Our personal injury lawyers have been serving Hagerstown since our founding in 1954. With an office located in Maryland dedicated exclusively to our Maryland clients, we have been providing excellent legal representation for nearly 70 years. In our ever-growing experience, we handle nearly every imaginable personal injury case there is in Maryland.
Choosing legal representation is never easy, and we are frequently asked by skeptical accident victims if we consider ourselves to be the best. While there are no definitive rankings, our Hagerstown personal injury lawyers have been voted “top lawyer” numerous times. We do not guarantee any results, as it would be unethical to do so, but you can rest assured that we aggressively and emphatically fight to ensure your rights are protected and you obtain maximum compensation.
Experience matters. Not just because it allows us to hone our legal skills. We understand that knowledge and understanding of the law can be taught in law school. Experience matters because, in the real world, with judges and insurance companies, there are tricks and loopholes that are fact and Maryland dependent. There are laws that are specific to Hagerstown, Maryland, that are not tested on the bar exam. They are not taught or tested in law school. When you hire a personal injury lawyer, make sure you hire one who has experience because you deserve fair compensation.
Our attorneys know that excellent representation is not just made up of knowledge of the law or even the ability to get you the compensation you deserve based on your injuries. It involves ensuring you feel comfortable throughout an otherwise difficult and confusing process. That you have someone who is by your side fighting for you against an insurance company whose sole goal is to pay you less money than you deserve because they are businesses. If you have any questions throughout the process, we are here for you. We want to make sure you are informed throughout the process so you can have peace of mind. As a result, your only job is to medically recover. We take care of the rest.
If ever some tortfeasor should injure you, whether by intentional, reckless, or intentional act, you may have a case. These are the cases our Hagerstown personal injury lawyers handle on a daily basis. Theoretically, we will handle any case that involves reckless, intentional, or negligent action which results in harm to you. Here is a list of the most frequent cases we see in Hagerstown:
Hiring a personal injury attorney in Hagerstown, Maryland is relatively affordable. What makes hiring a personal injury attorney unique is that there is zero upfront charge, or retainer. Instead, we only charge a legal fee if we win your case. We can define winning your case in one of two ways. the first way is for you to accept an offer for settlement and sign a settlement agreement waiving your right to legally pursue your claim any further. This would net you money. This only happens if you accept the settlement offer. We cannot accept a settlement offer without your authorization.
The second way we win your case is by going to trial and receiving a judgment on your behalf. In this scenario, there is no telling how much we will necessarily. That is a risk you take at trial and that is something we would explain to you in detail prior to proceeding with trial.
Our fee is one-third of the settlement amount. However, if we file suit on your case in anticipation of trial, then our fee increases from one-third to 40% of the gross recovery. Fortunately, well over half of our cases do settle prior to this point. However, there are absolutely some instances in which we must file suit. There are two common scenarios. First, there is a dispute as to liability. While we may believe that the other driver, not you, is at fault, the adverse driver’s insurer may not. In this case, we will need to go to trial to prove liability. The second scenario is when we cannot agree on a reasonable settlement amount. At that point, we go to trial and prove damages.
There is a multitude of things a Hagerstown personal injury attorney can do for you during your case. First, hiring a personal injury attorney, on average, increases the amount you recover by four to fives times the amount you would get on your own. But besides that, your injury lawyer will handle all aspects of your claim. To best understand the answer to this question, it helps to understand the process of what a typical injury case looks like. At each stage of this process, we will explain what the attorney and the rest of our team will do. Of course, without us, each step will be left up to you.
To be clear, the timeline below addresses what happens in the typical case. This does not mean that this timeline will apply to you. Furthermore, not every case settles. There is a chance we must file suit on your case, in which case the timeline would look different.
During this phase of your case, we start by evaluating the merits of your case. We will ask you preliminary questions to determine if your case is worth pursuing. To start, we attempt to gather all the facts you can provide us and determine if you can win on liability. Sometimes, this is clear. Other times, it is in more of a gray area which means the damages will need to be greater to make it worth it for all parties to invest in your case. Assuming there is a good argument to be made on liability, we accumulate all the facts we can. This means getting contact information of every witness and party, and begin our investigation. Sometimes we handle this investigation in-house. Other times, we enlist our trusted private investigator to uncover important facts that can bolster your case.
We also make sure you are doing everything you are supposed to be doing. As a plaintiff, you have affirmative duties you must adhere to. For example, you have a duty to mitigate your damages. This means, as an example, if your car is in the tow lot after a car accident, you can have your initial costs covered. However, the duty to mitigate damages requires that you get your car out of the tow lot as soon as possible. This duty also applies to your lost wage claim. This is a common mixup that a lot of clients do not understand at first. The last thing we want is for you to take time off from work that a doctor does not excuse. Further, you must mitigate your damages and eventually get a new job.
If you are never able to work that job again, you cannot simply not take any job. Rather, you would be able receive compensation that covers the difference between your old salary and new salary. This is just one of many possible examples.
During this phase of your case, there is not much for you to do legally. Instead, your job becomes to just focus on your health and recovery. Listen to your doctors and other medical providers. If they refer you to another doctor or surgeon, heed their advice. We cannot advise you on medical treatment. However, you should understand that the more medical treatment you get, the more compensation you will receive as medical expenses. During this phase, our lawyers and legal team are working behind the scenes, contacting the various insurance companies in the case, getting and handling the police report, and building your case. We will continue our investigation as necessary at this stage.
Once you complete your medical treatment, or it is clear that you will never reach a full recovery, we can begin settlement negotiations with the adverse party. But first, we must request all bills and records from your various medical providers. This allows us to do things. First, we can better understand your injuries by reading through the records. Second, we learn exactly what you owe as medical expenses to these providers. We will include the amount you owe in our demands. Once we do this and we interview you to learn about other damages you suffered throughout the process, we send over a demand letter.
It takes about 30 days for most insurance companies to evaluate our demand. They too will do their due diligence and read through your medical records. We allow them these 30 days as it is standard in the practice and because it is in the best interest of all parties to make a sincere effort to settle the case. After 30 days, we reach out to the insurer and begin negotiations. Negotiations almost always take a couple weeks, sometimes longer. In general, the more patient you can be, the better the settlement amount will be.
By this stage, we have reached a full and fair settlement amount. A settlement agreement is a contract between you and the defendant, negotiated on your behalves by your Hagerstown personal injury lawyer and the insurance company’s lawyer. The agreement will release your right to sue the defendant for that incident in the future. In consideration of your release of rights, you receive a settlement check matching the compensation you would receive if you went to court. This amount may be less that you would receive, or it could be more.
The stark distinguisher is that a settlement guarantees that you are winning your case. It also guarantees you to a certain amount, especially when you are negotiating with an insurance company that you know can afford to pay the amount. We can distinguish this from going to trial. At trial, we have to go through each step of proving each element by a preponderance of the evidence. While the law may support our claim, there is no telling how a jury will react.
This question is first dependent on whether you can prove that the tortfeasor owed you a duty, whether he or she breached that duty, and whether we can prove a causal link between that breach of duty and the harm you suffered. Assuming that, you are theoretically entitled to anything we can prove is causally related to the accident. Some of the most common damages our clients recover, which are not exhaustive include medical expenses, past and future lost wages, and pain and suffering. While medical expenses and lost wages are more self-explanatory, pain and suffering is certainly an element which requires an experienced Hagerstown personal injury lawyer to be able to prove each harm suffered in order to maximize your compensation.
If you have any questions regarding the above information, do not hesitate to reach out to one of our Hagerstown personal injury lawyers. Our office is open 24/7. We look forward to hearing from you.