Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog

Maryland Appellate Court: New Workers Comp Opinion

2010-03-02T20:04:53Z

In Darby v. Marley Cooling, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals considered the question of whether an employee that prevailed before the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission may file an "intent to participate" in a Circuit Court appeal and raise objection to the rest of the Commission's decision or whether the employee is required to file a cross appeal.

This does not sound like a particularly serious workplace accident case although the Plaintiff was struck on the head by a 24' by 12" by 6" aluminum board used as a temporary work surface, which was dropped by a co-worker. He did not have significant head injuries and returned to work on the day of the accident. Plaintiff had tenderness at the C2 through C7 vertebra. Plaintiff took a trapezius bilateral test that was positive for pain, and x-rays showed a straightening and loss of the anterior cervical lordosis (a finding that is often insignificant).

Plaintiff prevailed before the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission and the employer appealed to the Baltimore County Circuit Court.

The Court found that Maryland Rule 7-203(b) requires a cross-appeal from Plaintiff for a portion of any administrative agency decision aggrieving a cross-appellant. The fact that Maryland workers' compensation claims are de novo does not confer interest on the injured worker requiring continuation of proceedings in order to permit challenge to portions of orders by which injured workers were not aggrieved.

You can read the full opinion here.

Baltimore City Police Reports

2010-02-23T17:09:29Z

We received a letter from the Baltimore City police department indicating that they are now EMAILING police reports. Baltimore accident lawyers must still send a written letter and a check requesting the report but in the letter you may request the report to be emailed back instead of mailed.

This is one huge step forward in bringing the logics of collecting records in Baltimore accident cases in 2010.

Medicare Lien

2010-02-12T21:32:12Z

What can a client say to make a Maryland accident lawyer's shoulders' droop? Lots of things, of course. One of those things is certainly "I have a Medicare."

A Medicare lien which is more than a lien, actually. It is a superlien. That word sounds made up but that is exactly what a Medicare lien is. More than just a right of subrogation, the superlien allows Medicare to seek reimbursement directly from the provider. (Medicare rarely choses that route.)

A superlien is also paramount in another way that is important to accident lawyers: Medicare can get the money if it is stiffed from the accident lawyer personally. So lawyers who ignore Medicare liens literally do so at their own peril. Moreover, there is a clear obligation to notify Medicare if they don't know of the potential recovery from a third party.

Will Medicare reduce medical liens? In many case, Medicare will. Accident lawyers often argue that the medical bills and treatment are not causally related to the accident. (Which furthers the trial lawyer "talking outside of both sides of her mouth" theory because, most, likely, the lawyer argued the very opposite in the case to the insurance company.) You can also get reductions for attorneys' fees and pro rata expenses incurred.

Medicare can be reasonable with reducing liens but, unlike other lien holders, they require often require settlement on the case before they are willing to discuss reducing the lien which adds more time to the resolution of the case.

One new innovation in dealing with Medicare liens is that you can get a lot of information about your client's Medicare lien online. You have to register for each individual case but you can find out the amount and status of the lien.

Deposition Questions

2010-01-26T19:50:06Z

When you prepare a client for deposition, you can prepare them for hours but it is hard to give them a feel for what the process is really like. Short of taking them to a deposition, it is hard to get someone all the way there mentally. But you have to get your clients as close as you can to understanding what is coming in as complete a way as is practicable.

I think one more thing you can do so they get idea of what the deposition questions will be is simply showing them a deposition or two so they can see the question defense counsel will pose. You have sample depositions in old cases, just redact the names or look at the sample depositions on our website.

Correlation of Car Accidents and Vehicle Color

2010-01-08T10:18:32Z

I stumbled across some interesting data from Great Britain on a study attempting to correlate color of car and road accidents. The study found that the color (the article said ‘colour’, of course) of cars most involved in car accidents where there was an injury was black with 179 accidents per 10,000 vehicles. Next on the frequent flyer accident list was white at 160, followed by red with 157. Interestingly, one of the safest colors was green at 134. The average for all cars was 150.

