Personal Injury In College Park, Maryland

College Park is a city located in central Maryland, just to the northeast of Washington, D.C. As its name suggests, College Park is built around the local college, the University of Maryland. Recently, though, College Park has undergone considerable development for the local residents and the students at the University. These changes have modernized the area and brought new businesses and other amenities to the city after years of stagnancy.

Because of its status as a college town, College Park is the site of numerous accidental injuries. Whether from a car accident, a rogue dog or raucous parties, residents and visitors to College Park can get hurt in a variety of ways because of someone else’s negligence or conduct. If this happens to you, hiring an attorney and filing a personal injury lawsuit can be the best way to ensure you get the compensation that you need to make a full recovery.

This is where the personal injury attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian can come into play. By being your legal representative both in and out of the courtroom, our attorneys can fight for your rights and interests to get you the compensation that you deserve after someone else’s negligence hurt you.

College Park

The Maryland city of College Park is right on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., and is centered on the University of Maryland. The University of Maryland makes up much of the area of College Park, as well as a significant portion of the residents, making College Park a quintessential college town. During the 2010 census, College Park had a population of 30,413 people and had a total area of 5.68 square miles. The University of Maryland, on the other hand, is the flagship campus in the University of Maryland system. It takes up more than a third of College Park’s total area and had a 2010 enrollment of more than 37,000 students. As a result, when school is in session, College Park becomes a bustling mecca of young people before quieting down during breaks and during the summer.

As expected, the size of the University of Maryland makes it the biggest employer in the city of College Park. Between faculty, staff, and other workers, the University of Maryland provides College Park and other nearby residents with nearly 18,000 jobs. The proximity of the University to Washington, D.C. also creates jobs for recent graduates in the area who pursue careers in the federal government. Several governmental agencies, like the Food and Drug Administration, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration all employ several hundred people each within the boundaries of College Park.

The city of College Park has undergone rapid change in recent years to give students at the University of Maryland a better living experience, and to develop College Park’s character for full-time residents. Baltimore Road – the stretch of Route 1 that runs through College Park’s downtown area – has seen rapid development, including numerous businesses and a parking garage to promote better access to visitors. Numerous apartment complexes have sprung up in College Park suburbs like Hollywood and Calvert Hills for both residents and students. The development has given College Park more of its own character and was a conscious effort by the locale to make the city one of the best college towns in the country.

Personal Injury Lawsuits in College Park

All cities in the U.S. and across the world are places where accidents can happen and people can get hurt. However, College Park’s young populace and a high percentage of students can make it even more likely for you to get hurt because of someone else’s negligence. The median age in College Park is very low during the 2010 census, coming in at only 21.3 years old. Especially when it comes to car accidents, this young age and lack of experience can lead to more accidents.

While every accident is different, in personal injury law there are four elements that need to be proven in every case:

1. The person who hurt you had a duty of care to keep you safe,
2. That person breached their duty of care,
3. That breach caused your injury, and
4. You were, in fact, hurt.

The Duty of Care

No matter what kind of accident you were hurt in, the first that you will have to prove in a personal injury case was that the person who hurt you had a duty of care. The law requires people to act in a reasonably safe manner whenever it is foreseeable that they can hurt someone else by acting unsafely. What a “reasonably safe manner” requires, though, often depends on the specific circumstances of each case.

Breach of the Duty of Care

Once it is determined what the other person had to do to uphold their duty of care, you have to show that they failed to do it. Whenever someone else breaches their duty of care to keep you safe or out of harm’s way, they can be held liable for the injuries that they cause.

The Breach was the Cause of Your Injuries

If someone else’s negligence was not the cause of your injuries, then it would be unfair to hold them legally responsible for your losses. The law recognizes this, and requires you to show two things to prove that you deserve to be compensated for your losses:

1. You would not have been hurt, but for the other person’s negligence, and
2. Your injuries were not so remote from the other person’s conduct that it would be unfair to attribute your injuries to what they did.

Damages

Personal injury cases are all about getting you the compensation that you need and deserve for your losses, so showing all of the ways you were hurt is crucial for your case to be successful. However, this can go far beyond just getting compensation for your medical bills. Your legal damages include all of the ways that you were hurt by the accident, including your past and future medical bills, your past and future lost income and earning potential, the pain and suffering that both you and your family have gone through, as well as other losses.

Auto Accidents

Because so many people in College Park are so young, car accidents are an especially common way for people to get hurt in the area. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), drivers aged 20 and under accounted for 6% of licensed drivers in the U.S. in 2014, yet were accounted for 9% of all of the drivers involved in fatal accidents.

Animal Attacks

Dog bites are also a common source of a personal injury situation. Many dog owners are convinced that their dogs are friendly to others and that they would not attack anyone. Unfortunately, many of them are wrong, and if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time you could suffer a serious injury in a dog attack.

Slip and Fall Accidents

Whenever you are on someone else’s property, the property owner owes you a duty of care that can open them up to premises liability. What this duty of care entails often depends on whether you are on the property with or without the landowner’s permission, and whether you are financially benefitting the property owner with your presence.

This becomes especially important in a college town like College Park. The University of Maryland has numerous sports teams and stadiums, from the school’s successful basketball team at the XFINITY Center to the football team at the Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium. Whenever you get a ticket and watch a game at one of these venues, the University of Maryland is often legally responsible for your safety while you are there.

Medical Malpractice in College Park

Like in other cities across the United States, there are numerous doctors and hospitals in College Park, Maryland. From the College Park Medical Center to the independent clinics in the area, all of the medical professionals and facilities owe their patients a duty of care to their patients. When they violate this duty of care, it can lead to serious or even fatal personal injuries. When this happens, it can amount to medical malpractice.

College Park Personal Injury Attorneys at Gilman & Bedigian

Any one of these situations can end with you suffering a serious personal injury that takes thousands of dollars and years of recovery time to overcome. In some cases, the injury that you suffer is debilitating over the long term or even permanently. Because you were not at fault for your injuries, having to suffer them and then pay for them out of your own pocket is incredibly unfair.

This is where the personal injury attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian can help you. By representing both in and out of court, we can ensure that your rights are protected and your interests are furthered. We can get you the compensation that you need to recover, and that you deserve after such a terrible accident that was not your fault. Contact us online or call our law office at (800) 529-6162.