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Serving Injury & Accident Victims
in Maryland, Virginia, and DC

Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer

Accidents and injuries happen in the blink of an eye, but they can change your life forever. One moment, life is normal. The next moment, you are in pain, your mobility may be reduced, and you may not be able to work or engage in beloved hobbies or activities.

Making things worse, those who have suffered a serious injury often find themselves in a situation where they are facing large medical bills without the ability to earn the income required to pay those bills.

The situation can seem impossible, but at times like these, you do have a champion to stand and fight for you. The Maryland personal injury attorneys at the law firm of DuBoff & Associates, Chartered are prepared to fight for you as if you were family. We pride ourselves on treating every one of our clients with the compassion, respect, and dedication they deserve.

Can I File a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

After an accident – such as a motor vehicle collision, slip and fall, or another type of accident – you may find that your life has been turned upside down. You may be dealing with lost wages, medical bills, physical pain, and emotional distress from the accident. While filing a personal injury claim won’t make you whole again, it can provide you with the money that you need to move forward.

In Maryland, personal injury lawsuits are typically based on a theory of negligence, which is a type of carelessness. A person is negligent if they fail to exercise the level of care that a reasonable person would in a similar situation.

You may be able to file a personal injury claim against another person (the at-fault party or defendant) if you can prove four things:

  1. The defendant had a duty to protect you from injury;
  2. The defendant breached (violated) that duty;
  3. You (the plaintiff) suffered actual injury or loss (damages); and
  4. Your injuries were the result of the defendant’s breach (causation).

In practical terms, proving negligence means showing that the at-fault party either did or failed to do something, and that caused you harm. For example, if another driver ran a red light and t-boned your car, causing you to suffer injuries, they may be considered negligent.

In a personal injury case, you may be able to recover financial compensation for all of your damages. This may include economic damages for specific financial losses and non-economic damages for intangible losses. In rare cases – when you can show that a defendant acted intentionally or recklessly – punitive damages may be available.

Depending on the specific type of harm that you have suffered, you may be entitled to money for:

  • Property damage
  • Lost wages
  • Medical bills, including counseling and physical therapy
  • Reduced earning capacity
  • Future medical expenses
  • Pain and suffering
  • Emotional trauma
  • Scarring
  • Disfigurement
  • Loss of enjoyment of life.

A seasoned Maryland personal injury attorney can work with you to help you understand the damages available in your case. During a free initial consultation, they will explain your legal options and give you an estimate of the value of your case.

What Is the Timeline to Settlement?

Personal injury claims are typically resolved through settlement. Studies show that the vast majority of cases do not go to trial. The amount of time that it takes to settle a personal injury claim depends on a number of factors.

If you decide to hire a personal injury law firm, they will get to work right away investigating your case. This may involve interviewing witnesses, requesting medical records, getting an accident report, and researching case law. Once your lawyer has put together a strong case, they will send a demand letter to the at-fault party’s insurance company.

This starts the negotiation process. The insurance company will typically respond with a counteroffer, and each side will go back and forth until they can agree on a final settlement number. This process could take as little as a few months.

However, there may be situations where it may be necessary to file a lawsuit, particularly in cases where the insurance company isn’t willing to offer fair compensation. Filing a lawsuit does not mean that your case will go to trial. Instead, it allows you to preserve your legal rights while continuing negotiations.

Once a lawsuit has been filed, the insurer will have an opportunity to file an answer. Then the parties will move into the pretrial phase of litigation, which includes filing motions and exchanging information in a process known as discovery. This can help your personal injury law firm build an even stronger claim and move towards a settlement.

If a lawsuit is filed, it may take a year or longer to achieve a settlement. Alternatively, your case may go to trial, where your lawyer will make arguments, question witnesses, and introduce evidence. At the conclusion of the trial, your personal injury attorney will ask the jury to return a verdict in your favor.

How Our Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help

At DuBoff & Associates, our entire practice is dedicated to helping accident victims get top dollar for their personal injury claims. For over three decades, we have represented people just like you in all types of personal injury cases. We have the experience and practical knowledge to help our clients achieve the best possible outcome.

Our legal team takes a hands-on approach to personal injury claims. With our law firm, you’re never just a number – you’re a person. We are committed to providing high-quality, personalized service for each and every client.

