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May 20, 2009 12:48 AM
The rules and laws governing workers' compensation can be positively baffling and incredibly difficult to navigate. Many people who are injured on the job quickly learn this if they decide to try and represent themselves. Especially in the state of Maryland. There are no simple solutions to any aspect of workers' compensation. It is essential that you seek the help of a professional, qualified attorney in the event of a work related injury.
If you are injured on the job, you will most likely be examined by an insurance company doctor. When a claim is established, this documents a proper medical record regarding the sustained injuries. You may also want to be examined by an additional doctor. Reasons would be: you do not trust the qualifications of the insurance company doctor; you have a family doctor of whom you are more comfortable; you disagree with the opinion rendered by the insurance company doctor.
Like many aspects of Maryland workers' compensation law, there is not a hard, fast rule regarding seeking a second opinion after being examined by an insurance company doctor. While you do have the right to seek a second opinion, after an insurance company doctor examination, there is not a guarantee, should their opinions conflict, your doctor's opinion will win. The employer also has the right to have you examined by a doctor of their choice.
Because this is such an uncertain situation, it is imperative to find a qualified lawyer to help you and represent you in your Maryland workers' compensation case. Our law firm provides knowledable professional attorneys regarding workers' compensation and your rights. Should you be injured on the job, there is no question that adequate legal representation is of key importance.
Our lawyers can advise the proper course of action should you decide to seek the opinion of a different doctor. We can help ensure that your rights are protected through every step of the workers' compensation determination process. Unrepresented injured workers in Maryland run the risk of having their claims denied and not having their best interests protected. Not all attorney's in Maryland have expertise regarding plaintiff workers' compensation law.
By hiring our law firm regarding your workers' compensation claim, you can rest assured your case is in the best possible hands. Protect your rights, if you are injured on the job, give our office a call.
January 20, 2009 5:09 PM
It does not matter how long you have been a practicing lawyer—you’re always on the lookout for new sources of safety information. Whether representing workers or consumers, personal injury lawyers must keep abreast of the state of the art of safety. We want our clients to be informed as well.
A place to start is right under our collective noses. The Chesapeake Region Safety Council, a chapter of the National Safety Council, provides the safety training and education to save lives and reduce disabling injuries in Maryland, Delaware and the Greater Washington D.C. area. Each year it trains more than 15,000 people in proven safety practices. Over 800 employers rely on this group to teach them practices to protect workers and customers from accidental injury and death. Chances are if they teach it, it’s a standard of care that we can use in court.
While CRSC members have greater access to safety data than the general public, the CRSC website does provide a good starting point for research, even for nonmembers. It offers safety sheets on a number of topics. There are also many useful links to other websites. For example, the link to the federal Occupational Safety & Health Administration, or OSHA, offers information on many topics of interest to workers and their families, such as this mini-site devoted to teen workers. The SRSC also links to national safety organizations, state safety agencies and other injury prevention groups.
Among the links on the CRSC site is one to Maryland’s Injured Worker’s Insurance Fund. Although the IWIF site is directed to employers, the general public can use the site, too. There, one can find an even greater wealth of safety sheets setting forth in plain English (and Spanish) good practices on many subjects, such as ladder safety, dealing with ice, driving safely, and power tool safety. There are many more. IWIF’s safety sheets set forth standard practices in many areas, and are a great place for us as personal injury lawyers to start as we evaluate and prepare your case. They also make nice trial exhibits.
January 14, 2009 12:17 AM
Six opinions have issued from Maryland’s appellate courts so far this year, see here, and four of them involve crises over real property. One involves lead paint poisoning; another involves a nasty dispute with a trespassing landlord. Two more involve foreclosures. All of which goes to show that nothing gets under our skin like a dispute over the homes we live in and the condition of property owned by others. None of these cases originated in 2008. Three each are from 2006 and 2007, which gives you an idea how long it takes to get through the trial court and obtain appellate resolution. The age of the cases makes it even more interesting that two-thirds of them involve real property in distress.
Perhaps you've seen a house in your own neighborhood with a “Bank Owned” for sale sign on it, and you've been wondering how long the bank has owned it. (By the way, is that little notation supposed to entice us or frighten us? I have never been sure.)
Or perhaps you have been wondering what your neighbor paid for that big house up on the corner. And are the houses still selling in your area? Are the values holding?
Maybe your house backs up to a commercial property that has been driving you crazy because every time it rains, your yard either gets flooded with the debris from their overflowing trash bins, or, your soil is becoming eroded, because of the inadequately managed runoff from their parking lot. Gosh darn it, who actually owns that place?
I’ll let you in on a little personal injury lawyers’ secret. Actually it is not a secret. We lawyers have been doing this for years, but in the old days we had to get a clerk to call this agency on the telephone or even go there in person to access the information. Either way you had to wait in a long line. No more.
What’s the secret? Online public records, that's what. It's a useful website anyone can access, and in an instant, anyone can locate owners of real property, or look up historical real estate sales.
