Personal Injury In Elkton, Maryland

Elkton is a city in northeastern Maryland, near the northernmost point of the Chesapeake Bay. It is both the largest city in Cecil County, Maryland, as well as the county seat. Elkton’s name derives from its location at the head of the Elk River, right where the river flows into the Bay. The city’s location has also given it other significance, both historically, during the American Revolution, and in the early 20th century because of its close proximity to other states in New England.

However, one thing that Elkton has in common with other cities in Maryland and the rest of the United States is that accidents can happen, and innocent people can get hurt as a result. When this happens to you because someone else was being reckless or negligent, it can feel unfair because there was little that you could have done to prevent the accident, but you are still the one who is suffering from it.

This is why the personal injury attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian represent victims of accidents in Elkton. By legally representing you both in and out of court, we can file a personal injury claim to enforce your legal rights to be compensated for your injuries by the person or people who were ultimately responsible for them.

Elkton, Maryland

Elkton is a city in Cecil County, which occupies the northeastern corner of the state of Maryland. Elkton sits on the eastern border of Maryland, adjacent to Delaware, but about ten miles from the state’s northern border with Pennsylvania. This puts Elkton right at the place where the Elk River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, joins the Bay, itself.

Because of its location at the end of the Chesapeake Bay, Elkton saw plenty of action during the American Revolutionary War. British forces marched through the area on their way northward early during the war, while the end of the war saw American troops marching through Elkton on their way to the decisive battle at Yorktown. While no fighting happened in Elkton, its location on the path of a significant portion of the armies involved made it crucially important during the war.

The next time that Elkton was an epicenter of activity in the U.S. was for another reason, entirely. Soon after World War I, Maryland was one of the few states in the region that did not pass laws strictly regulating marriage. Because Elkton was the county seat closest in proximity to many of these stricter states to the north, it became known as a place for couples to run to in order to get married quickly. In fact, Elkton developed into such a destination that it became known as the “Elopement Capital of the East Coast.” This persisted even after Maryland passed a law in 1938 that required couples to wait 48 hours before getting married, and has even lingered since Las Vegas usurped Elkton’s status as the place for couples to go.

In spite of this, or perhaps because of this, Elkton has grown rapidly in the past several decades, more than doubling from 6,488 residents during the 1980 census to 15,443 in the 2010 census.

Personal Injury Claims in Elkton

When an accident happens in Elkton that leads to you getting hurt, the personal injury law of the state of Maryland governs how things will proceed. This is the case regardless of what kind of accident resulted in the injury – from medical malpractice to a car crash.

Under Maryland personal injury law, in order to succeed, you need to show that four elements were present in your case:

1. The person you are filing the lawsuit against had a duty of care to keep you safe, out of harm’s way, or to not injure you,
2. That person breached their duty of care,
3. That breach of the duty of care was the cause of your injuries, and
4. You suffered legal damages, whether they be physical or financial, as a result of the accident.

The Duty of Care

A personal injury case starts by showing that someone else owed you a duty of care at the time of the accident. In Maryland, the duty of care typically requires people to act like reasonably prudent people whenever it is foreseeable that their conduct could cause someone else to get hurt. However, the duty of care might require people to be more or less careful in some situations.

Breach of the Duty of Care

Just because someone else has a legal obligation to keep you safe, though, does not mean that they will take it seriously. People act carelessly or negligently all the time. When this happens and it causes you to get hurt, it does not matter whether the other person intended to breach their duty of care – even if they do it accidentally, they can still be held liable for the injuries that they cause.

Causation

While it does not matter whether the other person intended you to get hurt or not, it does matter whether their breach of the duty of care was the cause of your injuries. If they were not, then it would be unfair to expect them to compensate you for your losses. This is why Maryland personal injury law requires you to show two things:

1. You would not have gotten hurt, but for the other person’s conduct, and
2. Your injuries were not so attenuated from the breach of the duty of care that it would be unfair for the other person to compensate you for them.

Legal Damages

Because personal injury lawsuits focus on getting you the compensation you need to recover from your injuries, it is crucial to show exactly how much you have lost in the accident. Otherwise, it would be impossible to know when you have gotten enough in compensation to cover your legal damages.

In Maryland, your legal damages include your medical expenses – both what you have already spent to get better and what you are likely to spend in the future to deal with any long-term effect of your injuries – as well as your lost wages and earning capacity, plus compensation for the pain and suffering you and your family have gone through.

Car Accidents

One of the most common situations for a personal injury case is a car accident. This is especially true for a city like Elkton, which is so close to an interstate highway and which has so much traffic flowing through it. Generally, drivers owe a duty of care to the others on the road. However, they rarely uphold this duty to act like a reasonably prudent person, and if their poor driving causes an accident and your injuries, they can be held liable.

Dog Bites in Elkton

Many of the people who live in Elkton have dogs. Unfortunately, this means that there is a significant chance of suffering a dog bite injury in the city. Dog bites are an exception to the general rule about the duty of care in Maryland – because you cannot sue the dog, itself, Maryland personal injury law holds dog owners strictly liable for the injuries caused by their pet.

Premises Liability

Owning property is a goal for many people in the U.S., and many of them have realized it in the city of Elkton. However, owning property comes with legal responsibilities, as well. Landowners have a duty of care to keep visitors safe, and breaching this duty of care can lead to a slip and fall injury that opens the landowner up to premises liability. What, exactly, their duty of care entails depends on your relationship with the property owner and whether you had permission to be on their premises.

Medical Malpractice in Elkton

Doctors and other medical professionals – whether they run their own practice or work at Union Hospital – also owe a duty of care to their patients. When they breach this duty of care, it can amount to medical malpractice. While medical malpractice is not a very common personal injury situation, the injuries that it can involve can be some of the most severe. This is because victims of medical malpractice were often already in poor health, and the injuries that that medical malpractice tends to cause are internal, which tend to have serious complications.

Gilman & Bedigian: Personal Injury Attorneys in Elkton

While these are just some of the most common or serious, there are many other types of personal injury situations, as well. Any one of them can lead to you getting severely hurt, and face years of recovery time that accumulates thousands of dollars in medical bills and lost time at work.

This is where the personal injury lawyers at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian can help. By working as your legal representative, we can fight for your rights and interests and get you the compensation you deserve from the person or people who were responsible.

Contact our law office online or call us at (800) 529-6162 for a free consultation.