Maryland Accident Attorney Blog

Maryland lawyers who litigate car and truck accidents have a new tool at their disposal thanks to the Maryland Legislature's imminent passage of a ban on handheld cell phones while driving. The new law will make it illegal for a motorist to text or talk on a cell phone while driving, unless connected to a bluetooth device.

Plaintiff's lawyers can be expected to try to use violation of this statute as evidence of negligence. Defense attorneys will also focus on using violation of this statue to prove the plaintiff was contributorily negligent. One would suspect that defense attorneys and insurance companies will reap the most benefit from the new law.

It has often been the law in Maryland that violation of a statue is evidence of negligence. It has also been the law of Maryland that if a plaintiff is found to be one percent negligent, the plaintiff is one hundred percent barred from any recovery. This is called contributory negligence. Defense attorneys will likely focus on violation of this statue to salvage what may otherwise be a lost cause. In any event, I can see attorneys on both sides focusing on cell phone records and issuing thousands of subpoenas for records during discovery. The bill may help make Maryland roads safer but it is going to kill allot of trees!

A Florida judge has required an insurance company to pay a paralyzed truck driver $14.6 million due to a 2007 accident. The plaintiff was driving an 18-wheeler when another driver ran a stop sign, cutting the plaintiff off. The truck driver swerved out of the way, and his truck overturned. The accident cost the plaintiff the use of both his arms and legs and left him with extensive medical bills. If the plaintiff had not swerved, the other driver would have been killed. The insurer for the truck driver denied coverage, so the truck driver sued.

I have successfully handled a number of major car and truck collision cases in Baltimore and other counties in Maryland. Truck collision cases in Maryland are especially complicated because the lawyer must know the intricacies of federal and state truck rules and regulations, maintenance requirements, inspections, limitations on the number of hours drivers may drive, etc.

In one recent Baltimore truck accident case that I handled, the driver of the truck that struck my client and caused significant brain damage had been involved in several other accidents before causing my client’s accident. I retained a very well respected trucking expert who said not only was the truck driver negligent for causing the accident, but the trucking company was negligent for continuing to employ the truck driver after several accidents. This resulted in a major million dollar plus settlement.