Here’s how it works.
Go to the website for the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation, here. At the top of the middle column, click on the link for Real Property Data Search, which opens a terrific search page. In moments you can learn who owns the property you are interested in. Also available is the assessed value and history of relevant property sales. Choose whichever option appears to you. You can locate property owners anywhere in Maryland, ascertain what they paid for their property, and compare values to all of the other houses on the street. And if you go out for your mail and get bitten by the German shepherd owned by that guy with the un-mufflered pickup truck on the next street over, well, it’s useful for tracking that guy's landlord down, too.
As they say, it’s your tax dollars at work.
January 9, 2009 8:54 PM
You’ve made our appointment. You’ve signed our papers. You’ve told us the story of your case. Good to go? No, not yet. We need the medical records.
We need to know what your doctor said, and what you told him, as reflected in his notes. And we want to know his opinion of what ails you and why, and we want to know when he says you are well enough to return to work. What he says about your need for future surgery. We need it from the horse’s mouth.
Your testimony is important, but in most instances, the case will be won or lost by the evidence in your medical chart, and what the medical experts have to say about it.
For example, a patient may claim his doctor failed to diagnose an illness until irreversible harm took place. Or that the doctor failed to order a crucial diagnostic test. On the other hand, the doctor claims the test was ordered, or that the patient ignored his own symptoms. Perhaps the patient says an injury was caused by the accident, but the records disclose that the patient complained of these same symptoms six months before the date of the crash.
How does a jury decide who is right? Answer: the medical records. A contemporaneous record of what happened, created the way medical records are typically made, has more chance of swaying the jury than something contrary that is said in court after the fact.
It’s not impossible for a health care provider to alter records, but it’s a dangerous tactic and we have ways to expose this. Forging medical records is therefore the exception, not the rule.
How do we get your records? Sometimes we may ask you to get them. Other times, we obtain them on your behalf, using a formal request letter and your written consent. Or we may simply walk in the door with an authorization in hand. Regardless of the approach, we comply with two sets of privacy laws–state and federal.
Understanding these laws, and how they affect our right to collect your records, is not as complicated as it sounds. While charts like this one highlight the legal complexities, for the most part, armed with the right piece of paper, we won’t have trouble gathering relevant portions of your chart. Requesting one’s own records is commonplace today. Don’t be nervous about it. In general, all that is needed is for the patient to provide written authorization that is signed and dated, identifies whose records are requested and to whom they are to be provided, and specifies how long the authorization is effective (up to one year). In many instances, health care providers have their own forms for patients to sign, and they can provide this form to you when the records request is made.
In 2009, no one will challenge your right of access, or demand to know why you want the records before releasing them. And no one will say “no” on the basis that they haven’t been paid for their medical services. Finally, they are not allowed to charge you an exorbitant copying or delivery fee. If they do any of these things, or otherwise try to say no to your request for data that is legally yours to obtain… well… you know who to contact.
January 6, 2009 9:32 PM
During the holidays many of us consume catered party food, or eat out in malls and restaurants more often than usual. Who should you call if the food makes you sick?
First, consider calling the Maryland Poison Center at (800) 222-1222. The MPC provides poison treatment and prevention services to all Marylanders. It’s staffed round the clock by pharmacists and nurses with specialized training in toxicology, a specialty that includes food-borne illnesses.
In addition, in Baltimore City, dial 311, and report the occurrence to the Bureau of Food Control. This agency, run by the Baltimore Health Department, oversees more than 5,000 food facilities to ensure compliance with state and local food safety regulations. They inspect City restaurants, markets, bakeries, mobile food preparation vehicles, and caterers. Ask for a copy of your case report, and make note of the date, time, and substance of your initial phone call. You can even file a report online, using the Baltimore CitiTrack Service Request System. Make a printout of your report. Follow up with the Health Department to see what happens to your complaint. Most importantly, call to report your illness as soon as possible.
Lists of food establishments recently closed by the Baltimore City Health Department are available online, but unfortunately, these reports are several months out of date. Nevertheless, you can check through these postings to see whether your illness came from eating food sold to you by a previous “food safety offender.”
In addition, you can click here for a map of facilities closed for food safety or other reasons by the Baltimore City Health Department. (See sample above.)
A Google map connecting you to the full text of inspections conducted by the Howard County Health Department is also available. Other counties have similar reporting services.
An overview of food poisoning, including the various types, their causes, symptoms and much more, is available in this University of Maryland article. Yes, these are the same folks who run the Maryland Poison Control Center, and they’ve also posted some seasonal poison prevention advice.
Finally, if your illness is severe enough to require medical intervention, consider legal representation. In general, a food poisoning case requires evidence of three things:
(1) The vendor failed to exercise due care with respect to the preparation or handling of the food item;
(2) This lack of due care caused the specific harm you suffered; and
(3) Real injuries resulted from eating the contaminated food.
