Personal Injury In Frederick, Maryland

Frederick is one of the many mid-sized cities in the state of Maryland, though it is technically the second-largest incorporated city in the state. With a population of 65,239 during the 2010 census, Frederick is the seat of the Maryland county that bears its name. For various reasons, Frederick, Maryland, has been an important place in the United States throughout its history, despite often being overlooked by other, larger cities within a close proximity.

Just like all other cities in Maryland, though, accidents do happen in Frederick. When they do, you can find yourself hurt through no fault of your own. If this should ever happen to you, you deserve to be compensated by whoever it was that caused you to get injured. That is where the personal injury attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian can help.

Frederick

Frederick is a part of the same metropolitan area that includes Washington, D.C., Arlington, Virginia, and Alexandria, Virginia, sitting at the northernmost edge of the area. In all, this area held at estimated 6,097,684 people in 2014, making it the sixth-largest in the nation. However, despite being nestled alongside many massive cities, Frederick has a small-town feel to it that makes many residents feel welcome and secure.

Because Frederick is located between Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and the watershed of the Ohio River, it was a crucial crossroads community early in the history of the United States. Settlers moving west in the 1700s from New England and the eastern seaboard often traveled through Frederick on their way to the Great Lakes, the Midwest, and beyond. While it proved to be an uncontested area during the American Revolution, it played an important part in American history: Francis Scott Key, an attorney from Frederick, wrote the poem that would become The Star-Spangled Banner during the War of 1812. The poem, set to music, would become the national anthem of the United States in 1931.

In recent years, Frederick has continued to operate as a crossroads town, and is located at the intersection of several main thoroughfares. However, recent decades have seen an increase in population, with the town growing by 62% since 1990.

Personal Injury Claims in Frederick

One of the many things that Frederick, Maryland, has in common with other towns and cities is that accidents can happen, there, and people can get hurt from them. Just like everywhere else in the world, people can act negligently in Frederick or make poor decisions or mistakes, and this can result in you getting hurt.

If you get hurt in Frederick because someone else made a mistake or acted negligently, filing a personal injury lawsuit is often the best way to ensure that your legal rights are protected and you get the compensation that you need in order to make a full recovery. Hoping that your insurance company covers all of the necessary costs of your recovery, or that the person who hurt you will step up to help you get better, is rarely the best course of action.

Even though personal injury cases are all unique, there are certain elements that they all have in common:

Someone else had a responsibility to keep you safe, called a duty of care,
That person failed to uphold that responsibility, breaching their duty of care,
That breach caused you to get hurt, and
Your injuries damaged you in some way or another.

Duty of Care

In the eyes of the law, everyone has a responsibility to act with reasonable care whenever they deal with other people. This means that they have to conduct themselves in such a way that they do not put others unreasonably into harm’s way. Depending on the circumstances, this can mean very different things, though one of the biggest factors in someone’s duty of care is how foreseeable it would be for their conduct to hurt others. Because of this, drivers, doctors, and even just people who own property in Frederick can have a duty of care to uphold.

Breach of the Duty of Care

Importantly, if someone else breaches their duty of care, it can make them liable for injuries that result from what they are doing. It does not matter that they might not have known they had a duty of care to uphold – even if they were just being negligent, they should still be held to compensate anyone who gets hurt from their negligence.

Causation

If someone’s breach of their duty of care causes your injury, then they will be held liable for you losses. However, causation is not a simple thing. In the eyes of the law, there are two aspects that need to be satisfied for an accident in Frederick to result in liability to the person who started the chain of events that led to the injuries:

Your injuries would not have happened, but for the other person’s conduct, and
That person’s conduct was the proximate cause of your injuries.

If either the other person’s conduct did not set off the chain of events that led to your injury, or if there was another cause for your injuries that superseded their actions, then they will not be held liable for your injuries.

Damages

Personal injury cases are all about getting you the compensation that you need and deserve to make a full recovery. While it would be impossible to set back time to before you were hurt, the law can make sure that all of your losses are compensated. It is important to note, though, that your losses are not just summed up in your medical bills. Your injuries could have also led to lost income, both while you were recovering and in the future.

Together with the pain and suffering that you have gone through, these losses to your income are just some of the ways that you can get compensated for your injuries beyond just your medical bills.

Car Accidents

Perhaps the most common type of personal injury case comes from a car accident. This is especially the case in a crossroads community like the city of Frederick, which sees people passing through all the time. Drivers get distracted and caused wrecks all the time, with each crash putting other people in harm’s way. This is a classic example of how people can have a duty of care to others and then breach it, causing someone else’s injuries.

Dog Bites

Another common type of personal injury situation is a dog bite. Pet owners are held strictly liable for the damages that their animals cause in Frederick and the rest of Maryland – after all, a dog cannot exactly compensate someone for their injuries after biting them.

Dog bite cases are often severe and especially stressful because the victim is often a child. This makes a personal injury lawsuit all the more important to ensure a full recovery.

Premises Liability

Owning property is often considered to be a part of the “American Dream.” However, it comes with legal responsibilities, as well. If these are not upheld, it can subject a property owner to premises liability.

Everyone who owns property in Frederick has a legal duty – a duty of care – to ensure that people who visit their property are kept safe and free from harm. The exact duty of care that is owed depends on the relationship of the property owner with the person visiting the property. Trespassers – people who are on the property without the owner’s permission – are owed a much lower duty of care than invitees – people who are there for the owner’s financial benefit. However, even if you were trespassing on someone else’s land, you still have rights that you can enforce if you get hurt because of something that the property owner did.

Medical Malpractice

Like all cities, Frederick is home to many doctors and medical professionals, including Frederick Memorial Hospital. Unfortunately, wherever doctors practice, there is the chance that they make a mistake, overlook a medically-important issue, and commit medical malpractice.

Medical malpractice cases are another kind of personal injury lawsuit. However, they are a little different than other personal injury cases because the injuries that come from medical malpractice are often far more serious, and the medical procedure that caused them require expert medical knowledge to fully understand.

Frederick Personal Injury Attorneys at Gilman & Bedigian

If you have been hurt in an accident in Frederick, getting the compensation that you need to make a full recovery is crucial. Paying for your losses out of your own pocket is unfair, and often leads you into dire financial straits.

That is why the attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian represent people who have been unfairly hurt in Frederick, Maryland. Our personal injury lawyers fight for your rights and interests, both in and out of court. This ensures that you get the compensation that you deserve for the injuries you have suffered because of someone else’s negligence.

Get in touch with our Frederick personal injury attorneys at Gilman & Bedigian by contacting them online or by calling them at (800) 529-6162.