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Serving Injury & Accident Victims
in Maryland, Virginia, and DC
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Legal jargon can often be perplexing, leading to misconceptions and confusion, particularly when it comes to distinguishing between torts and crimes. These terms are frequently misunderstood and wrongly interchanged with one another. However, by delving into the basics of each field of law, we can gain clarity on the disparities between torts and crimes. In this article, we aim to set the record straight and provide you with a comprehensive understanding of both legal domains.
A tort refers to a breach of an individual’s civil rights, where one party’s negligence directly causes harm to another person or their property. Various types of torts exist, but all of them lead to personal injury or property damage.
Negligence stands as the primary cause of most torts, although there are significant differences between unintentional and intentional torts. Unintentional torts occur when someone sustains injuries due to a defective product or another person’s pet, for instance. On the other hand, intentional torts encompass actions like defamation of character or battery. Injured parties typically file lawsuits against the tortfeasor (the individual responsible for the tort) to seek compensation for damages caused by their negligent behavior.
Intentional torts are often mistaken for crimes since they sometimes align with criminal conduct. However, if an injured individual decides to pursue compensation, the case is presented in a civil court rather than a criminal court, classifying it as a tort. Various examples of torts can be found within the realm of personal injury law, including car accidents, medical malpractice, product liability, workplace accidents, and a multitude of other practice areas.
For instance, if a drunk driver causes bodily harm and property damage to another individual in an accident, the act of drinking and driving constitutes the crime, while the injuries sustained by the victim become the tort.
Torts are deemed illegal due to the following reasons:
Crimes encompass a broad range of offenses that have an impact on society as a whole. They are identified and prosecuted through a state’s legal system, following the laws and procedures of its criminal courts. In many personal injury cases, the injured party is technically viewed as a representation of society, and the criminal laws violated were established to safeguard its members.
Crimes are always tried in criminal courts, and the punishment is determined according to the framework defined by the state’s criminal laws. Criminal acts defy the laws enacted to maintain peace and protect the welfare of all individuals.
Crimes are considered illegal due to the following reasons:
As seasoned injury and accident attorneys in Silver Spring, Bowie, College Park, Landover, and Upper Marlboro, we have gained expertise in personal injury law throughout our combined decades
We understand how difficult it can be to determine your best course of legal action when you’re involved in an accident of any kind, which is why our personal injury attorneys always offer free consultations so you can provide us with the details of your case and we can begin taking the necessary first steps towards legal recourse.
So contact us at our Silver Spring or Baltimore offices today to see how we can help you or your loved ones receive the compensation you rightfully deserve!
Truck underride accidents are some of the most horrific car accidents that can end up causing devastating injuries and death. An underride truck accident occurs when a smaller vehicle collides into the back or side of a commercial tractor-trailer and ends up sliding underneath. Underride accidents are considered to be among the most fatal roadway accidents, attributing to more than 300 yearly deaths in the United States.
What’s so scary about underride collisions is that it’s very common for the roof of a car to be completely sheared off when it slides underneath a tractor-trailer. Our team of MD truck Accident Attorneys is here to support you and your family after these horrific types of collisions, and we understand that your legal strategies aren’t something you’d want to worry about when recovering from a serious injury or wrongful death in the family.
On this page, we’re going to discuss the types of underride collisions and the Truck Underride Act of 2017 so you can have a better understanding of the regulations involved within the commercial trucking industry, and why these regulations are so important for all of our safety.
If you or a loved one was unfortunately involved in a truck underride collision, then you’re going to need legal assistance right away. Contact us today for a free consultation so we can go over the details of the accident and begin the necessary steps towards developing a successful legal strategy.
There are 2 types of truck underride accidents, including:
Weather conditions are also a major underlying factor that leads up to many underride accidents. When cars spin out of control due to slippery road conditions they can end up sliding under a nearby commercial truck.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has conducted tests that show the benefit of side underride guards, but lawmakers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) still haven’t fully committed to requiring side guards on commercial tractor trailers. However, rear guards have been mandated since 1998.
The Stop Underrides Act of 2017 was a proposed bill that established the requirement for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to issue a rule that enforces the implementation and maintenance of both rear and side underride guards for all commercial tractor-trailers. The proposed law also states the necessity for a study oriented around front underride guards that will help prevent trucks from overriding passenger vehicles.
The bill also requires pre-trip and post-accident inspections by commercial vehicle drivers and their respective companies.
As of today there still are not requirements for side guards on commercial tractor-trailers, but the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has made official recommendations that every new trailer has side guards installed. What’s strange about this issue is that the proposed bill has been criticized by the American Trucking Association (ATA) and throughout the trucking industry for ignoring potential technical issues.
