Personal Injury In Gaithersburg, Maryland

Gaithersburg, Maryland, is the fourth largest incorporated city in the state of Maryland. Located just to the northwest of Washington, D.C., Gaithersburg had a population of 59,933 during the 2010 census and has shown a consistent growth in the past few decades. As a part of the metropolitan area that includes Washington, D.C., and Arlington and Alexandria, Virginia.

Just like other cities in the United States, though, accidents can happen in Gaithersburg, as well. People act negligently everywhere, and this can lead to severe accidents that end with you getting hurt through no fault of your own. When this happens, you could find yourself suffering from an injury that was caused by someone else’s mistake or negligence. This is where the personal injury attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian can help. By legally representing you, our attorneys can make sure your legal rights and interests are protected and that you get the compensation that you deserve for the injuries that you have suffered at someone else’s hands.

Gaithersburg

The city of Gaithersburg, Maryland is located in the center of Maryland, just to the northwest of Washington, D.C. In many ways, Gaithersburg is a suburb of the District of Columbia. It is only about twenty miles to the northwest of the nation’s capitol, and many of the residents of Gaithersburg work in the city. Its close proximity to the major cities of the Mid-Atlantic States put it within the confines of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, which had a population of just over six million in 2014. This puts Gaithersburg in the sixth-largest metropolitan area in the country with some of the most bustling cities in the United States.

Despite being a suburb of a nearby city, Gaithersburg has a unique style and many of the qualities of a major destination city. This is due in large part to its rapid expansion and growth in recent decades. As lately as 1970, Gaithersburg was a rural community, with fewer than 10,000 residents. However, the area has exploded in growth since then, adding many thousands of residents every few years.

The area’s close proximity to Washington, D.C. has been one factor in Gaithersburg’s sudden growth. With so many government agencies and contractors within easy driving distance, Gaithersburg was able to attract numerous highly-skilled workers to the area from all walks of life and from numerous different backgrounds. This has made Gaithersburg one of the most diverse cities in the country for both ethnicity and social class.

The rapid growth that Gaithersburg has experienced has also split the city into a western side and an eastern side, with Interstate 270 running between the two. These two halves of Gaithersburg have vastly different atmospheres to them. The eastern side of the city is far older, with some buildings dating back to the town’s founding in the middle of the 18th century. The western side of Gaithersburg, however, is where much of the new growth in the city has happened. As a result, the western side of the city has many of the city’s affluent neighborhoods, as well as many of the area’s prominent shopping destinations.

The growth that Gaithersburg went through in the past few decades did not just bring residents to within the city limits. It also brought massive employers into the city, as well. One of the world headquarters for defense contractor Lockheed Martin is located in Gaithersburg, while technology giant IBM employers more than a thousand people in the city. Several other federal agencies are also located in Gaithersburg, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Personal Injury Claims in Gaithersburg

Like anywhere else, though, accidents can happen in Gaithersburg, as well. People make mistakes or act negligently, and this can cause other people to get hurt. If this happens to you, you can find yourself in dire financial straits as you struggle to pay for the medical treatment that you need and recover from the accident. Getting compensation for your injuries from the people who ultimately caused them is what personal injury lawsuits are all about.

While each personal injury case is different, they all have four elements in common:

Someone else had a duty to keep you free from harm,
That person failed to keep you from harm, breaching their duty,
That breach caused your injuries, and
You were hurt in some way.

Duty of Care

The first step of every personal injury situation is determining who had a duty of care. A duty of care is the responsibility that someone has to keep other people out of harm’s way by acting like a reasonable person would in the given circumstances. What the duty of care requires someone else to do to keep you safe often depends on the specific facts of the situation at hand, but typically revolves around how foreseeable it would be for their conduct to hurt you in some way.

Breach of the Duty of Care

Acting unreasonably or negligently in a way that makes it foreseeable for someone else to get hurt is how the duty of care is typically breached. In the eyes of the law, just because someone else’s breach of the duty of care was done accidentally does not mean that they should not compensate you for the injuries that they caused.

Causation

No matter how negligently someone else is, if their conduct does not cause your injuries then it would be unfair for them to be expected to compensate you for your losses. This is why, to succeed in a personal injury case, you have to prove that it was the person you are suing who caused your injuries. To do this, it requires a showing that, but for what the other person did, you would not have gotten hurt, and the other person’s conduct was not so far removed from your injuries that they should not be held responsible.

Damages

Finally, all personal injury cases are about compensating you for your losses. Proving exactly how you have been hurt or financially damaged is a huge part of a case. This means showing exactly how much you have spent to recover from the accident and other financial losses that you have had, as well, like your lost wages or future earning potential.

Car Accidents

The most common type of personal injury case is a car accident. More and more crashes are happening every year in the United States, and Maryland is no exception.

In the context of a car accident, the duty of care that other drivers need to uphold is to drive reasonably safely for the given situation. Unfortunately, many people drive negligently or even criminally, when they are drunk. When someone else does this, you can be put into harm’s way through no fault or choice of your own. If another driver in Gaithersburg does not uphold their responsibility to drive safely and they cause and accident that injures you, a personal injury lawsuit can be the best way to ensure you get the financial help you need to make a full recovery.

Dog Bites

Dog bites are another common way for people in Gaithersburg to get hurt. In the state of Maryland, dog owners are legally responsible for any injuries that their pets cause, and are held strictly liable for the damages. This makes it far easier for dog bite victims to get the compensation they need to make a full recovery, which is especially important because most of the people hurt by a dog bite are children.

Premises Liability

Owning property in Gaithersburg or anywhere else in the United States is a huge accomplishment. However, property owners have a legal responsibility to keep visitors safe while they are on their land. If they fail to uphold their duty of care to visitors – even if the visitor is technically a trespasser – a landowner could face premises liability and be required to compensate you for the injuries that you suffered because of a hazard on their property.

Medical Malpractice

Out of all of the types of personal injury cases, medical malpractice might be the most serious. Doctors, medical professionals, and even medical facilities have a duty of care to keep their patients reasonably safe. If they act negligently or make a mistake, it can be devastating to you if you are the victim. Depending on the circumstances of the accident, it can even amount to medical malpractice.

Gaithersburg Personal Injury Attorneys at Gilman & Bedigian

If you were the victim of an accident in Gaithersburg, you need legal help to ensure your legal rights and interests are protected. Filing a personal injury lawsuit is the best way to make sure you get the compensation that you should get for what you have been forced to go through. After all, if you were not at fault for your injuries, it would be unfair to be expected to pay for them out of your own pocket.

The personal injury attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian can represent you both in and out of court to ensure the person or people who were ultimately responsible for your injuries compensate you for what they did. Contact us online or at (800) 529-6162 to get the legal help you need.