Maryland Accident Lawyer Blog

When you settle a large case with a minor in Maryland, the parties typically file what is called a "friendly suit" advising the court of the settlement - and asking the court to bless the agreement.

Maryland law does not require this. This does not, naturally, stop defense lawyers from demanding that you file a friendly suit. They do it this way because, arguably, the law required it before 2004 and because they think - probably incorrectly - that a judge's blessing gives them more protection in the event that the minor seeks to disavow the settlement.

To file a friendly suit, you file your lawsuit along with a joint motion for settlement and a draft order for the court to sign. You can see examples of these by clicking on the preceding links.

Accident lawyers can't help but to homogonize insurance companies. But the reality is that they are all very different with different models and agendas.

On our Maryland car accident claim overview on our website, we provide on the bottom right hand side a summary of our lawyers' thoughts on dealing with 18 - count them, 18! - insurance companies who handle claims in Maryland.

David Stratton, a defense lawyer with Jordan Coyne & Savits, provides a link on his blog to an interactive map that shows the location of road accident fatalities between 2001 and 2009. If you allow yourself to move past the dry statistics and really think about what you are seeing - even for an instant - it is terribly depressing. It makes me wonder: exactly how much would it cost - in time and money - to cut this figure in half? Lower the speed limits? Require car makers to build safer cars? More restrictions on truck drivers? I'm not saying we should do this. But I sure would like someone to do an estimate so we can figure out what the tab would be.

Last week, the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog looked at the number of civil tort lawsuit filed in 2010 throughout Maryland. Here, we look at the number of motor tort lawsuits filed in Maryland in 2010, sorted by county:

Baltimore City: 1,463

Prince George's: 1,096

Baltimore: 966

Montgomery: 531

Continue reading "How Many Accident Lawsuits are Filed in Maryland?" »

I have never thought about the correlation between severity of injury in car accidents and the amount of congestion on the highway. But it certainly makes sense that (1) traffic jams lead to more accidents because the traffic is stop-and-go, and (2) high traffic means low speeds which means less serious accidents.

A new study bears this out. Washington, D.C., which includes Maryland for the study, has the worst congestion in the United States. But the cost of car accidents is low in comparison to the rest of the nation. Some car accident lawyers like to pretend that there is no correlation between impact and severity of injury because people do get seriously hurt and killed in accidents with little property damage. But common sense tells us that serious accidents are likely to lead to more serious injuries and more deaths.

The overall national cost of accidents - which includes the fender benders, the medevacs, the lawsuits, and the lives lost, was estimated at a whopping $300 billion a year. Statistics like this tend to be a little dry but $300 billion is an amazing amount of money.

Continue reading "Maryland/DC Traffic Means Less Serious Car Accidents" »

One interesting issue we encountered during our last trial was whether we could point out that the defense doctor was a frequent flyer for one particular insurance company in a case that did not involve the insurance company that was a party to our matter.

The defendant's IME doctor was testifying by videotape. The doctor is one that can most generously be described as a frequent "independent" expert witness for State Farm. Obviously, as the plaintiff's attorney, I wanted to make hay to the jury of the fact that the doctor makes over $300,000 a year from a limited number of lawyers and that this colors his testimony.

The defendant argued that we used the word “insurance” to tell the jury that the defendant has insurance. I don't think it did that. The purpose of the cross on bias - which I later learned was meaningful to the jury - was to underscore our leitmotif of why this otherwise qualified doctor has it so wrong: he is in the back pocket of a small group of defendants.

Why not just throw up the number and leave State Farm out of it? Our argument was that “State Farm” is a necessary element of this categorization. Otherwise, we would have to break down every law firm that does State Farm work. If we went through this burdensome task, the “small, captive group” point would be lost.

Ultimately, the trial judge disagreed and we redacted - actually the better phrase is turned down the volume for a second - the State Farm references. The jury still got the point loud and clear and awarded $545,000.

I think this is a good sample trial cross of a defense expert that is vulnerable to the charge that he is so well-paid by the insurance companies that it influences his objectivity. You can find the transcript here.

I think there is a conventional wisdom out there that insurance companies will settle cases because they fear litigation costs. I really think, on the micro level in which Maryland accident lawyers deal, all they fear is verdicts. As a result, defense costs seem to be a factor of decreasing significance in settlement negotiations. Most large insurers have “captive” staff counsel offices in major metropolitan areas. Sure, this still costs real money. But the insurance companies don't quite see it that way. Because these lawyers are direct employees of the insurer, and who do nothing but defend against lawsuits brought against that carrier’s insureds, the cost - the significant cost - get obscured.

Insurance companies - and the Baltimore Sun for that matter - seem sold on the cost savings on in-house lawyers. I get the logic. These lawyers (and their offices and staff) are a fixed cost, so adding one more case to defend does not appreciably change the carrier’s costs, or its settlement analysis on any particular case.

Continue reading "Do Defense Costs Matter to Insurance Companies?" »

An Illinois jury awarded $1.275 million to the family of a 25 year-old woman who had almost completed her nursing degree and was killed while driving to her job at a hospital. Tired driving appeared to be the cause of the car accident: the Defendant just fell asleep and hit the Plaintiffs' decedent.

