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St. Mary’s County is a county in southern Maryland, at the very southernmost tip of the state on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. A coastal and rural county, St. Mary’s County has a deep history in the United States as the oldest county in Maryland and as the home of religious freedom in the New World. Now, St. Mary’s County is better known for having one of the best small liberal arts colleges in the country, as well as numerous military bases within its borders, making it the home to numerous military contracting firms, which brings a high degree of affluence to the area.
However, people everywhere are negligent sometimes, and St. Mary’s County is no exception. When people do not pay attention to what they are doing or make mistakes, it is an unfortunate reality that can cause an innocent person to get hurt. If you or someone you love happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, you could be the one who suffers at the hands of someone else. Whether this happens in a car crash on Route 5, in a slip and fall accident on property owned by St. Mary’s College of Maryland, or as a result of medical malpractice at a local hospital or clinic, you deserve to be compensated for your losses because you were not the one who caused them.
St. Mary’s County
St. Mary’s County is a county at the southernmost tip of Maryland on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay. Despite being the second-largest county in the state by total area, less than half of St. Mary’s County’s square mileage – only 357 of them – is land area. Despite this, there were still only 105,151 people who lived in St. Mary’s County during the 2010 census, making for a low population density of only 294 people per square mile. The largest community is the unincorporated area of California, Maryland, which had 11,857 people during the 2010 census, though this was only an approximation because of the vague boundaries that these unincorporated towns have. California, though, is symptomatic of the rest of St. Mary’s County: It was once a quiet and rural area, but has exploded in population over the past few decades due to the emergence of the local military bases in the area. In California’s case, that base is the Patuxent River Naval Air Station.
These military bases in St. Mary’s County – the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, near California, as well as the Coast Guard Station and Webster Field at St. Inigoes – provide thousands of jobs for local residents and have brought military contractors into the locale, bringing thousands more.
Together, these military installations and the contractors that they have attracted have provided residents in St. Mary’s County with numerous high paying jobs and brought much more residents to the area. Every decade since World War II, the population of St. Mary’s County has increased by more than 10,000, according to census data. The growth has also increased the area’s level of affluence, as well. During the 2010 census, the median household income in St. Mary’s County was $80,053, above the state average and well above the national average. Together, these have had a spillover effect into the local St. Mary’s College, which has blossomed into one of the country’s leading small liberal arts colleges located in historic St. Mary’s City.
Personal Injury in St. Mary’s County
Unfortunately, accidents can happen anywhere in the United States, and St. Mary’s County is no exception. People act negligently or recklessly all the time, and this can result in a terrible accident that leaves you severely hurt, even though you did nothing wrong and did everything possible to avoid the incident.
Getting compensation for these terrible and undeserved injuries should be a priority, because having to pay for the costs of your own recovery should not be something that you have to do, alone. The person or the people who were ultimately responsible for the incident that led to your injuries should help you on your road to recover, no matter where those injuries occurred.
Route 5
Car accidents are one of the most common ways for innocent people to get hurt in the United States and in St. Mary’s County. Legally, people are supposed to drive in a reasonably safe manner for the road conditions they face. However, drivers in Maryland rarely seem to do this, driving while distracted or even drunk entirely too often, and speeding or weaving in and out of traffic constantly. However, under Maryland’s personal injury law, if these poor driving habits cause an accident that leads to your injuries, you can get compensation for the costs of your recovery and other losses from the person who caused the crash.
The worst of these crashes in St. Mary’s County occurs on Route 5, which runs the distance of the county from its northernmost corner near the town of Charlotte Hall, through the county seat of Leonardtown, and to the Point Lookout State Park at the very end of the county. Accidents that happen on Route 5 are more likely to be serious because of the traffic and the high speeds that drivers are allowed to go on St. Mary’s County’s main thoroughfare.
St. Mary’s College
St. Mary’s College of Maryland is a renowned public liberal arts college located in St. Mary’s City, alongside the St. Mary’s River. The college is well known for being located on the historic site of the oldest settlement in Maryland, making it the birthplace of religious freedom in the U.S. because the colony was founded specifically for Christians and Protestants fleeing religious persecution in England. The strong historical significance of the St. Mary’s City has made it popular for archeological digs, with more than 200 happening over the last three decades.
Conditions like these make it more likely for you to get hurt while visiting St. Mary’s College by a hazardous condition on the premises. Landowners and managers are legally responsible for the safety of the people who visit their property and have to take reasonable steps to ensure they are not hurt while on the grounds. If they fail to take these steps and this leads to a slip and fall injury, they could face premises liability and have to compensate you for your injuries.
MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital
Sometimes, you can get hurt at the very moment you most need medical attention. Doctors and other healthcare professionals make mistakes just like everyone else does. However, when they do and it causes one of their patients to suffer, it can amount to medical malpractice because healthcare providers owe a duty of care to provide reasonable medical attention to the people they see.
In St. Mary’s County, MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital is one of the top providers of medical care in the county, making it one of the places that medical malpractice will happen the most, simply because of the volume of patients that they see on a yearly basis. Should you or someone you love ever get hurt by a doctor’s negligence while at the MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital, getting compensation for your injuries is crucial because of how serious they often are.
St. Mary’s County Courthouse
If you get hurt in St. Mary’s County and elect to enforce your legal rights to compensation, your personal injury case will go before either the St. Mary’s County Circuit Court, or the St. Mary’s County District Court. Both of these are in the county seat of Leonardtown, Maryland, with the district court located at 23110 Leonard Hall Drive, and the circuit court at 41605 Court House Drive. Parking for the district court is next to the building, while parking for the circuit court can be had for free at the lot adjacent to the courthouse or along the streets of downtown Leonardtown.
Importantly, though, personal injury claims in Maryland need to be filed with a court before three years have passed, or else the state’s statute of limitations will bar them from being heard in court. This makes it crucially important to reach out to an attorney to review your case well in advance of this expiration date, or else your rights to compensation will never be pursued in a court of law.
St. Mary’s County Personal Injury Attorneys at Gilman & Bedigian
Suffering an injury is never something that people want to go through. However, they are especially frustrating when they were caused by someone else’s poor conduct or negligence. Having to then pay for the costs of your recovery is one step too far, and the height of injustice.
That is why the personal injury attorneys at Gilman & Bedigian strive to represent accident victims in St. Mary’s County. Contact us online or call our law office at (800) 529-6162 for a free consultation to start your case before the statute of limitations runs its course. Getting compensation for injuries you did not deserve is something that you deserve, and something that you should get, so enforcing your rights is important.