In other words, if negligent food handling led you to eat contaminated food that made you physically ill from the specific contaminant that was present in this food, you probably have a case.
If you have suffered injuries as a result of eating contaminated food, the personal injury attorneys at Ingerman & Horwitz will evaluate your claim without cost to you. Just contact us.
November 14, 2008 3:57 PM
Heads up, Marylanders! We’re surrounded by states that have steer clear laws, with stiff penalties for violation. Ignorance of these laws is no excuse.
“What’s a steer clear law?” you may say.
Not all states have this law, but in these surrounding jurisdictions, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, there are laws requiring drivers to slow down and move over a lane, if possible, when passing a stopped police or other emergency vehicle. Break these laws and you can even go to jail! The precise language and penalty varies from state to state, so check out the hyperlinks for specifics.
Marylanders may not know these laws exist, because Maryland and the District of Columbia are among the dwindling number of holdouts. To date, 43 states have passed steer clear laws. (This chart is helpful, but some of the links are dead.) States enacting these laws have publicized them widely, but there has been little or no fanfare about them here in Maryland. A version of the law was introduced in Maryland earliy in 2008, but unfortunately, House Bill 131 failed to move forward in time and died by the time the session ended. Sponsored by Delegate Frank Conaway, Jr. (D., Balto.), the measure would have required drivers to maintain a safe distance and to reduce speed before passing emergency vehicles parked by the road with their lights flashing. It also required drivers to move a lane away from the emergency vehicle, if practical, assuming there is another same-direction lane to shift into. Otherwise, drivers must slow to a speed “that is sufficient to ensure the safety” of police and other nearby first responders.
Failure to obey the statute would have resulted in a $75 fine, which is quite mild, compared to versions of this law that have passed in other states. Look for the proposal to be re-introduced in 2009.
If you do some interstate driving, especially over the holidays, you must know about these statutes, which are also known as slow down, move over laws. Some versions of the law make you slow down and move over for tow trucks as well as for police and other first responders.
Even without such a law in Maryland (or for that matter, the District of Columbia), and even without specific advice to this effect in the Maryland Driver’s Handbook, it’s a good habit to slow down and steer clear of stopped, standing or parked police and emergency vehicles. No matter what state you’re driving in, why risk lives when it’s so easy to be safe?
November 11, 2008 12:53 AM
No, we’re not in court yet. It's your deposition, but it’s every bit as important.
We’ve answered the interrogatories. (See Ugh. Interrogatories.) Now they want to ask you questions in person, under oath. That's what a deposition is. How does it work?
First of all, relax! Your personal injury lawyer will sit next to you to make sure things proceed as they should. Is there a document you should be looking at, in order to answer a question? Your personal injury lawyer will make sure you have a copy in front of you. Is opposing counsel being overly repetitive or asking questions she shouldn’t? Your personal injury lawyer will stop them.
A deposition is not a trial, but you still need to tell the truth. It seems like court because the lawyers for both sides are present and you are sworn in by a court reporter. As in court, there may be objections and legal discussions between the lawyers--while you’re patiently wondering what the fuss is about--but you’re sitting in a law office, not a court room. There’s no judge up front saying “sustained” or “overruled.” Meanwhile, as in court, you’re not supposed to talk until it’s your turn to answer a question. Also, as in court, virtually everything is recorded by the court reporter.
If during the deposition there is a dispute, listen carefully to what your own lawyer says. Most likely, you will be required to answer the question. If you’re not supposed to answer, you will be told.
A deposition is a bit like a job interview, with your written interrogatory answers, sent to defense counsel ahead of time, serving as your resume. If anything has changed since you sent in these answers, or something you said earlier now seems a bit wrong, you should ask us to fix it before the deposition takes place, or at least give us time to tell the other side about it on the record before the questioning begins. Meanwhile, you should remain as calm as possible, and stay polite.
If all goes well the questioning lawyer will conclude you’re a strong, credible witness, and will likely be a stellar witness at trial. If you do well at deposition, the conclusion will be that this is a case the insurance company needs to settle. Whether we hope to go to trial or not, we like it when they feel that way.
At Ingerman & Horwitz, we’ll prepare you for deposition, just like we’ll prepare you at every other stage of your case. For more pointers about depositions, see this article on our resources page.
November 9, 2008 1:29 PM
Dear Personal Injury Client: There’s a fat envelope in your mail. The other side has sent us written questions for you to answer. They’re called interrogatories.
Please pay attention! How you respond to these questions is extremely important. You’ll sign your own name to the answers, verifying the accuracy of what is said. The other side can read these answers out loud in court. If you later testify to something different, it could sound like you are lying.
The answers to interrogatory questions require joint effort between attorney and client. Ultimately we’ll type up the answers in the proper format, but having your best information first is crucial.