What’s important about this incredibly vital roadway safety issue is that there’s a real necessity to update the overall standards of rear guards for all commercial vehicles, and they’re also needs to be legitimate rules for side guards that can save countless lives.
Lawmakers have been working to make side guards a priority for trucking manufacturers even before they can officially turn this requirement into legislation, but for now, the safety of our roadways is still in jeopardy.
If you or a loved one was involved in a truck underride accident or any kind of truck accident, reach out to us for a free consultation so we can go over the details of your case and begin the initial steps towards securing justice for you and your family.
Our attorneys are here to help you fight for your rightful compensation, and our team of Silver Spring, Bowie, College Park, Landover and Upper Marlboro Injury & Accident Attorneys have the experience to provide you with the very best results possible after such a traumatizing roadway experience.
Truck accidents are unfortunately very common throughout Maryland, Virginia and the D.C. area, and all of these cases involve large commercial vehicles that can create very dangerous injuries when involved in collisions. We understand how truck accident victims keep compensation recovery as a to priority, and how difficult it is to even imagine fully absorbing all of your medical costs, lost wages, future costs and other damages.
Health insurance coverage will only go so far, and you’ll undoubtedly need support when it comes to obtaining the necessary financial resources for physical rehabilitation, your overall trauma coping, any necessary home renovations to assist with long-term disabilities and so much more. We are more than confident that our MD truck accident attorneys will help you determine all your damages after a truck accident, but before we do that we have to undoubtedly prove which party/entity was responsible for the crash.
Determining liability within truck accidents is a lot easier said than done because these are such complex personal injury cases, so on this page, we are going to dive into the finer details that you should know about when it comes to determining liable parties so you can better understand how to file valid claims.
If you or a loved one was injured as a result of a truck accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence, then you should contact us for a free consultation so we can go over the details of how your accident happened and begin the initial steps of our own comprehensive, independent investigation.
There’s no doubt about it that truck accidents are much different than typical car collisions, which is why they require a somewhat different legal approach. First of all, there are several more regulations and laws that are important considerations when it comes to truck accidents. This is partly because both state and federal laws come into play when regulating the entire trucking industry.
It’s also important to understand that there are some situations in which a driver’s negligence was not the root cause of a trucking accident, and some factors may make a business entity the liable party in these types of personal injury cases. Liability in trucking accidents simply could fall on several different parties, and sometimes multiple parties per claim.
Our team of experienced personal injury attorneys has handled these types of cases before and knows how to properly investigate a trucking accident to fully decipher who caused your injuries. Some common defendants in trucking accident claims that could be held liable include the following:
We’ll always make sure we are using much more than just police and witness reports when conducting our investigations. One thing we always do in these cases is looking through a truck driver’s required logs that detail their hours have driven/worked, as well as the vehicle’s maintenance records and reviews.
All of these additional documents can help better determine the proper liable party within a trucking accident claim. We understand the necessary processes that are required when it comes to properly request and reviewing these pieces of evidence while we are working diligently to fully establish the liability involved with your truck accident case.
Other pieces of evidence we’ll gather to help prove negligence and overall liability include:
Insurance policies tend to be much different for commercial trucks, so it’s always crucial to have an experienced truck accident lawyer on your side who knows how to negotiate with insurance providers and other lawyers when it comes to the magnitude of damage recovery that’s typically associated with trucking accidents.
Once you’ve been able to successfully establish liability within a trucking accident, it’s then necessary to establish what damages you’ve sustained. Some of these damages can include:
We understand how truck accident injuries can ultimately have a devastating effect on a victim’s life, which is why our team of Silver Spring, Bowie, College Park, Landover and Upper Marlboro Injury & Accident Attorneys are here to help you maintain financial security while you recover from your injuries. Every truck accident case is unique, so we’ll be ready to put in the necessary investigation to help you fully determine who was liable for your accident and who owes you your rightful compensation.
Don’t hesitate to contact us for a free consultation if you have any questions or concerns about how you can be successful in your truck accident case.
Moderate to serious traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) will almost always have very intense effects on the victims who endure such debilitating accidents. These effects tend to have lasting impacts on victims within a variety of routine behavior, which is why these personal injury cases tend to deal with the loss of quality of life.
On this page, we’re going to explain the many different long-term effects of TBIs and how they affect a patient and their loved ones’ lives. By going through this list of effects you’ll be able to better understand the many symptoms and side effects associated with TBIs, and the proper treatment procedures as well.