Before you trade in your black vehicle (my family has two), keep in mind that black vehicles might be at the top of the list for a reason other than the fact that a black car is less conspicuous. I’ll bet that black vehicles are more sought out by younger, hipper drivers (yeah, that is us, sure).

Serving a Lawsuit Against an Insurance Company in Maryland

2010-01-04T17:21:06Z

There is a popular conception that lawsuits in car accident cases are filed directly against the insurance companies. It is easy to understand the source of the confusion. The insurance company that insured the driver or the vehicle is going to stand behind their insured and pay any claim up to the policy limit of the policy. The insurance company is also going to make the decision as to how much to offer as a settlement, not the actual defendant, who is usually kept in the dark on the entire process from initial settlement offer though the tactics the insurance company will take at trial.

Technically, in Maryland car accident lawsuits are generally filed against the defendant themselves. This technical distinction makes a difference at trial because the jury is not told there is insurance behind the case under Maryland’s collateral source rule. I remember trying a case against a defendant once where we got a good verdict ($298,000 award after a $25,000 offer before trial). When we met with the jurors after the trial, their big concern was whether there was insurance because they were concerned that the defendant – who was a pretty good guy – would have to pay the verdict themselves.

The exception to this is underinsured/uninsured motorist cases. In Maryland, claims are brought directly against the insurance company. To serve an insurance company defendant with a lawsuit in Maryland, you can serve the Maryland Insurance Administration. It looks like this:

What Does the Insurance Company Pay on a Total Loss Claim?

2009-12-22T14:30:20Z

Our lawyers handle serious personal injury accident claims. Although we do not charge a fee for handling property damage claims for our injured clients, we almost invariably are drawn into property damage claims, many of which involve total loss to the vehicle.

What exactly is the insurance company obligated to pay for a total vehicle loss in Maryland, i.e., when the car is totaled?

Maryland Insurance Regulation COMAR 31.15.12.04, titled “Cash Settlement” is on point. It requires that:

If an insurer elects to make a cash settlement for the total loss of a motor vehicle pursuant to Regulation .03 of this chapter, the insurer's minimum offer, subject to applicable deductions, shall be:

A. The total of:

(1) The retail value for a substantially similar motor vehicle from a nationally
recognized valuation manual or from a computerized data base that produces
statistically valid fair market values for a substantially similar vehicle as defined
in Regulation .02B(7) of this regulation; and

(2) Regardless of whether the claimant retains salvage rights, the applicable
taxes and transfer fees pursuant to COMAR 11.11.05; or

B. The total of:

(1) A quotation for a substantially similar motor vehicle obtained by or on behalf
of the insurer from a qualified dealer at a location reasonably convenient to the
claimant; and

(2) Regardless of whether the claimant retains salvage rights, the applicable
taxes and transfer fees pursuant to COMAR 11.11.05.

Unlike personal injury claims where insurance companies are remarkably prone to unreasonable positions as to value, most insurance companies play the value of a totaled car or truck pretty straight and pay the bluebook and associated costs. Do they all?

Negotiating settlement value on a totaled vehicle or other property damage claim

How to get into a rental car

What is the value of your case?

Maryland Workers' Comp Rates

2009-12-16T19:07:10Z

New Maryland Workers' Compensation rates were posted on line today.

Driving a Truck Too Slowly

2009-12-15T17:05:55Z

Obviously, the larger problem on our highways is speeding truckers. But truck accident lawyers should keep in mind that there can be a negligence component to driving too slow. Most states have laws that require truck to travel fast enough so that they don't impede or block the normal and reasonable flow of traffic. Because of the nature of the cargo and/or the truck driver's lack of comfort/qualifications to drive the truck, some trucks drive unsafely low speeds. Many truck accidents and car accidents are caused by a speed deferential

OnStar and Accident Cases

2009-12-14T21:48:42Z

I heard a radio advertisement this morning for OnStar vehicle security service. Specifically, the advertisement was for the service in Chevy vehicles but many GM vehicles have the service available (for an additional cost), as well. The advertisement was all about the Automatic Crash Response feature and how it could “help save your life” in an accident.