The damages only trial lasted four days. The jury heard four grueling days of testimony from the family. Not that a tragedy like this can get worse, but this young girl had already been through a lot: surviving two kidney transplants only to be senselessly killed by someone driving down the road.

Continue reading "How Much for the Wrongful Death of a 25 Year-Old Girl?" »

I have been trying car accident cases for almost 16 years. I never realized until reading this article that August is the most dangerous month for car accidents.

Something to keep in mind when after you pile your kids in the car. Of course, you have to hope the other guy on the road is thinking the same thing.

To maximize the value of our cases, we try to get inside the minds of car accident insurance claims adjusters. The Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog has some thoughts on this.

In accident cases, our lawyers make sure we know what expert testimony defendants are will see at trial. One weapon in our discovery arsenal is a good expert interrogatory:

Identify any and all experts you intend to call as witnesses, and whose reports you intend to mention and/or introduce at trial or in any Motion, including his/her area of expertise, and identify and attach to your Answers any and all written reports prepared by said experts, and indicate the content of any and all opinions reached by said experts and the factual basis for each such opinion and the amount of compensation paid to each such expert.

In its response, State Farm says, "Hey, cool your jets, we will produce experts pursuant to the discovery order." Technically, State Farm's answer is not satisfactory. This interrogatory, served with the Complaint, is due within 30 days of service. But there is the rule and there is the way things are done. Filing a motion to compel to answer an expert interrogatory before the scheduling order requires expert designations would be just too ticky-tacky. It is a tell to State Farm and the judge hearing the motion that you are more interested in fighting for the sake of fighting than really trying to engage in legitimate discovery.

So, we wait for the expert deadline. Well, here is what we get from State Farm.

Seriously? First, anyone who has ever cut and pasted a document knows that this is a cut and paste document. The chance that any of these experts know anything about the Plaintiff approaches zero.

Continue reading "State Farm's Expert Designations" »

How can you make your way to jail if you kill (or nearly kill) someone on a Maryland road? A Fort Washington man who nearly killed two people was sentenced yesterday to six months in jail and a year of house arrest. The key is being drunk. Otherwise, Maryland law continues - in spite of a bill pending before the Maryland legislature this year - to let you off with a few traffic citations. In this case, the man pled guilty to causing life-threatening injuries while driving drunk. As part of the plea bargain, other related charges were dismissed.

Personally, I think we could save lives by being tougher on drunk drivers that cause serious and fatal accidents. The more difficult call is the one Maryland legislators are dealing with now. Is there justice in letting people slide who negligently kill another person in a Maryland car accident? Usually, the at-fault driver is a good guy/gal who just made an awful mistake any of us could make. But, believe me, this nuance is often lost on the person who lost the love of their life, or their mother/father or son/daughter.

The obvious safety benefits of black boxes in cars should culiminate in a decision by the feds by the end of the year make mandatory black box data recorder in new cars.

Long term, this is going to decrease business for car accident lawyers because universal black boxes are going to give manufacturers and safety experts a ton on information to breakdown how accidents really happen and what can be done to make safety modifcations to prevent serious accidents.

We are going to hear a lot of libertarian "big brother is watching me" junk but, ultimately, we can use these black boxes however we agree as a society they can and should be used. Clearly, using black boxes to figure out how to avoid accidents is a good thing.

The hardest car accident cases to try are he said/she said accidents where there are not natural facts that make one version more likely than another. The classic example of this scenario is lane change/merger accidents. Which car came over into which lane? Even a good accident reconstructionist struggles to be able to put the pieces together. So it often comes down two factors: (1) which version seems more likely (incredibly subjective), and (2) which driver has more credibility (incredibly subjective squared).

According to a Jury Verdict Research study of jury verdicts in these types of cases, the results are what you might intuitively expect: 50/50. The JVR study found car accident plaintiffs win about 48 percent for lane change collisions and 45 percent for merging collisions. The average verdict is $47,807.

We have tried and won these cases. But our firm is going to turn down most lane change or merging crash cases unless there is something compelling that makes us think we are going to win the case. We need two things to move forward in a lane change or merge crash case: (1) a very serious injury (sad but true commentary on the real world), and (2) a client that is extremely credible.

Wear your seat belt. I know we have said this before. Now it is "on the real", as Smash Williams would say. Maryland police have now gotten the memo that wearing your seat belt is a law. Police across Maryland are upping the ante on enforcement of seat belt laws with its new "Click It or Ticket" campaign.

We are not doing an awful job in Maryland. Approximately 93% of us are wearing seat belts. We are 9th in the nation, according to the CDC. Who is lagging behind? Women, older drivers and Hispanics are doing just great. But we struggle mightily with young men and anyone in a pick-up truck.

Continue reading "Maryland Police Are Serious Now: Buckle Up" »

Accident Analysis and Prevention published a study of 800 car accidents involving teen drivers and tried to find the common treads:

• 21%:failure to see what is there to be seen
• 21% driving too fast
• 20% distracted driving (text messaging is no small culprit)

Paramount Insurance is a MAIF type insurance company in a every way that matters to a Maryland accident lawyer. Honestly, it might be worse.

We analyze claims against Paramount on our website here.

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.

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" »