Our team has handled countless TBI cases, so we know just how crucial it is for accident victims and their loved ones to be compensated for the damages that persist potentially for a lifetime. If you or a loved one, unfortunately, has suffered from a traumatic brain injury, then you should reach out to us for a free consultation so we can better understand the circumstances of the injury and put you in the best situation to be financially secure throughout the recovery process.
Your brain is always going to immediately work to repair any tissue or internal damage when you’ve sustained a really serious head injury. While some of these restoration processes are effective through the use of direct treatments within the first six months of recovery, there are many instances in which some parts of the brain simply cannot fully heal.
These troublesome cranial areas sometimes will see the progressive decline, which typically results in long-term or even life-long symptoms and general effects. Of course, there are also long-term social and emotional effects that tend to occur within TBI patients that should never be ignored.
The following are some of the long-term effects associated with TBIs:
If there’s anything the medical field knows for sure about TBIs, it’s that there tend to be many different persistent physical problems that occur after these types of head injuries. Here are some of the more common physical complications that TBI patients may potentially face:
Headaches tend to be very frequent, if not daily when someone suffers from a serious TBI. What’s worse is that studies have also shown that migraines and headache symptoms can sometimes become worse as time goes along.
The six-month mark typically tends to be a crucial point in the recovery process in which medical professionals can have a pretty good understanding as to whether or not chronic headaches will continue for years or even forever within a patient.
Headaches are physical symptoms that sometimes even persist after a TBI patient is considered fully recovered, so this is by far one of the most common long-term effects of TBIs.
Dizziness is a very common symptom of TBIs, and about one-third of TBI patients experience dizziness for a minimum of five years after their injury. But, what’s important to know about dizziness is that over time it’s likely to improve.
All types of sensory complaints are very common within serious TBI patients, and there are many instances in which this symptom ends up being a long-term problem. The medical terms for these sensitivities are phonophobia and photophobia, and about 25% of TBI patients undergo these sensitivities even a year after their injury.
These sensitivities, like other long-term symptoms, are lifelong concerns.
Patients’ eyes are sometimes greatly impacted by TBIs, which can sometimes lead to the general inability to focus properly when looking at something close by. TBIs can also lead to visual issues that make a patient’s vision blurry or have double vision.
As TBIs increase in severity, it’s generally more likely for the patient to undergo mental and physical fatigue more easily. Fatigue is a physical ailment that tends to have emotional symptoms as well, which can have a ripple effect on the daily life of a person throughout the TBI recovery process. Light sensitivity and other sensory issues also compound upon fatigue after a TBI.
Around 40% of TBI patients have some kind of late-stage seizures, which is a clear indication of very serious TBIs. When a patient undergoes consistent seizures for a long period of time, it can sometimes be a lifelong concern.
It’s difficult to verify whether or not seizures that occur briefly after an injury are still linked to epileptic attacks years later, but seizures are nonetheless a very serious and frightening long-term effect of TBIs.
There are also many types of psychological and emotional effects associated with TBIs, some of which could potentially develop years after the initial accident.
One of the most common of these issues is overall memory problems, which is known to last for multiple years within about 45% of TBI patients. It’s safe to say that there are mental improvements overtime for all TBI patients, but of course, there are situations in which these types of effects can persist for decades or even a lifetime.
Some long-term, non-physical effects include:
Irritability tends to be a very common effect of TBIs that can develop anytime during the first three years of recovery. A lot of these emotional changes are directly correlated to other physical problems like chronic pain and fatigue, so the longer the physical effects last the more likely patients will see more dramatic emotional effects as well.
This is why treating the most serious physical symptoms of TBIs is so important during the initial recovery stages.
Damage within the brain is always a major concern for serious TBI patients, which can end up leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia later in life. There aren’t any clear statistics about the likelihood of TBI patients acquiring these diseases, but in general, the experts say that TBI patients are at the highest risk of these very debilitating mental disorders.
It should never be surprised that a TBI can potentially have a dramatic effect on a patient’s overall quality of life, and the following are some important factors to consider:
There is no denying the fact that people who’ve suffered from a serious TBI are more likely to pass away due to some related complications to their injury. It’s also very unfortunate that depression and other psychiatric issues lead to higher risks of suicide amongst TBI patients.
Older TBI patients are also more susceptible to serious issues like sepsis, pneumonia, dementia and Alzheimer’s. Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is also something that tends to happen for those who have undergone serious TBIs, which has recently been highlighted as an issue within the NFL and other professional sporting leagues.
But, we must also recognize that medical professionals have done a wonderful job in recent years to decrease TBI patient mortality rates in recent years, and this trend appears to be continuing to improve.