We all know the OnStar representatives will tell the police where you are and whether or not there is airbag deployment. But did you know OnStar also provides the police with maximum velocity at impact; direction of impact; whether or not there were multiple impacts; and/or vehicle rollover. Fantastic, right? From the perspective of a accident lawyer? I just wonder if OnStar always gets this stuff correct. How reliable is the technology?

Is this a reason not to get OnStar? Of course not. OnStar could save your life in an accident. Safety is more important than potentially screwing up a personal injury auto accident case.

Trucks Accident Lawsuits in the Rain

2009-12-09T19:02:58Z

Section 392.14 of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations requires truck drivers to use extreme caution driving a commercial truck in snow, ice and other inclement conditions including rain. Accordingly, if the weather conditions are not perfect, truck accident lawyer in Maryland should argue that federal law preempts state law and that the standard is not longer what the reasonable prudent truck driver would do but instead whether the truck driver used "extreme caution."

How Many Big Accident Verdicts Are Collectable?

2009-12-01T21:34:20Z

"Jury awards $89 million against drunk driver for fatal crash," was the headline of a recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch article. What do 99% of the people exposed to this article now believe? Someone just got a huge verdict. But his was a one day trial and the likelihood of the Plaintiffs collecting a penny approaches zero. The article does not say the case was even defended by a lawyer.

I think it is great that the victim's family gets some measure of pleasure from the verdict. The man killed in the accident was returning from a shopping mall where they had registered for gifts for their upcoming wedding. His fiancee was pregnant. The defendant was drunk out of his mind. Awful facts.

Selfishly and for my clients, I think there is a benefit when future jurors here big numbers. It makes the numbers our lawyers usually ask juries for to be far more reasonable. Still, I worry about the impact on jurors who see an article like this and assume that jackpot justice is what we have in personal injury cases. Because far more people are getting big verdicts like this than are collecting big verdicts like this very large verdict in Missouri.

Head on Truck Accidents

2009-12-01T16:16:08Z

The most serious car or truck accident is a head-on collusion. A recent Jury Verdict Research study found that 79% of plaintiffs involved in a head-on truck accident – defined as a truck accident where at least one of the vehicles traveled across the centerline, with a truck received damages – received a damage award. The median damage award in a head on truck accident case is $ 242,150. I did not see the average truck accident jury award but I suspect it is well over a $1 million.

Average Rear End Truck Accident Verdict (average national verdict)

Truck Accident Settlements and Verdicts (more Jury Verdict Research data)

How Truck Accident Cases Are Valued (who lawyers and insurance companies put a settlement value on a truck accident case)

Truck Accident Verdict Data (even more data)

Truck Accident Cases (general overview)

MAMSI v. Wu

2009-11-30T19:44:13Z

I have been trying for a while to find the time to summarize MAMSI v. Wu, a Maryland Court of Appeals opinion holding that health insurance companies may make benefits secondary to PIP benefits available for medical bills suffered in a car accident.

You can read the full opinion here.

Text Messaging While Driving

2009-11-17T17:48:53Z

The Baltimore Sun reports today 25% of teenagers told researchers that they text while driving a car, and almost half say they've been in cars with someone who sent text messages while driving an automobile.

Cell phones cause enough accidents even without adding in the texting while driving.

Texting while driving is against the law in Maryland as of October 1st. But I wonder if a single texting while driving charge has been brought against a single driver. How can you prove texting versus making a phone call or even looking on the Internet which, ostensibly, is not a violation of the statute.

What is the answer? I really don't have any idea. But someone need to think of something.