Filing 10-104 Personal Injury Cases in Maryland    

   To bring a successful personal injury case in Maryland, your lawyer must provide medical testimony from a medical doctor that your treatment and medical bills were fair, reasonable, necessary, and causally related to your car, motorcycle or truck accident.   In smaller Maryland accident cases, there is a backdoor attorneys can use under Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings Code Annotated § 10-104 that allows the introduction of medical bills and records - in District or Circuit Court - without the need for expert testimony as long as the claim is under $30,000.  In cases where the injuries are such that the attorney and the client do not believe that the claim is worth more than $30,000, a 10-104 filing can save what can be the cost of having one of the Plaintiff's treating doctors to testify at trial (these doctors can charge as much as $1,000 an hour).

    To bring a 10-104 claim under Maryland law, the Plaintiff's lawyer must notify the defendant's attorney with 60 days of trial of the intention to introduce medical bills and records without a doctor's testimony, with a list and a copy of each record that the attorney wishes to introduce into evidence.

     For a sample 10-104 pleadings to introduce medical bills without the need for expert testimony, click here. To learn more about the Maryland appellate courts interpretaion of the letter and spirit of this statute that allows Maryland accident victims to introduce their medical records and bills without the need for expert medical testimony, we would suggest review of the following cases:  James vl Butler, 378 Md. 683 (2003) and the Maryland Court of Special Appeals opinion in the same case Butler v. James, 135 Md. App. 196, 761 A.2d 1036 (2000), and Singleton v. Travers, 144 Md. App. 696 (2002). 

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