Personal injury victims are often approached by insurance adjusters who promise that they accept full responsibility and will give them a fair settlement. In reality, these adjusters are looking to settle the case for as little as possible because that is how insurance companies make money. To achieve this goal, they use a variety of tactics – like trying to get you to sign away your rights before you even have a chance to talk to a lawyer.

Our law firm will protect you from underhanded insurance companies and strategies that are designed to undermine your legal rights. We will take on all communications with the insurance company and develop a strong claim for damages. You will have peace of mind knowing that your case is in good hands.

Studies show that personal injury victims recover as much as 40% more when they are represented by counsel, compared to individuals who represent themselves. Our Maryland personal injury lawyers will work with you to get you maximum compensation for your losses. We offer free consultations and handle all personal injury claims on a contingency fee basis, which means that you’ll never pay a fee unless we recover money for you.

Our team has experience in several different areas of Maryland’s personal injury law. We can help you with personal injury claims in any of the following areas:

Motor Vehicle Accident Injury Claims

According to information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there were approximately 6,452,000 motor vehicle accidents in the United States in 2017 resulting in injuries to about 2,746,000 people. When you see numbers like that, it should come as no surprise that the vast majority of personal injury cases result from auto accidents. If you or a loved one has been involved in a traffic accident in Maryland, you need the assistance of an experienced Montgomery and Baltimore Countysi-based attorney from DuBoff & Associates, Chartered. Our knowledgeable auto accident lawyers can help you:

  • Determine what to do after an auto accident
  • Determine fault in an auto accident
  • File an accident lawsuit
  • Understand the impact of auto accident injuries
  • Understand how Maryland automobile accident law works
  • Understand what to expect from the insurance companies

Furthermore, our personal injury lawyers understand how the type of vehicle involved in an accident can influence the ensuing legal battle. Trucking accident cases must be handled differently from auto accident cases, for example. DuBoff & Associates, Chartered can help clients who have been injured in a truck accident, motorcycle accident, or MTA/bus accident, as well as car accidents involving pedestrians or bicycles.

Premises Liability And Slip And Fall Accidents

The owner of any property that allows visitors, be it a residence, store, parking lot, office building, etc., is responsible for keeping that property in a state of reasonable safety for anyone that might enter it. Depending on the circumstances, this includes things such as providing proper security, keeping walkways clear and unobstructed, maintaining the building structure, repairing problems that may pose a danger such as faulty electrical or gas systems, and more.

If you have suffered a slip and fall or any other type of injury on a property other than your own and it can be proven that the owner was negligent in his or her responsibilities, you may be entitled to compensation to help you deal with your injuries and the resulting health issues, medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

Medical Malpractice Injury Claims

We trust doctors and other health care professionals with our very lives. Many people assume that any two people with a medical degree will provide the same level of care simply because they are both referred to as a doctor. Unfortunately, however, that’s not always true.

Just like in any other profession, you have those who are at the top of their game, those who just manage to get by, and those who fall somewhere in the middle. A doctor’s status can change over time as well. A medical professional that once provided excellent care may start to slip because of a lack of enthusiasm, failure to keep up with new information, or any number of other reasons. Sometimes, the end result is what we refer to as medical malpractice.

If you or a loved one have suffered any type of injury due to medical malpractice, our team can help you. Medical malpractice claims not only require the right knowledge and experience but also require the determination to stand up to big medical and insurance companies with deep pockets is also a huge factor in getting successful results.

The team at the personal injury law firm of DuBoff & Associates, Chartered has the necessary knowledge and experience with medical malpractice cases to make sure that you receive full and fair compensation if you’ve been injured as the result of negligence by a medical professional.

Product Liability Claims

According to data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, injuries and deaths caused by defective products cost society about $1 trillion per year. That works out to thousands of dollars per year for every person in the country.

In the modern globalized world, products cross borders from one country to another faster and easier than they ever have before. It’s not unusual to find a product on the shelf at a small local shop that came from a factory someplace on the other side of the world. We can order what we want from anywhere in the world using nothing more than the phones in our pockets and have it show up at our door the next day (or sooner).

This is obviously convenient in many ways, but it presents some dangers, too. Safety laws and regulations are not the same everywhere. The United States might have some of the best safety regulations in the world, but that doesn’t mean that defective or dangerous products don’t slip through and make their way onto store shelves or into website catalogs.

