Whether it stems from a fall on someone else’s property, a roadway collision, a mistake by someone working in a professional setting, or under any other circumstances, a personal injury can have devastating financial, physical, and personal consequences. If you have found yourself dealing with such severe consequences because someone else acted irresponsibly, you should strongly consider exploring your options for civil litigation.
A knowledgeable Kensington personal injury lawyer could go over your situation with you and help determine whether you have grounds to pursue a settlement demand or lawsuit. If so, your personal injury attorney could work diligently on your behalf to maximize available compensation for the various forms of harm you sustained.
What Damages Could a Personal Injury Victim Recover For?
Personal injury lawsuits are meant to allow victims of an accident caused by another person to hold that other party financially accountable for specific losses stemming from that incident. With that in mind, a Kensington personal injury attorney could help an injured individual pursue restitution for both economic and non-economic consequences of an accident caused by someone else’s reckless or careless actions.
Recoverable economic damages through this kind of litigation generally center around past and future expenses for medical treatment that a serious personal injury necessitates, including prescription medications, purchases of necessary medical equipment and/or in-home support, and rehabilitative services like physical therapy. Various other economic losses may be recoverable as well depending on the circumstances, including costs for repairing or replacing damaged personal property, lost work income, and lost capacity to earn income due to long-term or permanent disability.
In addition, recovery may be possible for a variety of non-economic damages, which—as the term suggests—due to objective financial values provable by receipts, bills, and other quantitative forms of evidence. Instead, the financial value of non-economic losses like physical pain and suffering and lost enjoyment of life will depend on the unique experiences and needs of the plaintiff filing suit.
Potential Obstacles to Recovery in Kensington
Unfortunately, Maryland state law is not particularly friendly to personal injury victims seeking to hold others accountable for legal negligence. Most notably, Maryland is one of a very small number of states that still enforces a “pure contributory negligence” system, under which any percentage of fault borne by a civil plaintiff completely prohibits that plaintiff from recovering any compensation whatsoever. In other words, a person found at all to blame for causing or exacerbating their own personal injury generally cannot get any money from a negligent third party.
Additionally, as a personal injury lawyer in Kensington could explain in more detail, Maryland Code, Courts & Judicial Proceedings §3-2A-09 sets caps on maximum financial recovery for non-economic losses in personal injury claims. As of October 1, 2020, the applicable cap for most such cases is $890,000, with higher caps applying to wrongful death litigation and slightly lower caps applying to cases involving negligence by a medical professional.
A Kensington Personal Injury Attorney Could Help
No matter what circumstances led to you suffering a serious injury, you should always take the time to examine your options for civil recovery. Even if you are not sure whether your situation qualifies as grounds for a claim, it still may be worthwhile to talk to a legal professional about what proactive action you could take to protect your best interests.
If you want to give yourself a fair chance at a positive case resolution after a personal injury, working with a Kensington personal injury lawyer is a virtual necessity. Schedule a consultation by calling today.