Interrogatories cover many of the things that are important to proving (and eventually resolving) your case. We’ll be providing not just your personal data, such as your date of birth, past addresses, education and employment history, but also the who-where-when-what-and-how's that support your complaint. Your medical history, including the treatment you’ve received for your injuries. The precise nature of the harm you’ve suffered and the monetary damages we’re claiming. The facts to support each and every legal claim we’ve made. Who our expert witnesses are and the opinions they have. Whether and how your injuries prevent you from working. What we know about the other side’s evidence.
A number of these questions are for us, your personal injury lawyers, to answer. There may even be some we don’t want to answer, and we’ll be in charge of getting any disagreements resolved. But we must act promptly.
So don’t just shove that fat envelope aside. Open it. Work hard to give us all of the information requested. Do call us if you need help. The sooner we send out the answers, the sooner we can get your case resolved. We both want that, right?
November 1, 2008 2:47 AM
 Tonight it's Halloween. The kids are outside and the moms and dads are out, too. The grownups are drinking wine, talking, and playing music. We are standing on the sidewalk telling jokes, catching up with the neighborhood news. The lawyer, the doctor, and the nurse are out there with the real estate agent, the postal worker, and the school teacher. Many of us have kids or grandkids rushing about in costume. A lot of the adults are wearing costumes, too.
Now it's a bit later, but we're feeling too good to want to go inside. After all, it's Friday. It's warm enough to stay outside a little longer. Someone has opened another bottle of wine. The kids have made their rounds and have gone off to sort out their loot. Meanwhile, we're catching up on some juicy gossip.
Some of the neighbors have had more than a glass or two, like the dad up the street, the one everyone knows is an alcoholic, and he has gone in to put his toddlers to bed. Now, he wants cigarettes. His spouse, still outside with the neighbors, is with him on her cell phone:
“Yes, dear, I’ll go out to get them for you.”
By reputation, she’s the sensible one, the one who holds the family together despite her husband's worsening problem. But tonight she's inno condition to drive either. She doesn't realize it. Tonight, she will be the one who makes a big mistake. No one will think to talk her out of driving, because, as everyone knows, she's not the one with the alcohol problem. It’s his problem.
We all know know couples who fit this example. Some of them become our clients. They are in many respects, playing-by-the-rules people. Everyone loves them. They are anxious to please others and to be good neighbors. All seems under control, but it is not.
Perhaps there is family history of alcoholism on both sides. Perhaps each of them has unconsciously chosen to marry someone with the same family history. One partner drinks, and other one doesn't, or doesn't appear to drink much. It's the past repeating itself, as the younger couple falls into a pattern learned by each of them from their parents.
We see many clients as a result of an-alcohol related arrest, good, upstanding people with families. They come to us all the time.
Ingerman & Horwitz can help. We live in neighborhoods, too. We know alcohol is a complicated problem. If you are arrested for an alcohol-related offense, we can help you through it. You can tell us just about anything, confidentially. I’m pretty sure you can’t shock us, and we’re not judgmental. We will help you with your legal troubles, but of course, you need to do the real work to get your life back on track. The arrest was just a symptom, and now you'll also need to treat the disease. We'll make sure you have a referral.
October 27, 2008 2:56 AM
You’ve suffered personal injuries and have hired a qualified personal injury lawyer. Is your job done? No. It’s just beginning. Here are some rules to help you protect your own interests as we work together to pursue your claim for personal injury compensation.
One. Tell the truth. This should need no elaboration. Whether you are talking to us, making a report, filling out a form, or testifying in deposition or at trial, the truth is required.
Two. Don’t talk about your case with anyone. Yes, do tell your doctors and other health care providers about where it hurts, but don't talk about whose car hit whose, or who was at fault. It’s not germane to your care and perhaps the doctor is not going to take accurate notes about it. Although we should be able to keep these kinds of statements out of court, the other side will see them, and if they conflict with your assertions in the case, watch out! It could undercut a potential settlement.
Generally, anything you say to someone else about your case can be repeated back to you on the record, in court. Perhaps they don't get it quite right. So please let us do the talking.
If someone says they need to talk about the accident, tell them you are represented by Ingerman & Horwitz. Give them our phone number, and don’t say anything until you call us! Your own insurance company may need you to make a statement in order to process your claim. Or they may need you to talk about the damage to your car. That's fair. Just call us first.
Three. Get receipts whenever you spend money related to your case. Record what you’ve spent in a little notebook that always goes with you. Are you taking a taxi because your injury prevents you from driving? Is the kid up the street mowing your lawn? Are you hiring a babysitter to stay with the kids while you go to the doctor? Always get a receipt. If the person you are hiring does not have his own receipts, hand him one of yours to sign when you pay him for his services. You can buy a book of receipts in any office supply store.
By the way, keep track of your mileage when you drive anywhere that’s related to the medical care you need or other treatment. Again, use your little notebook to record the date, place and reason for the trip. Deduct mileage for side trips.
Four. Let us look over any claim forms you fill out that relate to your medical condition or disability. These, too are statements of yours that the defendant can review. If you are saying things about your condition in a disability claim or in some other forum that are inconsistent with what is going on in your case, it could hurt you.