People who suffer from serious TBIs are much more likely to have difficulty getting back in the workforce than those who suffer mild TBIs, and a recent study showed that only about one-third of TBI patients had a full-time job several years after their injury.
This is a big reason why it’s so important to recover all of the necessary damages within a TBI personal injury lawsuit because there almost always is a serious struggle for financial security after these types of injuries.
It’s rather rare that TBI patients are capable of fully participating in the same activities that they did prior to their injury, and what’s very sad is that the many persistent physical ailments to TBIs tend to lead to social isolation. Social isolation has been known to contribute to a loss of quality of life in many TBI patients.
One of the most important considerations when it comes to TBIs is to never give up, and there are always going to be countless medical and social resources that are available for TBI patients to assist them through the recovery process.
But it goes without saying that this type of recovery process is not easy on an injury victim and their family, which is why our team of Silver Spring, Bowie, College Park, Landover and Upper Marlboro Injury & Accident Attorneys is here to help you in recovering all the necessary compensation for the long-term damages that may last a lifetime.
If you or a loved one has endured a traumatic brain injury in an accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence, then you need to contact us immediately for a free consultation so we can begin the first steps towards your financial security.
When you go to trial for any type of personal injury claim, eye and expert witnesses can make or break your case. Witness testimonies are very often the difference between winning a case or walking away with zero compensation, so it makes sense that choosing the right experts and on-scene witnesses can help strengthen your claim and potentially sway a judge or jury in your favor.
Our team of personal injury specialists has helped countless clients by providing expert witnesses to help explain some of the more complex elements of a case, which typically are invaluable interpretations that are instrumental in terms of fortifying any type of injury claim. Witnesses who were there at the scene of an accident will also always have the ability to support your side of the story and help explain what exactly happened.
In this page, we’ll discuss the importance of both laymen and expert witnesses, and how our team of attorneys can help you find witnesses that can ultimately be one of the defining factors in terms of receiving your rightful compensation.
If you have any questions at all about our expert witnesses or how you can utilize witness testimonies to strengthen your claim, reach out to us for a free consultation so we can review your case and help you determine what’s available to you in terms of your legal options.
When it comes to layman witnesses, these people typically need to have actually seen the accident occur, but witnesses can also be anyone who arrived on an accident scene moments afterward and simply noticed your injuries and overall damages.
Witnesses can also be anyone who simply heard one of the cases involved parties talking about the accident in a way that implied that the fault of the accident was on someone other than you.
It’s important to remain as polite as possible when you are talking to people who were at the scene of your accident, and if they’re unwilling to talk to you for whatever reasoning you shouldn’t push them because there isn’t much you can do except potentially file a subpoena, which hopefully isn’t necessary.
If a witness does agree to cooperate and talk to you, then you should write down their name, phone number and address. This is one of the many reasons why you should always carry a car accident diary, and it will always go a long way if you can paraphrase a written statement from the witness as soon as possible and then send a typed copy to them to review, sign and return to you. The same goes for video statements as well, which also need to be reviewed and verified later on by the witness.
A lot of witnesses want to help people out in terms of proving who was at fault for an accident, but many people simply are wary about getting too involved. If you can make it easier for witnesses to have their perspective officially heard then you might have a better chance at obtaining multiple witnesses that can corroborate what happened on your behalf.
Expert witnesses are always renowned professionals in their respective industries, and they have the education, experience and specialized training to be able to provide legitimate evidence for your personal injury claim. These types of witnesses are very important when there are no eyewitnesses to a specific accident scene, but they are also an essential aspect of a case’s success for several other crucial purposes.
A witness is considered an expert when they possess some of the following attributes:
The types of experts you’ll need will depend upon the facts involved within your case, and some experts called in personal injury cases include the following examples:
There are certain parameters around utilizing expert testimonies in court, and these testimonies must include the following:
It’s also important to state that a layperson testimony is limited in that they are only allowed to talk about some of a case’s facts, and their testimonies are typically limited to their own opinions. Only expert witnesses can testify to things like the scientific and technical elements of a case.
Expert witnesses can help strengthen personal injury claims in a whole variety of ways, including the following very important elements:
If you or a loved one was injured in any type of accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence, then layman and expert witnesses will be able to provide a lot of valuable evidence to help support your claim. DuBoff & Associates has been able to build a successful track record with our three decades of experience as a leading personal injury firm in the Maryland, Virginia and D.C. areas.
Our attorneys will always work diligently to strengthen your case and secure your maximum, rightful compensation. Schedule a free consultation today to talk to one of our experts about your case, and what your legal options are.