Personal Injury In Cambridge, Maryland

Cambridge is a small city in the state of Maryland on the eastern side of Chesapeake Bay. It is the county seat of Dorchester County, the fourth-largest largest city in Maryland’s Eastern Shore region, and one of the oldest cities in the state. Recent years have seen a significant investment in the area, including a resort and golf course, which has brought in tourism and bolstered the local economy that had fallen on hard times.

Of course, one of the many things that Cambridge still has in common with other cities is that accidents can and do happen inside its borders. Just like elsewhere, other people can act negligently, make mistakes, or fail to do something that ends up causing an accident. If you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, this accident can result in a serious injury that you did not cause, putting you in a difficult position.

This is where a personal injury claim can help. If you have been hurt because of what someone else did, you could be facing years of recovery time, thousands of dollars of medical bills and lost income, and the pain and suffering of a severe injury that can lead to a long-term disability. There is no reason why you should not be compensated for all of these losses, especially considering how the accident was in no way your own fault. By hiring the personal injury attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian, you can fight to protect your legal rights and interests and get the financial compensation that you deserve after such a terrible accident.

Cambridge

Cambridge is a small city on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, with a population of 12,326 during the 2010 census. Located near where the Choptank River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, Cambridge was settled by colonists from England in 1684, making it one of the oldest cities in Maryland. The early settlers had to deal with Native Americans from the Algonquian tribe when they first came to the area, and after establishing themselves, the area that is now Cambridge was the site of numerous tobacco plantations. This also made the city of Cambridge an epicenter for the area’s slave trade well into the 1800s, as plantation owners needed workers for the fields.

By the outbreak of the Civil War, though, Cambridge had become one of the major stops on the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves free from the southern states to their freedom in the north. Soon after the War, industries set up shop in Cambridge, drawn by its location on the river and the Chesapeake Bay, which gave them plenty of access to the country’s best shipping lines. These industries started getting contracts with the U.S. military and the Department of Defense, which proved incredibly lucrative during World War I and World War II, nearly doubling the size of the city in that time. However, after the wars, the contracts dried up, leaving Cambridge in a difficult position.

After years of economic stagnancy, Cambridge was the site for the new 400-room Hyatt Regency Chesapeake Bay resort, which was built in 2002 and attracted tourists to the area immediately. The resort was only the first step in a serious of huge developments to the Cambridge area, including a massive revitalization process to the downtown area. The impact of those efforts are still being felt throughout Cambridge, though they have already caused a significant population increase between the 2000 and the 2010 census.

Personal Injury Claims in Cambridge

However, accidents happen everywhere, and Cambridge is no exception. People all over the United States act negligently, causing other people to get hurt because they were not paying attention to their surroundings or creating dangerous situations because they forgot to do something beforehand.

If this happens to you and you get hurt because of something that someone else did or failed to do, a personal injury lawsuit is the best way to ensure you get the compensation you need to stay financially intact after the accident. Your legal right to compensation, however, depends on your ability to show that there were these four elements at play when you got hurt:

1. The person you are suing had a legal duty of care to keep you free from harm,
2. That person breached their duty of care,
3. That breach was the cause of your injuries, and
4. You were, in fact, hurt in some way.

The Legal Duty of Care

The general rule under Maryland’s personal injury law is that, whenever it is foreseeable that your conduct can cause someone else’s injury, you need to act like a reasonably prudent person. This is the legal duty of care and, luckily, it is a two-way street: Other people owe it to you, as well. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, and the exact meaning of what a “reasonably prudent person” would do often depend on the precise circumstances of the accident that led to your injury.

Breaching the Duty of Care

Once it has been established what the legal duty of care entailed, the next step is to show that the person you are suing for your injuries did not uphold what the duty of care required. Even if the other person only breached their duty of care to you by accident – whether because they were being negligent or because they failed to do something that would have kept you safe – they can still be liable for your injuries if they caused them.

Causation

One of the biggest steps in most personal injury cases is showing that the other person’s conduct was the cause of your injuries. This is a requirement in Maryland because, if it were not, other people could be held liable for injuries that they did not cause or had very little part of. As a result, you need to show two things to succeed in a personal injury case in Maryland:

1. But for what the other person did, you would not have been hurt, and
2. The other person’s conduct was not so far removed from your injuries that it would be unjust to expect them to compensate you for your injuries.

Damages

Personal injury cases are all about getting you the compensation you need to recover from your injuries. This means that you have to show exactly how you were hurt, or else it would be impossible to know how much compensation you need.

In Maryland, your legal damages go far beyond just your medical expenses. They also include your lost wages and earning potential, as well as the pain and suffering that you and your family have gone through and are expected to go through in the future because of your injuries.

Auto and Truck Accidents

In Cambridge, one of the most common personal injury cases surrounds a car accident. Other drivers have a duty of care to drive reasonably safely. However, they rarely uphold this duty, and that often leads to an accident where you get hurt. When this is the case, you can be legally entitled to compensation from the other driver.

Animal Attacks in Cambridge

A dog bite is another common scenario that starts a personal injury case in Cambridge. Dog owners are strictly liable for the actions of their dog – if they were not, you would have to sue the dog, itself – and so have to compensate you for any injuries that their pet causes. Unfortunately, children are some of the most common victims of serious dog bites, making these cases especially important to pursue because of the long-term difficulties they can face.

Slip and Falls

Property and business owners in Cambridge have a legal duty of care to anyone who ventures onto their premises. If they do not uphold that duty of care, they could find themselves facing premises liability. To avoid this, they need to keep their property reasonably safe for people to visit, though what this entails depends on the relationship between the property owner and the person venturing onto it: For example, trespassers are owed less of a duty of care than people who are on the property for the financial benefit of the owner.

Medical Malpractice in Cambridge

Doctors and medical professionals – whether they work independently or at Dorchester General Hospital – owe their patients a duty of care, and breaching that duty can lead to medical malpractice. These cases are rare, but often involve some of the most devastating injuries in a personal injury case.

Gilman & Bedigian: Personal Injury Attorneys in Cambridge

Getting hurt because someone else was being negligent is frustrating because you know that you do not deserve the pain and suffering that you are going through. That is why it is so important that you protect your legal rights and interests by filing a personal injury lawsuit against the person or people who are ultimately responsible for your injuries.

Call the personal injury attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian at (800) 529-6162 or contact us online for the legal help you need to get the compensation you deserve.