be in order, does not diminish my accomplishment.

On the arguably more objective Avvo Blog Rankings (which use Alexa rankings), the Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog is 94th nationally.