Baltimore, Maryland Car Accident Lawyer

A car accident can shatter your life in moments, leaving you to cope with painful injuries, emotional trauma, and financial stress. Every day, drivers navigate busy Baltimore roadways like Interstate 695 (the Baltimore Beltway), Interstate 95, and Eastern Avenue, where heavy traffic and distracted drivers create prime conditions for serious accidents. Whether your crash occurred on U.S. Route 40 (Pulaski Highway) or near the crowded lanes of I-83 (Jones Falls Expressway), the aftermath can feel overwhelming.

At Miller & Zois, we understand the physical, emotional, and financial toll car accident cases can take on you and your loved ones. As your trusted Baltimore car accident lawyer, we are here to help you pick up the pieces. You deserve experienced legal support to hold negligent drivers accountable and seek the compensation you need to rebuild your life. Let us shoulder the legal burden so you can focus on healing

Why Choose Miller & Zois for Your Baltimore, MD Car Accident Case

Choosing the right legal team is crucial for the success of your car accident claim. At Miller & Zois, we offer unparalleled legal support and dedication to our clients. Here’s why we stand out:

• Exclusive Focus on Personal Injury: Our lawyers focus solely on personal injury cases, including serious car accidents. This focus ensures that you receive knowledgeable and experienced representation.
• Proven Track Record: With years of experience and thousands of successful cases, our firm has a history of securing substantial verdicts and settlements for our clients.
• Skilled Trial Lawyers: Every attorney at our firm is a seasoned trial lawyer with extensive courtroom experience, ensuring your case is handled with the utmost competence.
• Comprehensive Support: From accident reconstruction experts to medical specialists, we collaborate with top professionals to build a robust case on your behalf.
• No Fees Until We Win: As a 100% contingency fee firm, you pay nothing unless we secure compensation for you, making quality legal representation accessible.

When you choose Miller & Zois, you’re partnering with a team that is committed to fighting for your rights and maximizing your recovery. Let us guide you through this challenging time with compassion and trusted legal support.

Is Maryland an At-Fault State?

Yes, Maryland is an at-fault state when it comes to car accidents. This means that the driver who is found to be at fault for the accident is responsible for the resulting damages. Unlike no-fault states, where each driver’s insurance covers their own losses regardless of fault, Maryland requires the at-fault party to compensate the injured party.

Maryland also allows drivers to opt into Personal Injury Protection (PIP), a form of no-fault insurance that covers medical expenses and lost wages regardless of who caused the accident. PIP benefits can provide immediate financial relief after an accident, covering:

• Medical Expenses: Costs for ambulance services, hospital stays, surgeries, rehabilitation, and other necessary treatments.
• Lost wages: Compensation for income lost due to injury-related absence from work.

Seeking Compensation After Car Crashes

To seek compensation for your medical bills and other losses, you can:

• File a Claim with Your Insurance: If you have PIP coverage, you can receive immediate benefits without proving fault. Maryland requires insurance companies to offer a minimum of $2,500 in PIP coverage, but you can opt for higher amounts.
• File a Claim Against the At-Fault Driver’s Insurance: Pursue compensation from the other driver’s insurance company for damages exceeding your PIP coverage, including pain and suffering and property damage.
• File a Lawsuit: If a fair settlement cannot be reached, you may file a personal injury lawsuit against the responsible party. This step may be necessary, especially in cases involving severe injuries or significant losses.

An experienced auto accident lawyer from Miller & Zois can help you understand your options and choose the best path to maximize your compensation.

Do I Have a Car Accident Case in Baltimore, Maryland?

