{"id":2726,"date":"2025-04-14T08:26:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T12:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/definition-of-prima-facie\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T08:27:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T12:27:14","slug":"definition-of-prima-facie","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/maryland-law-update\/definition-of-prima-facie\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Prima Facie Case of Negligence?"},"content":{"rendered":"

At first glance, the phrase prima facie<\/em> sounds like something pulled from a dusty law school textbook\u2014Latin jargon with little practical meaning. But this term has real power for plaintiffs, especially in personal injury and civil rights cases. It is the legal foundation that can decide whether your case gets to a jury or gets thrown out before it even begins.<\/p>\n

This page\u00a0explains what a\u00a0prima facie case is, why it matters, and how Maryland courts treat this concept in practice. We will explain how it applies to<\/span>\u00a0negligence claims, what makes a claim strong enough to survive summary judgment, and how Maryland courts have handled it over the years\u2014from century-old case law to modern rulings involving everyday car crashes.<\/p>\n

Understanding prima facie<\/em> is not just for lawyers. It is about knowing the rules of the courtroom\u2014rules that can determine whether your voice gets heard. Whether you are suing a negligent driver, a school that failed to protect your child, or a powerful institution that enabled abuse, establishing a prima facie<\/em> case is often the first\u2014and most important\u2014legal hurdle.<\/p>\n

Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At first glance, the phrase prima facie sounds like something pulled from a dusty law school textbook\u2014Latin jargon with little practical meaning. But this term has real power for plaintiffs, especially in personal injury and civil rights cases. It is the legal foundation that can decide whether your case gets to a jury or gets […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":2708,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2726","page","type-page","status-publish"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Is a Prima Facie Case of Negligence? | Latin Meaning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is a prima facie case? Learn what a prima facie case of negligence mean is and why it is important.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/maryland-law-update\/definition-of-prima-facie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Is a Prima Facie Case of Negligence? | Latin Meaning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is a prima facie case? Learn what a prima facie case of negligence mean is and why it is important.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/maryland-law-update\/definition-of-prima-facie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Plaintiff Attorney Legal Information Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-14T12:27:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Is a Prima Facie Case of Negligence? | Latin Meaning","description":"What is a prima facie case? Learn what a prima facie case of negligence mean is and why it is important.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/maryland-law-update\/definition-of-prima-facie\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Is a Prima Facie Case of Negligence? | Latin Meaning","og_description":"What is a prima facie case? Learn what a prima facie case of negligence mean is and why it is important.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/maryland-law-update\/definition-of-prima-facie\/","og_site_name":"Plaintiff Attorney Legal Information Center","article_modified_time":"2025-04-14T12:27:14+00:00","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/maryland-law-update\/definition-of-prima-facie\/","url":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/maryland-law-update\/definition-of-prima-facie\/","name":"What Is a Prima Facie Case of Negligence? | Latin Meaning","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-04-14T12:26:18+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-14T12:27:14+00:00","description":"What is a prima facie case? Learn what a prima facie case of negligence mean is and why it is important.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/maryland-law-update\/definition-of-prima-facie\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/maryland-law-update\/definition-of-prima-facie\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/maryland-law-update\/definition-of-prima-facie\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Maryland Law Update | Personal Injury Appellate Opinions","item":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/maryland-law-update\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Prima Facie"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/","name":"Plaintiff Attorney Legal Information Center","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2726"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2726\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5778,"href":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2726\/revisions\/5778"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.millerandzois.com\/professional-attorney-information-center\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}