Personal Injury

The practice of personal injury law requires a sensitive approach and a comprehensive knowledge of liability, insurance and injury statutes. If you were badly hurt in an accident through another’s negligence, it may take aggressive legal representation to get you the financial compensation you need to pay medical bills and to compensate for your lost wages and suffering. Personal Injury cases in Maryland can be complex. Signing a release with an insurance company too soon may preclude you from future compensation if your condition worsens and/or new symptoms develop. Some injuries manifest themselves long after the accident or initial injury.   You should not face an insurance company without an experienced attorney working for you. The insurance company and their lawyer are going to try to get you to resolve the matter by paying out as little as possible. The defense attorney will be looking for technicalities to diminish the value of your case. Your attorney will sit and plan with you just what the case is actually worth, evaluating the entire situation and case as a whole.  Personal injuries can be sudden, devastating and tragic events, which can often turn into complex legal matters. Jason D. Levy works hard attempting to deliver his clients a compensation package that will insure not only your continued care and rehabilitation, but insure financial resources for you and your loved ones.

Having the right attorney on your side can even help with seeking out medical care in a timely manner. If you have been injured and have not received medical treatment, an attorney can help you find the appropriate medical care including specialists such as orthopedic surgeons, neurologist and chiropractors usually.

There are several types of damages you may want to pursue if you are injured due to someone’s negligence.

Compensatory damages are those monetary damages designed to make a victim whole.  There are two types of compensatory damages, special damages and general damages.

Special damages include  the expenses that the victim incurred as a result of the accident. Detailed record keeping of expenditures after an accident is a must. Special damages can include past medical expenses, past lost wages, future medical expenses, and future lost wages. Medical expenses have to be reasonable, necessary and casually connected to the accident for which you are making a claim. Expert testimony may  be needed to prove the causal connection between the accident and the plaintiff’s injury or condition, in order to recover past and future medical expenses.

There are two  requirements for recovering lost wages: (1) the lost wages must be actual and certain; and (2) the victim must prove that her injury impaired her from being able to work. Expert testimony is typically required to  prove that the victim is permanently disabled and that their disability will diminish their future earning capacity.

General damages or “non-economic” damages are non-pecuniary damages, on which the law is unable to place a dollar amount, but nevertheless recognizes them as compensable.  Non-economic damages include recovery for mental pain and suffering but these damages are not always recoverable.  For example, where there was no physical injury, mental pain and suffering is normally not recoverable.   An additional factor in determining pain and suffering is the aggravation of pre-existing injuries. The defendant is only responsible for the extent to which the victim pre-existing injury was aggravated by the accident.  In Maryland, non-economic damages are currently capped by statute in all personal injury cases.