We want your claim to be a success. You can find some more pointers here:
October 22, 2008 9:30 AM
Do our clients ask their doctors legal questions? Because they sure ask us a lot of medical ones. I wonder why that is.
Meeting a personal injury lawyer is a bit like going to the doctor. You report what’s bothering you, how it happened, and where it hurts. You explain what you used to do that you can’t do now. You may even feel a bit nervous. Your story is very personal; you sit across a desk and ask for help from a stranger who has expert knowledge and skill. Secretly you may wonder if they really care, or if they are too busy to help you.
Developing a relationship of trust is just as important in the law office as it is in the doctor’s office. It’s important to us, too. If we have a good rapport, we are better able to work with you and make good decisions together.
But we’re personal injury lawyers, not doctors. While you are telling your story, we’re listening for a whole other set of reasons. You need to know what we’re listening for, and come to see us with that in mind. Here’s what to do:
- --Give us as accurate a chronology as possible. Bring your journal or calendar with you if it helps.
- --Bring relevant documents, but don’t worry if you don’t have everything. Things to bring include bills, receipts, police reports (or other data from the police), auto insurance information, doctors’ appointment cards (or doctors’ addresses and your treatment dates), a list of the medicines you take, a recent pay stub (for wage loss), insurance forms, any disability claims forms, and anything other papers you have that relate to your claim.
- --Be ready to explain how your life and abilities have changed. Think of someone who could talk about this subject credibly as a witness on your behalf.
- --Make a list of financial losses.
- --Think about the reasons you believe someone else is at fault. How would things have turned out differently, but for the defendant’s conduct? Is there something you could have done differently to prevent your injury?
- --If your claim involves bad medical care or a defective product, explain carefully why you think that is, and how you came to discover it.
Remember, we can’t give medical advice. But if you come to us prepared to discuss your legal claim, it might just put you on the road to recovery.
October 19, 2008 1:09 PM
On November 2 at 2:00 a.m. we turn back our clocks.
Benjamin Franklin suggested Daylight Saving Time as a way to save on candles. Since then many studies have confirmed its usefulness as a way to save energy. It also saves lives.
According to a 2007 RAND Corporation study, Daylight Saving Time “significantly reduces automobile crashes in the long run with an 8-11% fall in crashes involving pedestrians, and a 6-10% fall in crashes for vehicular occupants in the weeks after the spring shift to DST." http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol7/iss1/art11.
 If only we could turn back the clock on some of the events of our clients’ lives. Of course, we can’t. But if you are injured through no fault of our own, the law may provide a right of monetary compensation. That’s where we, as personal injury lawyers, come into the picture. We can obtain compensation for your economic losses, such as lost time from work, medical care, and other costs. We can also recover money damages for your non-economic losses, such as disfigurement, loss of function, and emotional distress.
Yet every day as personal injury lawyers we are reminded that we can’t work miracles. Particularly in death cases, but also in some of the other, more serious claims we handle, the hardest part is not the struggle to obtain a verdict or settlement for our personal injury clients, but knowing that, no matter how satisfied we may feel about a result, we can never turn back the clock on our clients’ lives.
As personal injury lawyers, we must remind ourselves, and also sometimes our clients, that the settlement funds they receive are not meant to replace the lives that have been lost or those injuries that will not heal. If that is the goal we will never succeed. But compensation is the only way we have to try to bring back some normalcy to our clients’ lives. We’ve all heard it said that “time is money.” Surely, time may be money in many ways, but settlement money cannot turn back time. We wish we could do more, but we can’t.
For more about Daylight Savings Time, personal injury law and automobile accidents in Maryland, check our Resources Page.
October 11, 2008 8:19 PM
It started as an automobile accident. Mr. Gourdine’s car was rear ended by Ms. Crews' car on the highway at midday. He careened off the roadway and crashed into a tractor trailer, suffering fatal head injuries. Investigation revealed Ms. Crews experienced a sudden attack of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, from taking a combination of two drugs made by Eli Lilly & Co., as prescribed by her doctor.
Mr. Gourdine died because Ms. Crews was impaired, but apparently it wasn't her fault--she was taking the drugs as ordered, but the drug company wasn’t warning doctors properly about possible adverse effects.
So Mrs. Gourdine sued the drug company. Would the mantle of responsibility be extended to provide compensation to the Gourdines?
No, said Maryland’s highest court. The Court of Appeals said a drug company owes no duty to the general public for its drugs to carry proper warnings, and that the connection between the allegedly bad labeling and the death of Mr. Gourdine was too remote to permit recovery.
Yet the Court recognized there are cases where “foreseeability alone may give rise to liability to a third party because of policy reasons.” So, one door may have been closed, but at the same time, one or more important windows were propped open.