Determining whether you have a viable car accident case hinges on the concept of negligence. Negligence is the foundation of most personal injury claims and involves proving that another party failed to exercise reasonable care, resulting in your injuries. To establish negligence in a Baltimore car accident case, four key elements must be proven:

1. Duty of Care: All drivers have a legal obligation to operate their vehicles safely, obey traffic laws, and consider the safety of others on the road. This duty extends to pedestrians, cyclists, and other motorists.
2. Breach of Duty: A breach occurs when a driver violates this duty through actions such as speeding on Pratt Street, running a red light at a busy intersection like Light and Lombard Streets, driving under the influence near Federal Hill, or texting while driving along the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.
3. Causation: You must demonstrate that the driver’s breach of duty directly caused the accident and your injuries. This involves establishing a clear link between their negligent behavior and the harm you suffered.
4. Damages: Finally, you must have sustained actual damages as a result of the accident. This includes medical expenses from treatment at facilities like Johns Hopkins Hospital or the University of Maryland Medical Center, lost wages from missed work, property damage, and non-economic damages like pain and suffering.

If these elements can be established, you likely have a strong basis for filing a car accident claim and seeking compensation for your losses.

A Baltimore, Maryland Car Accident Claim Is About Compensation

Any auto accident claim aims to get compensation for the harm done to you. You wish the crash had never occurred. But now you also want as much compensation as the law allows for the medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, as well as other harms and losses you have suffered.

Our experienced car accident attorneys in Maryland can do this for you. We fight with our power and experience to help you get the maximum compensation possible. Our law firm’s track record of settlements and verdicts demonstrates our history of doing this in Baltimore car accidents.

Damages for an Auto Accident in Baltimore, MD

Under Maryland auto tort law, a negligent driver who causes an accident can be held liable for all the harm caused by the accident. Injury victims in Maryland auto accident claims are entitled to recover damages for the following:

Lost Income

Maryland personal injury plaintiffs are entitled to compensation for any wages or income lost from injuries sustained in the car crash. This includes both past and future lost wages/income. Lost income is also available for some family members in wrongful death cases.

Medical Expenses from Car Accidents

Plaintiffs can recover damages from the at-fault party’s insurance company for any past or future medical expenses incurred due to the accident. Maryland follows the collateral source rule. This rule allows claimants to recover damages for all medical expenses even if the medical bills were covered by insurance, most notably, personal injury protection (PIP) coverage.

Pain and Suffering in Car Accidents

Our Baltimore car accident lawyers think pain and suffering is what injury cases are really about. Pain and suffering is the most significant harm in any accident case. This is money to compensate the car accident victim of a motor vehicle accident for the amount of physical and mental suffering caused by their injuries. The more severe and painful the injury, the more pain and suffering damages. The judge or jury determines pain and suffering damages if a case goes to trial.

How Long Do You Have to File a Baltimore Car Accident Lawsuit?

Maryland imposes a time limit on how long prospective plaintiffs can wait before filing a personal injury lawsuit. So, there is a limited amount of time to formalize a claim. This type of legal filing deadline is known as a statute of limitations. The plaintiff loses the right to file if the claim is not filed before the limitation deadline expires. In Maryland, personal injury lawsuits are generally subject to a 3-year statute of limitations (Md. Code Ann., Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-101).

This means that in most Baltimore car accident claims, the injured person must file their personal injury claim within three years from the accident date, or they will be legally barred from filing. Working with an experienced personal injury attorney ensures you don’t miss any important deadlines.

How Much of a Car Accident Settlement Amount Can I Expect?

The value of a car accident case in Baltimore varies depending on the type of injury.

• Light or Minor Injuries (e.g., back strains, soft tissue, headaches) $10,000 ↔ $50,000
• Moderate Injuries (e.g., broken leg, ruptured spleen) $50,000 ↔ $200,000
• Serious or Major Injuries (e.g., death, brain injury) $200,000 ↔ $10,000,000

Remember, these are average settlement compensation payouts. Your case may be higher or lower than the average compensation amounts depending upon the facts of your claim.

How Is a Maryland Car Accident Settlement Calculated?

A settlement in a car accident case is usually calculated by adding together three essential elements of the plaintiff’s losses: (1) medical expenses, (2) lost income, and (3) pain and suffering.

How Much Do Baltimore Car Accident Lawyers Charge?

