Articles Posted in Car Accidents

As the Internet Age continues to evolve, so too does the practice of personal injury law. One of the most significant advancements in recent years is the use of digital mapping and satellite imaging tools like Google Earth in proving liability in car accident cases. These tools have become indispensable to the modern personal injury lawyer’s “toolkit,” offering unprecedented access to visual evidence that can make or break a case.

What is Google Earth

Google Earth is a computer-based mapping platform that allows users to view high-resolution images of nearly any location on Earth. These images come from NASA’s Landsat satellites and other sources and provide a detailed bird’s-eye view of streets, intersections, highways, and terrain. Users can zoom in, rotate views, and even “stand” in a location using Street View, giving a real-world perspective from a desktop screen.

Most personal injury lawyers are well aware that “red light” auto accident cases are difficult to settle. Anytime we get an auto tort case involving an intersection with a traffic light, we know we will probably need to file suit and possibly go to trial to get fair compensation for the client. The simple reason for this is that insurance companies are more likely to dispute liability in intersection accidents. In this post we will look at the best strategies and approaches for navigating the liability battleground in red light accident cases.

Insurance Companies Often Contest Liability in Red Light Accident Cases

In most auto accident tort cases, it is obvious which driver was at fault for the accident, and their insurance company never bothers to dispute liability. Instead, insurance adjusters tend to focus on disputing the extent or validity of the plaintiffs’ injuries or the amount of their damages. Roughly 80% of auto tort cases fall into this category, where liability is undisputed.

In this post, we will look at the effectiveness of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) as a surgical option for the treatment of chronic back pain. ACDF is a special type of back surgery in which a spinal disc is actually removed in order to relieve nerve root pressure and eliminate chronic pain.

This post will help you understand how epidural steroid injections impact the settlement compensation payouts in motor vehicle accident cases where the victim suffers a herniated or bulging disc.

A disc herniation is a disc injury frequently caused by car accidents. The impact of a car accident often exerts significant force and pressure on the spine. This pressure can cause a tear, rupture, or bulge of the spinal discs, which act as pads or cushions for the spine. Epidural steroid injections, often called corticosteroid injections or epidural steroid injections, are commonly used to reduce inflammation and alleviate pain in various areas of the body, including the back.

The question many victims have is how much epidural steroid injections increase settlement amounts and jury payouts. Our lawyers give insight into how compensation is calculated in these cases.

Spinal fusion surgery significantly increases the potential value of any back injury claim.  Our Maryland personal injury lawyers see a lot of back injuries, and we have seen first-hand how spinal fusion surgery can double or triple the settlement value of these cases.

This post looks at lumbar spinal fusion settlements and verdicts in cases where the victim was required to undergo spinal fusion surgery in their back.

Back Injury Lawsuits

Insurance companies do not think the way you and I think. But, by understanding how insurance adjusters think and what is important to them, you can maximize how much money you receive in a personal injury case.  The goal of this post is to show you how to get more money from the insurance adjuster.

What Is the Insurance Adjuster’s Goal?

Insurance adjusters are trained to rip you off.

In this post, our Baltimore personal injury lawyers will discuss lawsuits involving bus accidents and taxi accidents. More bus, taxi, and MTA accidents happen in Baltimore City than in any other part of Maryland. The obvious reason for this is the urban geography and social demographics of Baltimore make bus and taxi transportation more common than in other areas. (In 2021, we are obviously seeing tons of Uber and Lyft cases.)

Bus Accident Cases in Baltimore

Bus transportation on MTA is the primary means of public transportation in Baltimore. Our subway and light rail systems are very limited which makes MTA buses the only viable option for most people in the city. Our accident lawyers have handled a number of major accident cases involving MTA buses over the years.

Distracted driving is a big thing these days thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and the millions of people in the U.S. who are hopelessly addicted to using them. As recently as 10 years ago, distracted driving was not really even a “thing.”

As of 2021, however, distracted driving claims an estimated 3,000 lives each year, and states across the U.S. have enacted targeted laws making it illegal. In this post, we will explain what impact a ticket for distracted driving could have on your auto insurance rates.

Does a Distracted Driving Ticket Affect Your Car Insurance?

In Williams v. Baltimore City, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland examined the establishment of actual or constructive notice.

The court found that the mere fact that a municipality knows of a defective hydrant does not ordinarily include notice of a particular danger. Rather, there must be actual or constructive notice of a particular defect that caused the injury.

The court concluded that there was no error in granting summary judgment in favor of the municipality because the plaintiff failed to produce sufficient evidence that a leaking hydrant created a dangerous roadway condition that caused her accident, even though the plaintiff did provide evidence that the hydrant itself was defective.

The Maryland Court of Appeals is still working during the coronavirus shutdown.  The court put out a new opinion Monday in Nationwide v. Shilling that addressed the question of when the 3-year statute of limitations begins to run on a claim for underinsured motorist benefits.

The gist of the court’s holding is good for plaintiffs.  The court found that a claim for underinsured motorist benefits is basically a breach of contract action. So the statute of limitations begins to run when the insurance carrier breaches the contract by denying the insured’s UIM claim.  Our lawyers have always interpreted the law this way.  But we always pretended that the statute of limitations was not extended because even having to fight this issue and win is not worth the trouble of not fighting the issue at all.

But this case has dicta that has two big problems that are very troubling with respect to the insurance company’s ability to modify the statute of limitations in uninsured motorist cases by putting a different statute of limitations in their contracts.  This would be a disaster and lead to a ton of litigation over any issue that is well understood by everyone.