Whether they are commuting to work, running errands, or simply going out to visit a friend, almost nobody leaves their house expecting to end up hurt in an accident. Unfortunately, that seemingly unlikely outcome is all too common in the state of Maryland, where thousands of people suffer avoidable harm due to the negligence of other individuals each and every year.
If you have recently fallen victim to another person’s careless or reckless behavior, you may have important legal options worth discussing with a seasoned Scaggsville personal injury lawyer. If you have grounds for personal injury litigation, working with a skilled attorney may be crucial to making the most of your claim and successfully seeking the financial recovery you deserve.
What Damages Could a Personal Injury Victim Recover For?
The core idea behind personal injury litigation is fairly straightforward: people who cause harm unintentionally should be held accountable for restoring impacted individuals to the condition they were in prior to sustaining that harm, and the only practical way of doing that is through financial compensation for specific losses. Importantly, though, losses stemming from an accident born of carelessness or recklessness are not required to be objective in nature in order to be “compensable” through a civil claim.
Put another way, it is possible through a successful personal injury claim to recover not only for economic losses with quantitative values like lost work income and emergency medical bills, but also non-economic forms of harm like physical pain and lost enjoyment of personal opportunities. Furthermore, accidents that result in long-term consequences may warrant recovery for related long-term damages, such as permanent loss of earning capacity and the physical and emotional consequences of a newfound disfigurement or disability.
That being said, there is unfortunately only so much that any civil plaintiff in Maryland can recover for accident-related damages. As a Scaggsville personal injury attorney could explain in more detail, Maryland Code, Courts & Judicial Proceedings §3-2A-09 establishes a “cap” on total recovery for any type of personal injury, which is currently—as of October 1, 2020—set at $890,000 for most cases.
How Negligence Plays into Civil Litigation
Another concept that prospective plaintiffs should understand before pursuing personal injury litigation is that of legal negligence. On a basic level, this concept forms the backbone of almost every successful personal injury claim—if a person breaches a duty they had to act reasonably under certain circumstances and causes an accident leading to injury as a direct consequence, they are “negligent” under state civil law and may bear financial liability for ensuing damages.
Crucially, though, Maryland courts forbid accident victims from recovering any civil compensation whatsoever if they bear any percentage of fault—even as little as one percent compared to the defendant’s 99 percent—for their injuries or the circumstances that caused them. Because of this, representation from a dedicated personal injury lawyer in Scaggsville can be absolutely essential to preserving an accident victim’s right to seek civil restitution.
Discuss Legal Options with a Scaggsville Personal Injury Attorney
Realistically, there is no way that any amount of money could completely heal the physical and emotional scars that a severe accident may leave behind. In a practical sense, though, civil compensation can be critically important when it comes to ensuring the victim of an accident caused by someone else’s negligence does not bear the brunt of the costs associated with that incident.
If you have questions about your potential cause for a civil claim, a Scaggsville personal injury lawyer could answer all of them during a confidential consultation. Call today to schedule yours.
