How Much Is My Personal Injury Case Worth In Maryland Montgomery Lawyer
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In the state of Maryland, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims is three years, this means that a victim of an accident must file for a lawsuit within three years of the accident.
In most cases, a personal injury case is initially handled by an insurance company, which is either the at-fault individual’s insurance provider or the victim’s. The victim’s attorney will present relevant pieces of evidence such as medical expenses and a settlement demand package to the insurance company. The latter will then make an offer based on the evidence provided. The victim may either accept this offer or negotiate a better one. If negotiations fail, the victim may then file a lawsuit.
There are many different factors which will help determine the value of a personal injury case, which include how the accident happened, its severity, the extent of the injuries, the medical expenses related to the accident, the lost wages, pain and suffering, punitive damages and property damages.
Medical expenses refer to the costs of all of the medical treatment the victim received as a result of the accident, regardless of the severity of their injury. Moreover, future medical expenses such as physical therapy for victims suffering from continued pain even after their being initially healed are also counted.
The lost wages of the victim refers to the wages the victim did not receive as a result of missing work for reasons related to the accident, and the wages that they will miss in the future as a result of ongoing treatment such as therapy.
Pain and suffering refer to the physical pain and emotional distress caused as a result of the accident, pain, and suffering are non-economic damages, meaning they vary from case to case. Pain and suffering includes difficulty in performing otherwise ordinary daily tasks, the time the victim spent away from their family for treatment, the time spent travelling for medical treatment and the inability to perform any physical activities among many other things.
Punitive damages refer to damages intended to punish the individual at-fault in the accident if their actions were considered outrageous or reckless and willingly caused the accident.
Property damages are included in the case of car accident, they refer to the costs of repairing the vehicle damaged as a result of the accident.
However, there are two factors which could diminish the value of a personal injury case in Maryland.
The first is contributory negligence. The victim must be able to prove that the other party involved in the accident is 100% responsible for it. If proven otherwise, and the victim is responsible for even 10%, they may be prohibited from collecting any financial damages due to the state of Maryland’s contributory negligence rules, which states that the at-fault party must be fully responsible for the accident in order for the victim to collect damages.
Furthermore, the state of Maryland imposes a cap for pain and suffering damages which changes the October of each year in order to account for inflation. This cap is at $860,000 as of October 1st 2018.
If you need a Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer to help you with your Personal Injury case in Maryland, call us at 888-437-7747. Our Maryland Personal Injury Attorneys can help you. C