Most personal injury lawyers in Maryland work on a contingency fee basis. You should be skeptical if a Maryland car accident attorney wants to charge you by the hour. Because that is not how car accident lawyers in Maryland typically handle these claims. You want the attorney fighting for you to have a vested interest in your cases.

A contingency fee agreement means the law firm gets a percentage of any money they recover for you in your motor vehicle accident case. While rates are not fixed, a typical contingency fee agreement in a Maryland accident case is 33% if a case ends in settlement and 40% if a personal injury lawsuit is filed.

Baltimore Car Accident Injuries

Motor vehicle collisions can potentially result in almost any type of physical injury, ranging from minor bruising to fatal head trauma. Our car accident lawyers in Baltimore, Maryland see the same motor vehicle accident injuries over and over.

Back Injuries in Auto Accidents

Car accidents are the leading cause of back injuries, accounting for approximately 63% of all reported cases of a lingering injury to the back.

Our attorneys see a lot of spinal injuries in the back. After whiplash-type injuries, the most common back injury we see from an auto accident is a herniated disc. Disc herniations occur when the outer casing of the disc tears or ruptures, allowing the soft gel-like tissue inside to bulge out. This injury is often called a “slipped” or “bulging” disc.

Shoulder Injuries in Auto Accidents

Shoulder injuries are one of the most common injuries from an auto accident. A torn rotator cuff is the type of shoulder injury that occurs most frequently. The rotator cuff is a grouping of 4 interconnected tendons and muscles that form a “cuff” around the upper arm and connect to the shoulder blade.

The sole function of the rotator cuff is to keep the shoulder ball and joint secure in the socket while the shoulder moves. The sudden force of a car accident frequently causes a tear or rupture of the tendons and tissue within the rotator cuff.

Bone Fractures in Auto Accidents

Orthopedic fractures (broken bones) are another injury frequently resulting from auto accidents. Most auto accident injuries our Baltimore accident lawyers see directly result from occupants’ sudden stopping and resulting whiplash movement.

However, bone fractures are somewhat different because an actual physical impact usually causes them. Impacts with a seat belt, airbag, steering wheel, or other objects during an accident usually lead to broken bones.

Brain Injuries in Auto Accidents

Brain and head injuries are also prevalent in car accidents. Most traumatic brain injuries do not involve any impact on the head but are caused by the so-called whiplash movement of occupants within the car.

Brain damage also occurs from the head and skull impact during a crash. The brain is the most crucial organ in the body, so brain damage is the most serious of all the common auto accident injuries. Injuries to the head and brain are the primary cause of death in most auto accident fatalities.

Can Hiring An Experienced Car Accident Lawyer in Baltimore Increase the Compensation You Receive?

A Baltimore car accident attorney experienced in handling serious injury and wrongful death cases can help ensure you receive every dollar you deserve for the harm done to you. In serious injury and wrongful death cases, who your lawyer is means everything. Every auto accident lawyer in Maryland will fight for you. But, like anything else, some attorneys are better at it than others.

How do we get top dollar for our injured clients? By fighting for you every step of the way. Our primary goal is to get an insurance settlement quickly that adequately compensates you for all your economic losses, including loss of income.

But the essential element of damages in any Maryland car accident is your pain and suffering. Because physical pain and emotional pain are the most significant harms to our clients. The insurance companies? Of course, the insurance company thinks the injured victim should get next to nothing, even in permanent damage cases. How do we make them bend to our way of thinking on the appropriate compensation? The answer is force and reputation.

Getting an appropriate settlement amount without even filing a car accident lawsuit will depend, in no small measure, on the reputation of your legal team. Your lawyer’s ability to gather and present the necessary information to put your claim forward in the best possible light. You win these cases — and the value of the case is stretched — by collecting, analyzing, and presenting the facts of your case to the insurance adjuster and, if necessary, the jury.

In some severe injury and wrongful death cases with significant insurance policies, a lawsuit must be filed if the car accident victim wants to maximize their compensation. In these cases, you need a personal injury lawyer to fight in the trenches for you… and has a history of success in those trenches.