At Ingerman & Horwitz, LLP, we review complex cases like this one in detail, and we are happy to share our analysis with those who might benefit from it. On the Resources page of our website you will soon find a more thorough analysis of Gourdine v. Crews. If you or someone you know has been injured in a similar situation, call us and we'll be happy to talk about it.
October 8, 2008 2:51 AM
Let’s talk about what’s recoverable and what’s not. You’ve been injured, perhaps by a defective drug, a drunk driver, or a dangerous condition. You’ve been off work for 30 days, but your employer offers liberal benefits and has continued to pay you. Meanwhile, your injuries in all likelihood have shortened your life expectancy. What’s recoverable?
Most people think they know the answer, but when they guess, they’re wrong. The facts will surprise you.
Lost time from work as a result of illness or injury is compensable, whether or not your employer offers sick pay. Sick pay is a benefit you’ve earned. It doesn’t belong to the wrongdoer and he doesn’t get any credit for it when he injures you. In our example the wrongdoer is liable to compensate you for all 30 of your lost days. If you are someone who typically earns overtime, you are entitled to that as well. The exact results in each case will differ, depending on the facts. For an answer specific to you, ask your personal injury lawyer.
On the other hand, it seems as though a shortened life would be an injury for which damages would be awarded. It is not. Maryland, like other states, does not permit recovery for the foreshortening of life expectancy. If you lose your life as a result of injury, your loved ones can make a statutory claim. If you survive, but are worried about your future as a result of compensable physical injuries, these emotional worries may be included as part of your pain and suffering damages. But the shortened life expectancy itself does not earn you an award. After all, you’re not going to be around to experience it. Or so the argument goes.
It seems unfair that a wrongdoer can steal years from your life and not be made to pay you for it, and perhaps it is. At least the wrongdoer does not get to claim that he should pay less because you’re not going to live so long now. Believe it or not, some defendants have tested this argument. Typically it doesn’t work. The bad guy doesn’t get extra credit for shortening your life.
The moral? Don’t guess at these kinds of answers. Your personal injury case is not an amusing pop quiz. Your family’s future depends on getting it right. Consult a qualified personal injury lawyer. (You knew I was going to say that, didn't you?)
October 4, 2008 5:19 PM
You’re coming home late from work one night, and your neighbor’s cat, a mean old thing who lives outdoors, leaps from the bushes and attacks you. You suffer bite wounds and scratches to your ankle, which unfortunately become infected and require you to visit the doctor, take antibiotics, and miss quite a bit of time from work. In addition, you must stay home from work for several more days, in order to keep your leg elevated. How would you be compensated?
You’ve suffered significantly, and have real economic losses, but can’t imagine suing your neighbor. Still, he owes you a duty of care, namely, not to let his cat roam wild, enter your property, and bite you. He’s breached this duty, and you’ve been injured as a result. The solution? Make a claim against his homeowners’ insurance. In all likelihood, he’s got coverage.
A common potential source of recovery for personal injuries–as well as protection against the personal injuries claims of others–is homeowners insurance. Take a look at your own policy. If you are a renter, take a look at your renter’s policy. See what it covers. Talk to your agent. Make sure you’ve got proper coverage for all of the sorts of mishaps that can happen as a result of defective conditions in or around your home, or as a result of your pets behaving badly.
Responsible neighbors don’t let their pets run wild. It’s risky for others, and bad for the pets’ health, too. Most jurisdictions have leash laws, which can be cited in support of a personal injuries claim based on a bite from a domestic pet. These days, there is simply no excuse for letting an animal run wild, day or night. Even cats. But if you should find yourself attacked by a neighbor’s pet, a qualified personal injury lawyer can help you investigate and pursue the right sort of claim.
October 1, 2008 3:10 AM
After contacting a qualified personal injury lawyer, you must continue to look after three things: your car repairs, your medical care, and your job. There’s more, but these three things are the biggies on your own To Do list.
First, take care of the car as soon as you can, and don’t overspend. Move your car where you can store it for free. Don’t have the car repaired until an adjuster comes to makes an appraisal, because the shop will probably agree to fix your car for this lesser, appraised amount. Your jaw may drop once you learn how much the shop will cut from the estimate. Also, if you already have car insurance, don’t buy extra insurance on your rental car, because you won’t recover this amount.
Second, make and keep all necessary medical appointments. Call ahead and reschedule if needed, but don’t miss recommended tests, doctor visits or therapy dates. Don’t create the impression you don’t want to get better, or, that you weren’t hurt as bad as you say you were. Also, tell the doctor all of your complaints, because your personal injury lawyer can’t do much with a claim that lacks medical support. And follow your doctor’s advice. Don’t be seen engaging in activities your doctors have warned you to avoid.
By the way, follow your health insurer's rules. If your referral has expired, get a new one. And pay your co pays! While we can advise you, we can’t pay your bills. Even if you can’t pay everything, you can call health care providers and try to work something out. Ignoring them is the worst thing you can do.