If you’ve been injured by a defective, mislabeled, or misrepresented product, you may be able to file a product liability claim to recover compensation for the harm caused by that product.

Nursing Home Abuse Claims

You may have made the difficult choice to place a parent, grandparent, or loved one in a nursing home because of advanced age, illness, or other special care needs. Many people trust these organizations to give family members the care they need that just can’t be provided at home. In the great majority of cases, it’s a good decision that improves the quality of life of our loved ones.

Sadly though, sometimes, in the very places we’ve entrusted with the care of our families’ sick and elderly, abuse occurs. It can take many forms. There can be mental or physical abuse, assault, unnecessary restraint, or sexual abuse.

Patients can also sometimes suffer from neglect in nursing home facilities. Whereas abuse is the result of an intentional will to cause harm, neglect is the harm caused by a lack of proper care or failure of the staff to perform their required duties. Neglect, too, can present itself in various ways.

One of the most common precursors to neglect is a nursing home employee’s reluctance to keep up with the less glamorous parts of their job. These employees knew when they took the job that they would have to do some things that most people probably wouldn’t like doing. Things such as helping others to bath, eat, drink, and use the bathroom.

Over time, some workers begin to neglect their responsibilities in this area and that neglect can manifest in patients as dehydration, malnutrition, bedsores, infections, and other serious medical conditions.

If you believe that someone in your family is suffering or has suffered from abuse or neglect in a nursing home facility, you should contact an attorney as soon as possible. Quick action is essential for preserving evidence and establishing proof. Nursing home abuse can be difficult to prove, but our team of trial lawyers has experience with these cases and can help you to recover compensation to pay for the expenses associated with treating your family member and getting them the care they deserve.

Dog Bite Injury Claims

About 5,000 dog bite injury victims turn up in Maryland hospital emergency rooms every year. Out of those, about one-third are children. That’s an average of about 13 people every single day bitten severely enough to require medical attention.

Many dog bite injuries are preventable. Most occur because the owner of the dog failed to contain or control the dog in some way. Unfortunately, though, it’s the person who received the bite(s) that will pay the price in pain, fear, and injuries.

The experience of being attacked by a dog can be scary enough, but the injuries suffered can be far worse and have long-lasting effects. All dogs have a natural instinct to target areas of the body such as the neck, face, and limbs. Worse still, some dogs will not just bite, but hold on and thrash back and forth in an attempt to tear the skin and cause more damage. Depending on the size of the dog and the person that was attacked, injuries can range from mild to incredibly severe.

Maryland law holds the dog’s owner liable for any damage done by the dog if it is running loose. There are also other circumstances that may prove other types of negligence on the part of the dog’s owner.

If you’ve been bitten by a dog, you may be able to recover compensation for medical bills, lost wages, scarring and disfigurement, psychological treatments, physical therapy, and more.

Wrongful Death Claims

Wrongful death claims are serious cases, often highly emotional, and must be handled differently from other types of personal injury cases. In Maryland, wrongful death claims can be filed by the heirs of someone that was accidentally killed as a result of the negligence of a legally liable person or entity.

There are many different factors that can be accounted for when seeking monetary compensation through a wrongful death lawsuit including, medical bills, lost wages, funeral costs, loss of consortium, and loss of companionship.

Caring And Qualified Personal Injury Lawyers

At DuBoff & Associates, Chartered, we have more than 50 years of combined experience handling all types of personal injury lawsuits. The testimonials from our past clients speak for themselves. We have a proven track record of successful results representing clients throughout the state of Maryland and Washington, D.C.

Maryland law includes a statute of limitations for how much time can pass before you can no longer file a personal injury claim. That’s why it’s important to contact qualified Maryland personal injury attorneys as soon as possible after being injured. In addition, by starting work on your case quickly, you give your attorney the greatest opportunity to investigate, gather, and preserve necessary evidence.

You can contact us online anytime or call us at 301-495-3131 to schedule an appointment for a free consultation. We’ll be happy to go over the details of your claim, give you an honest case evaluation, and discuss exactly what we can do to help you.

We are also happy to make home and hospital visits to our seriously injured clients who are unable to make it to our office and we offer evening and weekend appointments when necessary as well. We are pleased to offer free initial consultations for all personal injury cases and offer contingency fee arrangements when appropriate.

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