Personal Injury In Baltimore City, Maryland

Baltimore City is the largest city in the state of Maryland and is the 29th-largest in the United States. With 620,961 people in the city, and 2,797,407 in the metropolitan area as of the 2010 census, Baltimore’s size and location on the eastern seaboard make it one of the most important cities in the country.

However, because of its size, population density, and bustle, Baltimore is a place where lots of accidents can happen. If you are the victim of one of these accidents, you should be compensated for your injuries and other losses by the person who caused it. This is where the attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian can help.

Baltimore

Baltimore is a unique place in the United States because it is an independent city, which means it is not a part of any county in the state of Maryland. Instead, Baltimore was created as a separate entity by the Maryland State Constitution, which went into effect in 1851. In the whole country, there are only 41 independent cities, and 38 of those are in Virginia because of their unique state constitution. The only three independent cities outside of Virginia are Baltimore, St. Louis, Missouri, and Carson City, Nevada. Baltimore, though, is the largest independent city in the U.S.

The city of Baltimore is filled with other historical significance, as well. It has more than 65,000 properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which is more than any other city and nearly one out of every three buildings in the city’s limits. It was also the site of the Battle of Baltimore, one of the biggest fights between the Americans and the British during the War of 1812. Francis Scott Key came up with the lyrics to the national anthem of the United States during the battle.

After the war, Baltimore grew rapidly and became an economic center. It also turned into a fortress of the Democratic Party: There has not been a Republican mayor in the city since 1963 and has not been a Republican on the city council since 1942.

The city has also seen its share of unrest, as well. Riots and discontent have occurred regularly in the city’s long history. Most recently, the death of Freddie Gray in April 2015 lead to widespread rioting and looting and even led to a spike in murders in the city.

However, there are also plenty of reasons why Baltimore is a great city. Its location on the water makes for picturesque views and a bustling port scene that gives the city an access to the rest of the world that many other major cities do not have. The history in the city makes it unique and the sports teams and other popular destinations bring outsiders to the city of Baltimore. The many different neighborhoods each have their own culture and are home to the many residents of the city.

Personal Injury Claims in Baltimore

However, just like every other city and town in the United States and the rest of the world, accidents happen in Baltimore. People make mistakes or act negligently, and other people get hurt as a result.

If you are the one to get hurt in an accident in Baltimore, filing a personal injury lawsuit might be the best way to ensure that your legal rights are protected and you get the compensation that you deserve.

While personal injury cases come in lots of shapes and sizes, they all have a set of circumstances in common:

1. Someone owed you a duty of care,
2. That person failed to uphold that duty,
3. You got hurt, and
4. The failure to uphold the duty of care was the cause of your injuries.

Duty of Care

Everyone has a legal obligation to use reasonable care when they deal with other people. This includes when you are driving your car, walking down the sidewalk, or even if you just own property in the city of Baltimore. What it means to “use reasonable care,” however, depends on the exact situation. One of the biggest factors in determining whether there is a duty of care is whether it is foreseeable that someone might get hurt from your conduct.

However, the duty of care goes both ways – you have to take reasonable care to make sure other people do not get hurt, but other people need to do the same for you.

Breach of the Duty of Care

When someone violates their duty of care, they can be liable if what they do ends up hurting someone else. Of course, breaching the duty of care depends in large part on whether there was a duty of care, in the first place.

The Breach Causes an Injury

“No harm, no foul” might be an old saying, but it has a lot of meaning in personal injury law. If someone owes a duty of care and breaches it, but that breach does not cause an injury, then there is no personal injury case because no one got hurt.

In order for someone else’s breach of duty to be the cause of your injuries, though, it has to satisfy two requirements:

1. Your injuries would not have happened, but for the other person’s conduct, and
2. Nothing else could have happened in between the other person’s conduct and your injury that was enough to shift liability.

Damages

Finally, personal injury cases are all about compensating you for your injuries, so knowing how much damage was caused is a huge part of every case. Damages, however, do not just stop at medical expenses. They can include any income that you lost because of the injury – whether in the past or in the future – as well as your pain and suffering.

Car Accidents

One of the most common kinds of personal injury cases, even in Baltimore, are those that stem from car accidents. People act negligently when they are driving all the time, from driving drunk to being distracted while behind the wheel. Every time a driver violates their duty of care to other drivers to keep them reasonably safe, and this oversight causes an accident and an injury, then they can be liable for their conduct.

Dog Bites

Another common form of personal injury case comes from dog bites. Dog owners are always convinced that their pet is safe to deal with. However, even the best dog can feel threatened or become convinced that they need to protect their owner or their territory. This can lead to a painful dog bite that can cause a significant injury to the victim.

In the eyes of the law, dog owners in Baltimore are legally responsible for the injuries that their dog’s cause, including by their bites.

Premises Liability

Owning property in Baltimore comes with a lot of perks. You can enjoy the city and still have a place of your own to call home, or you can rent it out and make money, instead. However, owning property also comes with numerous responsibilities. One of these is to make sure that the people that visit your property are kept safe and out of harm’s way. If someone does not do this and you get hurt as a result, they may have to compensate you for your injuries through the law of premises liability.

Premises liability cases are a kind of personal injury lawsuit that aim to compensate injured guests for their losses that came because the landowner or occupier was negligent. Depending on whether you were a trespasser, a licensee, or an invitee, the landowner had a duty of care to uphold.

Medical Malpractice

Baltimore is home to one of the largest and most prestigious hospitals in the world: Johns Hopkins Hospital. With so many doctors and specialists within its walls, though, things are bound to go wrong from time to time. Unfortunately, when doctors are negligent and cause an injury, it is often far more disastrous than when drivers do.

When doctors make mistakes or act negligently, it can amount to medical malpractice. Medical malpractice is another form of personal injury case. However, because of the unique situation surrounding medical procedures and the expertise involved in even the most routine of them, medical malpractice cases are often some of the most complex kinds of personal injury claims.

Baltimore Personal Injury Attorneys at Gilman & Bedigian

Being the victim in an accident is frustrating. If you get hurt – especially if you get seriously hurt in a way that will impact your life for years to come – it can feel unfair.

This is why personal injury law was made. You deserve compensation for your injuries and your troubles. Paying out-of-pocket for the costs of what someone else did to you is not right, and pursuing your rights and interests through a personal injury case is the way to make things as close to fair as they can be after an accident.

Contact the Baltimore personal injury attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian: (800) 529-6162 or contact them online.