A Personal Injury Liability Primer
You could file a lawsuit if someone else’s carelessness or that of a business caused your accident-related injuries. Personal injury cases are intended to assist individuals in obtaining compensation for their medical expenses, lost wages, and bodily pain and suffering. Before seeking a Maryland personal injury lawsuit, you should know a few crucial guidelines. This is why consulting with a lawyer familiar with personal injury lawsuit rules is critical.
Statute of Limitations
If the negligent actions of another party injured you, you might be eligible to file a personal injury lawsuit to recover damages. But before you do, you must know how long you must file a claim under Maryland law.
In the state of Maryland, most personal injury lawsuits must be filed within three years from the date the incident occurred. Known as the “statute of limitations,” this deadline ensures that legal proceedings occur while necessary evidence is fresh so that witnesses can be located and critical records remain intact.
If you are still determining when your case is eligible to be filed, it’s best to consult with an experienced personal injury attorney. They can explain how the statute of limitations works and help you understand if your case qualifies for an extension of time.
Waiver of Liability
If you want to avoid the time, effort, and expense of a legal case, you can sign a liability waiver. This document is often used for activities that involve risk or potential harm, such as going down a rollercoaster or renting out canoes.
The Waiver of Liability protects the party signing it from suing for damages if injured due to the company’s negligence. However, it can be invalidated if the plaintiff proves the company engaged in gross negligence or reckless behavior.
In Maryland, personal injury claims can be filed based on negligence. Proving negligence requires the plaintiff to show that the defendant acted with careless or reckless conduct that directly caused the injury. This can be done through both causes, in fact, and proximate causation.
Medical Expert Testimony
Medical experts can be invaluable witnesses in personal injury lawsuits. They can provide expert testimony about your injuries that will help to prove the number of damages you are owed and the causation of those damages.
Maryland Rule 5-702 governs the admission of such expert testimony at trial. It states that the court must determine: Whether the witness is qualified as an expert, appropriate to the particular issue at hand, and whether a sufficient factual basis exists to support their proffered testimony.
Medical experts must have solid clinical credentials to ensure credibility from record review through deposition and trial testimony. This includes being board certified in their specialty and active clinical practice.
Jury Deliberation
Jury deliberation is the process, gathered from a pool of potential jurors, that considers a case and concludes whether or not the defendant should be liable for a plaintiff’s claimed injuries. Reaching a verdict may take several hours, days, or weeks.
In a personal injury trial, the plaintiff and defendant’s goal is to have the jury agree on a sum of money to compensate a person for their alleged injuries fairly. This includes medical bills, lost wages, and in some cases, pain and suffering.
The jury will then determine how much the plaintiff should be awarded for these damages based on the evidence and law presented. In that case, This is a difficult task because it requires the jury to imagine how they would feel if they had the same injuries as the plaintiff and decide on a dollar amount that would be fair.