Personal Injury In Hampstead, Maryland

Hampstead is a small city in Carroll County, Maryland. Located to the northwest of the city of Baltimore, Hampstead sits near the northern border of Maryland, close to Pennsylvania. In recent years, Hampstead has experienced significant growth in part because of its access to Baltimore and in part because of its affluence, which attracts others to the area.

However, Hampstead is still plagued by accidents that leave innocent people injured, just like any other city. These accidents can happen anywhere, at any time, and to anyone, and can cause life-altering injuries to people who were powerless to avoid them. If you or someone you love has had the misfortune to be the one who gets hurt in one of these situations, you are legally entitled to be compensated by the person or people who ultimately caused your injuries.

This is where the personal injury attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian can help. By representing you both in and out of court, we can ensure that you get the compensation that you need and deserve for your injuries. That way, you can make the full recovery that you deserve without suffering from the financial strain that it could otherwise lead to.

Hampstead

Hampstead is a city in northern Maryland, along the Maryland-Pennsylvania border. During the 2010 Census, Hampstead had a population of 6,323, showing considerable growth since the 1980s, when it was home to fewer than 1,500 people.

This considerable growth is likely due to Hampstead’s location. While it is not the closest city to Baltimore, Maryland’s largest city is nevertheless accessible from Hampstead through a commute of a little over half-an-hour. This means that many of the people who work in Baltimore live in Hampstead in order to get away from the noise and bustle of the city.

The particular people who call Hampstead home, though, are generally wealthy and this affluence has likely attracted others to the area. During the 2000 census, the last census to study the income of the U.S. population, only 2.4% of Hampstead’s residents were below the federal poverty line. With a higher tax base, Hampstead is able to afford amenities and facilities that other parts of Maryland have to do without. These still bring others to the area, resulting in a snowball effect.

The impact of Hampstead’s affluence has made it one of the nicer areas in Maryland, according to several publications. For example, Bloomberg Businessweek named Hampstead the Best Place to Raise Kids in Maryland in 2012, in large part because of a new high school and a revitalized downtown that was showing the benefits of years of hard work and investment. The website Zippia also named Hampstead as the second-best place in Maryland to find work-life balance. Hampstead is also located in the middle of swaths of open land, providing plenty of nature trails for its residents, while still offering a bustling and eventful downtown for those who want something else to do.

Personal Injury Claims in Hampstead

Because it is still located in Maryland, any personal injury cases that start in Hampstead will be governed by Maryland’s personal injury law. This means that to succeed in one, you will need to show that there were four things present in your case:

1. The person you are suing had a duty of care to protect you or to refrain from hurting you,
2. That duty of care was breached,
3. That breach was the cause of your injuries, and
4. You suffered financial or physical injuries, as a result.

The Duty of Care

In Maryland, people are legally obligated to act like reasonably prudent people whenever it is foreseeable that their conduct could cause an injury to someone else. In general, this means that other people need to refrain from acting negligently whenever it could reasonably result in you getting hurt. Failing to uphold this duty of care can open up the person to legal liability.

Breaching the Duty of Care

Whenever someone fails to do what the duty of care requires, they are said to be in breach of it. Importantly, you can breach the duty of care on purpose or by accident in Maryland. This means that even if someone else only accidentally hurt you because they were acting negligently you could still be owed compensation.

Causation

Even if someone else owed you a duty of care and then breached it in the most obvious way conceivable, if their conduct was not the cause of your injuries then it would still be unfair to hold them liable. In Maryland, this means that you have to prove that the other person’s conduct was the cause of your injuries, which has two elements to it:

1. You would not have been hurt, but for the other person’s breach, and
2. Your injuries and the other person’s conduct are not so attenuated that it would be unfair to hold them liable because of the separation between cause and effect.

Damages

Finally, the whole point of Maryland’s personal injury law is to compensate you for your losses that were suffered in the accident. However, in order to know how much compensation you need, you have to show all of the ways that you were hurt. If this were not the case, there would be no way of knowing whether you were being under compensated or if you were receiving a windfall.

In Maryland, you can be compensated for all of your losses associated with the accident, not just your medical bills. This means you can get compensation for your lost wages, lost earning potential, medical bills you will likely accumulate as you continue to care for your injuries, property damage, and even for the pain and suffering that you or your family have gone through.

Car Accidents in Hampstead

One of the most common sources of a personal injury claim in Hampstead is a car accident. Drivers in Maryland have a duty of care to operate their vehicles in a way that a reasonably prudent person would. However, people rarely take this legal obligation seriously as they are texting, tailgating, or speeding all the time. Because these risky driving techniques are not something that a reasonably prudent person would do and because they could foreseeably cause an injury, they are often considered a breach of the duty of care. If these poor driving habits end up in a car accident that causes you to get hurt, you could be entitled to compensation from them for their conduct.

Dog Bites

Many people in Hampstead keep dogs, which could result in a serious dog bite. Dog bites are a little strange, legally, because owners are strictly liable for the actions of their dog and the process is governed by the statute in Maryland. However, these cases are extremely important to pursue when the victim of the dog bite was a small child. Children are more likely to be attacked by dogs than adults are and can suffer injuries that are debilitating over the long term and require extensive medical attention. Getting compensation in these cases is crucial.

Premises Liability

Whenever you are on someone else’s property in Hampstead, the property owner could face premises liability if you slip and fall or get hurt because of something on the property.

These kinds of cases happen most often in businesses like grocery stores. Property owners have a duty of care to keep you safe while you are on their premises. If you are shopping in a grocery store, for example, and the floor is wet or there is something that you can trip on, the store has a legal obligation to take care of it. If they do not take reasonable steps to ensure your safety, you could be entitled to legal compensation.

However, premises liability cases can also happen if you were on someone else’s property without their permission. If you were a trespasser, you still have legal rights – the property owner cannot simply do what they wish.

Gilman & Bedigian: Personal Injury Attorneys in Hampstead

These are just some of the most common types of personal injury cases that we deal with at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian. Other kinds of situations, though, are no less severe and deserve compensation just as much as these.

That is why the lawyers at Gilman & Bedigian fight to represent the rights and interests of anyone who has been hurt in an accident in Hampstead. By working diligently for your cause, both in court against the other side or outside of court with the insurance companies involved, we can ensure that you get the compensation that you need and deserve to make yourself whole again. Contact us online or call our law office at (800) 529-6162 for a free consultation that will determine your legal needs.