Walkersville, Maryland Personal Injury Attorneys

Walkersville is a town in central Maryland, located just to the northeast of the city of Frederick, in Frederick County. The residents of Walkersville are generally wealthier and older than the rest of the state, which is typical of this kind of commuter town which houses residents that travel to another area to work.

Despite being a suburb of nearby Frederick, Walkersville is still the site of numerous accidents every day. Many of these lead to serious personal injuries among those involved and often happen to people who were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. These accidents can be incredibly unfair to victims who did not contribute to the cause of the accident, because they did not deserve their pain and suffering, and have to recover from an injury that they not only did not cause but also often had no way of preventing.

This is why the state of Maryland allows accident victims to get compensation from those who caused the accident by filing a personal injury lawsuit. These legal claims are nothing more than formal demands that the person or people who were ultimately responsible for your injuries reimburse you for the expenses you have accumulated during your road to recovery. The personal injury attorneys at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian can help you succeed in these legal claims.

Walkersville

Walkersville is a town in Frederick County, located only a few miles to the northeast of the county’s largest city and namesake, Frederick. With a population of 5,800 during the 2010 census, Walkersville has largely grown alongside Frederick, as its close proximity to the city allows it to be the home of many of the people who work in the growing city. This growth has been especially prevalent in Walkersville in the past few decades: The town has nearly tripled in size since the 1980 census, which had found that there were 2,228 people living in Walkersville at that time.

The setup as a commuter town has been especially good for Walkersville’s residents, who enjoy the benefits of living and working in a nearby city, while also being able to live in a suburban and almost rural area. This gives them access to both the bustle of a small city as well as the relaxed atmosphere that comes with the country around them.

The split between working in a nearby city and living in the semi-rural suburbs has meant that most of the residents in Walkersville are at least somewhat wealthy. According to the website City Data, the median household income in Walkersville was $94,103 in 2015, nearly $20,000 above the state average in Maryland. This should not come as a surprise, though, considering how the median age of Walkersville’s residents is 41.6 – high enough that many of the people who live there are already deep into their careers and earning salaries near the pinnacle of their fields.

Personal Injury Claims in Walkersville

Because Walkersville is in the state of Maryland, any accidents that lead to a personal injury in the town will be governed by the personal injury law of Maryland. This law requires that to succeed in a personal injury suit, accident victims need to show that there were four things that were present during their injury:

1. The person or people they are suing in court had a duty of care to keep them safe,
2. That duty of care was breached,
3. This breach was the cause of their injuries, and
4. The victim suffered financial or physical damages.

Duty of Care

In Maryland, everyone has a legal responsibility to act like a reasonably prudent person whenever it is foreseeable that their conduct could cause an injury to someone else. This is the duty of care which, when it is not followed or upheld, can result in legal liability to the person who breached it.

Breach

Whenever someone has a duty of care in Maryland, if they fail to uphold it – also known as a breach of the duty of care – they can be liable to whoever gets hurt as a result. Importantly, Maryland personal injury law does not care whether the breach of the duty of care was done on purpose or by accident. Between someone who was acting negligently and an innocent victim, Maryland’s personal injury law puts the loss on the one who acted negligently by making them compensate the one who got hurt.

Causation

Not all breaches of the duty of care lead to legal liability, though. Even if someone else had a duty of care to keep you safe and they breached it, Maryland’s personal injury law recognizes that it would be unfair to hold them responsible if their conduct was not the cause of your injuries. Therefore, to succeed in a personal injury case, you will need to show the other person’s breach of their duty of care was the cause of your injuries, which involves two things:

1. You would not have gotten hurt, but for the other person’s conduct, and
2. The other person’s breach of their duty of care was not so attenuated from your injuries that it would be unfair to hold them legally responsible.

Damages

Maryland’s personal injury law is all about getting accident victims the compensation they need and deserve. However, this would be impossible if it was left undetermined how much a victim needed in order to recover. This is why you have to show all of the ways you were hurt – called your legal damages – in order to succeed in a personal injury case. In Maryland, your legal damages include:

• Any property damage you suffered in the accident,
• Your medical bills,
• The cost of any future medical treatment you will likely need,
• The wages you lost from the accident and your recovery,
• Any potential earning capacity you have lost because of your injuries, and
• The pain and suffering of both you and your family associated with the accident.

Car Accidents

Whether you are in Walkersville or somewhere else in the United States, a car accident is one of the most common kinds of personal injury cases you can go through. Other drivers on the road owe you a duty of care to keep you safe. However, very few of them seem to take this responsibility seriously. Most of them seem to be texting while behind the wheel, or speeding or driving recklessly. If these poor driving tactics lead to a car accident that causes you to get hurt, you could be entitled to compensation for your injuries.

Dog Bites in Walkersville

Like in any suburb in Maryland, numerous residents of Walkersville own dogs. However, this means that dog bite injuries are far more common there than elsewhere. Dog bite injuries are not like most other kinds of personal injury cases because dog owners are held strictly liable for the injuries caused by their dogs in Maryland. This means they can be held liable for your injuries, even if they did nothing to put themselves at fault – the mere fact that a dog bit you, you were hurt by the bite, and the dog was owned by the person you are suing if often enough to succeed in a dog bite case.

Premises Liability

If you are on someone else’s property, you can get hurt if they have not maintained it properly. Dangerous conditions like slippery floors, broken stairs, or sinkholes can all cause you to slip, fall, and suffer serious personal injuries. This is why property owners in Walkersville have a duty of care to keep their visitors safe. If they fail to uphold this responsibility, they can find themselves facing premises liability.

More importantly, your relationship with the property owner makes a huge difference in what their duty of care entails. If you are on their premises with their permission or for their financial benefit, they have to take extra precautions to ensure your safety because they should be expecting you. On the other hand, if you are trespassing on their property, they have to take fewer steps to keep you safe because there is little reason for them to be anticipating your presence. Nevertheless, even if you are trespassing, you always have legal rights to enforce if you get hurt while on someone else’s land in Walkersville.

Gilman & Bedigian: Personal Injury Attorneys in Walkersville

If you have been hurt in an accident in Walkersville, you need legal representation to make sure your legal rights are protected and enforced. If you do not, you could find yourself paying for the costs of your recovery out of your own pocket, even though you did not cause your injuries and had no way of preventing them.

Because this is not fair to you as an innocent accident victim, the personal injury law of Maryland allows you to take legal action. You can do this by reaching out to the Maryland personal injury lawyers at the law office of Gilman & Bedigian. Contact us online or call us at (800) 529-6162 for a free consultation. By fighting for your rights and interests, we can make sure you get the compensation you deserve.