The take-home message: If you are badly hurt, you need an attorney with skill, years of experience, and a reputation for success on your side. You need the best accident lawyers in Baltimore to stand up for you.

If you or someone you love has been injured or killed in a car collision, call our Baltimore, Maryland, car accident attorneys today at no cost at 800-553-8082 to discuss your legal options or get a free consultation online.

Hiring Our Maryland Car Accident Lawyer

Hiring a Maryland car accident law firm is critical to the outcome of your case, whether you settle out of court or go to trial. Our firm has an incredible history of success for our clients in settling and taking auto accident cases to trial.

Getting the best Maryland lawyer for your case is crucial to getting the highest car accident settlement amount possible for your claim because there is a big difference between the settlement value of a case with a great attorney and the settlement value of that same case with an average attorney.

The artificial intelligence technology insurance companies are using in 2023 is stunning. They analyze every personal injury lawyer in Baltimore and calibrate settlement offers based on that lawyer’s track record and willingness to take personal injury cases to trial.

The Maryland car accident attorneys at Miller & Zois have prevailed at trial in hundreds of personal injury and wrongful death cases, garnishing over $100 million in settlements and verdicts for victims. It is silly for a lawyer – any lawyer—to call themselves the best car accident lawyer in Maryland. What we say is look at the results we get for our clients, read up on other car accident lawyers and us, and pick who you trust.

Why does this matter? Victims need an advocate who knows which punches these insurance companies will throw at them… and how to block them.

Our Baltimore Maryland car accident attorneys know how to overcome the roadblocks these insurance companies throw up to give our clients the best chance of receiving the maximum possible recovery for their claims. The only thing insurance companies understand is strength. The only thing insurers have to fear is a lawsuit filed on behalf of a worthy victim by a lawyer who knows the path to victory.

The Maryland personal injury attorneys at Miller & Zois have represented auto crash victims for almost every imaginable mishap in a traffic collision.

• wrongful death
• spinal cord injuries,
• other back injuries,
• fractures,
• herniated discs,
• brain damage and other head trauma,
• surgery,
• rotator cuff tear,
• other permanent injuries

Our wrongful death accident lawyers often represent the families of victims killed in fatal crashes in Maryland. A disproportionate number of these wrongful death cases involve pedestrians and motorcycles with little chance against motor vehicles.

How to Select the Best Advocate for You

If you have been seriously injured in a motorcycle, truck, or vehicular crash in Maryland, you need to find a car accident attorney in the Baltimore area with the skills and ability to best maximize the value of your claim, either by settlement or trial. Before choosing an attorney, look at whether they have the credentials and experience to handle your case and get you the compensation you deserve for what you have endured.

There are important questions to ask. Does the firm focus exclusively on tort cases and, specifically, serious motor vehicle crashes? Does the law firm have a history of seven-figure results in the courtroom and out-of-court settlements in car and truck collision cases?

Does the firm have a history of getting results in the courtroom far more than the settlement offer? Indeed, the insurer fighting your claim knows precisely who the top Baltimore auto accident lawyers are. They bake in your Maryland car accident lawyers’ history of success at trial in calculating your settlement offer both before and after a lawsuit is filed.

You want a Baltimore car accident lawyer who focuses on these accident claims and can help you get the compensation payout you deserve for your injuries. Our attorneys believe we have the best car accident lawyers in Maryland. If you are calling other attorneys, ask the lawyer you call if you don’t hire him/her, ask who is the car accident lawyer in Baltimore, Maryland you would hire?” We think you will likely hear Ron Miller and Laura Zois at Miller & Zois.

If you have been hurt in a traffic accident, the insurance company is building a claim against you as you read this page. You need a personal injury attorney in your corner to fight back. Call 1-800-553-8082 to speak to a Maryland auto accident attorney specializing in handling these personal injury claims or get a free online no-obligation consultation. Find out if Miller & Zois are the best lawyers for you.