Third, and finally, follow your employer’s rules about sick leave and disability. If you need a doctor’s report or other proof to obtain leave, or to recover private disability insurance benefits, take care of it. If you now have a disability that requires an accommodation, follow your employer’s rules to show them you are entitled to that accommodation. Confused about all of this? Ask us for advice. We can talk to you about Social Security Disability, too.
Your personal injury lawyer is dedicated to helping you resolve your claim, but you must be a responsible member of your own recovery team. Don’t just sit back doing nothing, expecting your personal injury lawyer to produce a windfall. Miracle awards? That happens only on television. Personal injury claims involve a lot of hard work, and, ahem, much of it is yours.
We teach our clients how to protect themselves. We explain how to maximize their ability to recover costs and to obtain appropriate compensation. Sometimes there are several avenues of recovery that need to be pursued. We will discuss them with you.
Finally, don’t accept this blog as a substitute for legal advice. It isn’t. Pick up the phone!
September 28, 2008 10:06 PM
Our clients may wonder: in light of our nation’s evolving financial crisis, will the insurance companies still have money to pay personal injury claims? In short, the answer is yes.
Individuals seeking compensation for personal injuries need to know what will happen to insurance coverage in these challenging times. At risk are companies who invested heavily in subprime mortgages and in derivative investments whose worth depended on them.
Large insurance company AIG survived for nearly a century before imploding over investments on a derivative security called a “credit default swap.” A CDS itself is a bit like an insurance policy, but a CDS can also be highly speculative. Recently, AIG took $85 billion from the U.S. government to keep it afloat. Meanwhile, it had this to say to reassure its insureds:
“AIG's Commercial Insurance business (AIGCI) has ample resources to underwrite business and to pay the claims of our policyholders. We continue to pay $73 million in claims every single day.”
By law, insurance companies must maintain a surplus to ensure money is available when it is needed to pay claims. Despite its difficulties, says AIG, the commercial insurer’s statutory surplus exceeds the total shareholders’ equity of all domestic commercial insurance holding companies. Says AIGCI, “Our Net Written Premium to Surplus Ratio, a key indicator of the amount of leverage of a property casualty organization, is less than 1.0 with total NWP of $12.7 billion in the first half of 2008 compared to policy holder surplus of $26.7 billion.”
AIGCI companies include the Lexington Insurance Company, National Union and American Home Assurance Company. At present, according to AIG, its invested assets exceed $70 billion.
Rest assured, Ingerman & Horwitz LLP pays close attention to facts like these. The insurance company capital needed to pay claims remains protected by regulators. When it comes to the claims of our clients, we will not let these companies cry wolf. AIG must repay this $85 billion government loan. Meanwhile, we shall continue to demand and obtain compensation for our clients’ injuries based on the fair value of their claims, and nothing else. In these uncertain economic times, we won’t bail out on you.
September 23, 2008 10:48 AM
Timing is everything in personal injury cases.
Well, not everything, unless you’ve filed too late. Then it’s the only thing that matters. When you consult a personal injury lawyer, he or she may stop you before you get too far along in your story, and ask, “Now, when exactly did this happen?”
They’ll listen a little more, but regardless how good your case may seem to be, you’ll be interrupted.
“I’m sorry Mrs. ___. You’ve missed the statute of limitations.”
“I thought I had three years!”
“Not in this case. That hole you fell in belongs to the town. You only had 180 days to put them on notice, and you’ve missed it. Unless you’ve got good cause for not doing that, we’re out of luck.”
A variety of limitations periods govern personal injury claims. Two-year periods apply in a number of situations. PIP claims – those no-fault payments you may be entitled to when injured in an automobile collision, must be brought in one year. Some claims must be submitted as early as 60 days from the date of injury. It is foolish to assume you’ve always got three years.
On the other hand, you may have longer than the typical period. Like when you need to sue an out-of-state corporation that has failed to register or qualify to do business in Maryland. Or when you don’t discover until much later that your injuries weren’t just bad luck, but caused by a defective product. In each instance, it is important to contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. It costs nothing to have a lawyer listen to your story. Pick up the phone early and learn exactly where you stand!
For information about different kinds of claims (it’s not exhaustive, and it does not substitute for legal advice), take a look at our resources page.
September 18, 2008 12:39 AM
The backlog of cases before the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review is tremendous. In Maryland, claimants can expect to wait 464 days from the date the Request for a Hearing is filed before the claim is heard by an Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ"). In some jurisdictions, the average wait is over 730 days (greater than two years!). Obviously, this creates a burden on claimants whose living expenses continue but who are unable to participate fully in the workforce.
At least once a week, a client will contact me with the same scenario. The individual is unable to work full time, but needs to keep paying the bills. He or she is offered part-time work that will help relieve some of these pressures. What would be the effect of this part-time employment? Will benefits be lost? The answer depends on the amount and type of work.
In order to qualify for benefits, an individual may not work at the level of “substantial gainful activity.” In order to determine whether someone is working at this level, the Social Security Administration looks at earnings. For the year 2008, the amount is $940 per month. Ordinarily, earnings beneath this level are not considered substantial and would not disqualify a person from receiving benefits.
