Personal Injury In Hyattsville, Maryland

Hyattsville, Maryland, is a small city in Prince George County, Maryland. It is located barely a mile from the border with Washington, D.C., and is often considered a suburb of the nation’s capitol. While Hyattsville has been around since the late 19th century, it has only truly developed in the past few decades and has adopted a notably diverse culture.

Just like other cities in Maryland or the rest of the United States, though, Hyattsville is a place where accidents can happen and innocent people can get hurt through no fault of their own. If you happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and get hurt because someone else was being negligent or was not paying attention, you should be compensated for your losses. Having to pay for the cost of your recovery would be unfair.

This is where the personal injury lawyers at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian can help. By filing a personal injury lawsuit, we can ensure that your legal rights are protected and you get the help you need from the people who put you in such a precarious situation.

Hyattsville

Hyattsville is a city in Maryland almost touching the northeastern border of the District of Columbia. Because of its close proximity to the city, many of Hyattsville’s approximately 18,000 residents work in Washington, D.C., with many of them working in the agencies of the federal government.

The location of Hyattsville was largely responsible for its initial growth in the late 1800s – it was built at the intersection of Route 1 and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, making the land within its boundaries very valuable to developers. The Hyattsville Historic District is filled with approximately 600 houses built around this time, with many of them built in the Victorian style. While the population of Hyattsville grew steadily for the next several decades, many of its other houses were built between World War I and World War II to accommodate the growth.

Now, Hyattsville is known as a very diverse and welcoming neighborhood and a suburb of Washington, D.C. During the 2010 census, the population of Hyattsville was almost perfectly split between white, black, and Hispanic residents, and was home to more than twice the normal number of same-sex couples. These residents have taken an active role in the redevelopment of their community, revitalizing the downtown areas of the city and focusing on a local arts district in the downtown area along Route 1.

Hyattsville Personal Injury Lawsuits

In Hyattsville and the rest of Maryland, if you get hurt in an accident that was caused by someone else, there is a way for you to get the compensation that you need and deserve. By filing a personal injury claim, you can make a formal and legal request that the person who was ultimately responsible pay you back for the losses you have sustained because of the accident that they caused.

The situations that lead to a personal injury claim come in a variety of shapes and sizes. However, personal injury law in Maryland requires a plaintiff to show that four particular elements were present in the case. These elements are:

1. Duty of Care

The first step in every personal injury case in Maryland is to show that the person who hurt you had a responsibility to keep you safe, also known as a duty of care. This duty of care typically requires them to act like a reasonably prudent person whenever it is foreseeable that what they could do would result in you getting hurt. Of course, what a reasonably prudent person would do in any given situation depend on what, exactly, those circumstances were.

2. Breach of the Duty of Care

Once it has been determined whether someone else owed you a duty of care, the next step is to show that they violated, or breached, that duty. Whenever someone fails to uphold their duty of care, it can result in them being liable for your injuries, regardless of whether that failure was intentional or not. After all, between an innocent person and a negligent person, it would be more unfair for the innocent person to have to pay for their injuries.

3. Causation

Just because someone else acted negligently, though, does not mean they will necessarily have to pay for your damages. Their poor conduct has to be the actual cause of your injuries, too. Otherwise, they would have to pay for injuries that they did not cause, which would be unfair.

Proving that your injuries were caused by the person you are suing in a personal injury case, though, requires you to show two things:

1. You would not have been hurt, but for the other person’s poor conduct, and
2. That person’s poor conduct was not so far removed from your injuries that it would be unfair to hold them responsible and legally liable.

4. Damages

Personal injury law’s main focus is on getting victims the compensation that they deserve for the losses they sustained in an accident. For this to happen effectively, though, you need to show exactly how you were hurt and to put it in a monetary format that the defendant can pay.

In Maryland, the damages that you can recover go above and beyond just your medical bills, though. They also include the pain and suffering that you and your family have gone through, because of the accident, as well as your lost wages, your lost earning potential and the cost of medical bills that you will likely accumulate because of any long-term disability that the injury has caused.

Types of Personal Injury Claims

In Hyattsville and elsewhere, car accidents are a common source for personal injury claims. Other drivers owe you a duty of care to drive reasonably safely. Just a few minutes on the road, though, shows how few drivers take this responsibility seriously. If someone else was distracted or drunk when they were driving and they cause an accident that hurts you, they could be legally liable for your injuries.

Another common source of a personal injury claim is a dog bite. Dogs are protective and often territorial and can feel threatened despite your best efforts to make them feel at ease. This is especially problematic when it comes to children and dogs – young children rarely understand how best to approach a dog, and are often the victims of serious dog bites. If this happens in Hyattsville, the dog owner could be liable for your losses.

People who own or use property for their business in Hyattsville owe you a duty of care to keep you safe whenever you are on their grounds. If they fail to do so and you get hurt because of a dangerous condition on their property – like a pothole or a slippery floor – they can face premises liability and have to compensate you for your injuries.

While the duty of care that landowners have to uphold is the greatest when you are on their property for their financial benefit like if they own a store and you are browsing the aisles, you still have legal rights even as a trespasser.

Medical Malpractice in Hyattsville

Out of all of the different types of personal injury claim, a medical malpractice situation is the least common, but often the most devastating. Medical professionals, from doctors at their own clinic to nurses and surgeons at Prince George’s Medical Center, all owe their patients a duty of care to provide reasonable medical care and attention. If they breach this duty, their violation can amount to medical malpractice.

Unfortunately, medical malpractice often leads to devastating injuries. Patients who are seeing a healthcare professional are often already compromised in their health, and a medical mistake or negligence can exacerbate their problem or create a new one that complicates the initial situation. The injuries that often result from medical malpractice are severe, and can even be fatal.

Gilman & Bedigian: Personal Injury Attorneys in Hyattsville

Whenever someone else acts negligently it can put you at risk. If it results in you getting hurt, there is no reason why you should be the one to pay for your recovery. Someone else, after all, was responsible for the accident and your injuries, so they should be the ones to cover the costs of your recovery.

This is where a personal injury case can help. By enforcing your legal rights, you can ensure you get the compensation you need to make the full recovery you deserve. Having an attorney at your side can be a huge help in making this happen. If your injury happened in Hyattsville, you can reach out to the personal injury attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian for the legal representation you need. Contact us online or call us at (800) 529-6162.