Beltsville Personal Injury Lawyer
Even if you are able to recover completely over time, a severe personal injury can still disrupt your life in numerous ways and force you to contend with significant financial and personal losses in the short term. If an accident has more serious consequences, a single person’s negligent act could permanently limit your future prospects and basic enjoyment of life.
Either way, you may be able to hold a reckless or careless individual responsible for the harm they caused you with assistance from a Beltsville personal injury lawyer. Given the various obstacles that state law puts in the way of personal injury plaintiffs, it is often especially important for accident victims in Maryland to seek a seasoned personal injury attorney’s help when pursuing civil litigation.
Proving Someone Else Responsible for a Personal Injury
The basic legal principle at the heart of most personal injury lawsuits is something called “negligence,” as it is the legal concept that holds someone who causes harm to another responsible for that harm. Generally speaking, a person is negligent when they do something reckless or careless enough to violate a “duty” to act reasonably that they owe to another person, and this “breach of duty” is the proximate cause of an accident resulting in at least one physical injury requiring professional medical care.
The exact nature of a “duty of care” can vary a lot depending on the circumstances, as can what actions count as a violation of that duty and what failures to act can be found to have caused an injury. A Beltsville personal injury attorney could provide custom-tailored guidance about whether a particular plaintiff has a claim and help them construct a comprehensive settlement demand or lawsuit based on those grounds.
Potential Restrictions on Personal Injury Recovery
Anyone who intends to file a personal injury claim in Maryland needs to be aware of the “pure contributory negligence” system that state courts follow. Under this system, a plaintiff found to bear any percentage of fault at all for the circumstances leading up to their injuries is ineligible to recover any compensation, even if they can prove another party is 99 percent to blame for that accident.
On top of that, Maryland Code, Courts & Judicial Proceedings §11-108 limits how much compensation a successful personal injury plaintiff can recover for non-economic forms of harm like physical and emotional pain. The applicable limit for most personal injury claims as of October 1, 2020, is $890,000, with yearly increases boosting this cap by only about $15,000.
Finally, MD Code, C&JP §5-101 allows most personal injury victims only three years in which to start the litigation process, and claims against government entities or employers are subject to an even shorter effective deadline of one year. Navigating all these possible roadblocks to comprehensive recovery can be next to impossible without support from a knowledgeable personal injury lawyer in Beltsville.
Talk to a Beltsville Personal Injury Attorney Today
Whenever an accident leads to someone getting seriously hurt, comprehensive civil recovery may be the only way for them to get help covering the various economic and non-economic losses their injuries may result in. Unfortunately, compelling a negligent party to provide that help can be an uniquely challenging endeavor in Maryland, especially without experienced legal representation on your side.
Hiring a Beltsville personal injury lawyer should be a top priority if you want to effectively enforce your legal right to civil recovery. Call today to learn more.