Nevertheless, common sense is required when considering possible types of employment. For example, if an individual is earning only $800 a month, but doing heavy construction work, the ALJ will likely find that this individual could perform a less strenuous job for a longer hours and will deny the claim.
There are exceptions to these rules. Work attempts lasting up to six months, which the claimant had to stop because of the impairment, may be considered “unsuccessful” and the earnings for this time period will not be considered in determining substantial gainful activity. Likewise, if a job is performed under special conditions, such as in a sheltered workshop, or made available out of charity by a friend or family member, it may not be considered substantial.
There are other scenarios in which a claimant may work on a limited basis. Before starting employment, the claimant should consult an attorney to determine what is allowed and what exceptions apply. The claimant should keep a diary of exactly what tasks are performed at the place of employment, and what accommodations are made for his or her disability. In my experience, ALJs recognize and appreciate the need for disabled individuals to perform limited work; nevertheless, the claimant must convince the ALJ that the job is of such limited scope that it should not be considered substantial gainful activity.
Interested in learning more? Take a look at our Social Security Disability section on our web site.
September 16, 2008 11:17 AM
If you’re injured and seeking compensation, an adjuster might say you’re partly to blame and deny the claim. He’ll say you had a headlight out, or stopped too fast. Perhaps you’re not like J.D. (whose story is told in Part I and Part II), who wouldn’t take no for an answer. It’s so easy to get talked out of your rights. After all, they are the experts. They handle personal injury claims like yours every day.  But J.D. hired a personal injury lawyer–someone who was really on her side. It didn’t take long for the lawyer to gather evidence the insurance company didn’t bother to collect. Once a capable personal injury lawyer put the case together, the insurance company paid the claim. J.D. got a new wheelchair, and was able to get the therapy she needed. She regained her independence. Insurance companies are expert at many things. One is selling insurance. Another is not paying claims if they can possibly find a way not to. They are not like your doctor or your personal injury lawyer, for whom the duty to help you is what comes first.
Contributory negligence (we sometimes call it contrib) deprives people of legitimate compensation. It’s an un-lottery for plaintiffs. One percent inattention on your own part, and no matter how good your case is against the other guy, no matter how drunk or sleepy he was, or how fast he was driving that tractor trailer in the dark, you and your family could lose out—that’s the law.
Plus, it’s a win for all insurers, regardless of whether the defendant holds a winning ticket. It’s always looming, affecting offers and settlements of perfectly legitimate claims. Contrib puts a stranglehold on the entire system.
Maryland is one of only five American jurisdictions* where nearly every wrongdoer holds this free un-lottery ticket. For insurers, it's always payday. The best way to undo the Maryland un-lottery is to hire a reputable personal injury lawyer. That’s what J.D. did. For more, check our resources page.
*The others are D.C., Alabama, North Carolina and Virginia.
September 13, 2008 12:57 AM
Abuse of the contributory negligence defense by insurers is only one of the reasons why, in virtually every claim involving personal injuries, it’s essential to consult a personal injury lawyer right away. This is Part II of the story of J.D., whose motorized wheelchair was demolished when a careless automobile driver turned into her path late one day as she wheeled herself across Cold Spring Lane.
As part of her personal injuries claim, J.D. pleaded in vain with the driver’s insurer to replace her wrecked wheelchair. Although they had dropped their ludicrous jaywalking defense (see Part I ), the insurer next said J.D.’s chair lacked reflectors, so she was “contributorily negligent.” The two dreaded words. They wouldn't pay a dime.
Crucial weeks had passed. The road had been cleared of debris. Who could tell if J.D.’s wheelchair lost its reflectors when it was smashed? J.D. couldn’t answer that, but she knew what she had to do next. She called a personal injury lawyer, who recognized how important it was to get the remaining evidence fast. The attorney visited J.D. at home, then ventured to the intersection where the debacle had taken place. The owner of the corner liquor store was on duty that day, as he had been the day J.D. was injured. He had sheltered the mangled wheelchair, hoping someone might be able to fix it for her. Luckily, the chair was still in his stockroom.
Here's what the gentleman said:
“The insurance company sent a guy to look at the chair. I thought they were here to take it, but apparently all they did was look at it.
“I wasn’t here then. But I saw what happened the day of the accident. I was just coming in and saw the guy careen around that corner. Boy, I thought she was a goner….
"Nope, he didn’t have his lights on.”
Aha, thought the personal injury lawyer. What good are reflectors at dusk if the guy who hits you doesn’t have his headlights on?
In Part III, I’ll tell you how it ended, and explain why contributory negligence is the un-lottery of personal injury. We'll also be posting more on our resources page about “contrib.” It's a tricky and unfair defense that is used to deny compensation to thousands of deserving claimants, including lots of people who think they don't need a personal injury lawyer.
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