Dash Cam in Maryland Car Accidents
A dash cam in Maryland car accidents can be immensely helpful in establishing facts in your case. Without dash camera footage, we are left with eyewitness testimony and the property damage to the respective vehicles. Sometimes, the property damage to the cars tells enough of the story. For example, if we allege that the defendant rear-ended your car, there should be damage to the front of their car and symmetrical damage to the rear of your car. Further, if the side of your rear bumper is damaged, that tells an entirely different story than that you were rear-ended. For car accidents, inches determine liability. The question a jury will face is whether you controlled your car reasonably and contributed to causing the accident. If the jury finds you were contributorily negligent, you may be completely barred from recovery.
Dash camera footage provides context. Eyewitnesses may be biased. Or, an eyewitness may be older and not have excellent vision. Or, the witness may have been drinking that day, and their memory is called into question by the defense counsel. A dash cam in a Maryland car accident can set the record straight. While it may not always capture the whole story, it often captures enough of the story and is more or less indisputable. Of course, the dash camera footage in question must be relevant to the case and be authenticated within the rules of evidence applicable to the court in Maryland.
If you are interested in how dash cam affects Maryland car accidents, contact our office today for a free consultation.
Privacy Laws in Maryland Regarding Dash Cams
Maryland’s privacy laws, particularly dash cams, are crucial for motorists to understand. You can feel empowered by knowing that Maryland is a one-party consent state. The law requires consent from at least one party to be permissible. This knowledge puts you in control of your legal rights and responsibilities. You may use a dash cam in Maryland to visually record the road or the inside of your car. You should note that you can use another party’s dash camera footage in a Maryland car accident. All evidence that is relevant and not privileged is discoverable. Any angle distinct from the one you already have of the car accident is highly pertinent and worthy of review as it may aid your case.
Benefits of Dash Cams in Maryland Car Accidents
There are several benefits of dash cams in Maryland car accidents. Here, we explore the three most potent benefits.
Objective Evidence Collection
As you may know, human memory is imperfect. While we may genuinely believe that something is true, the reality is that something you only caught a glimpse of for a couple of seconds is not necessarily something you remember accurately. Meanwhile, dash cams in Maryland car accidents record objectively. So long as they can be properly authenticated within the court’s rules, we can rely on dashcam footage to accurately portray what occurred in the accident. If we play dash camera footage in court for the jury, the defense’s legal team will have difficulty contradicting our allegations. Instead, they will likely be left scrambling to make a better settlement offer than the one they made.
Additionally, a benefit of dash cams in Maryland car accidents is that the camera footage is timestamped, and the geo-location of the accident is mapped out. This further proves that the accident occurred and that our allegations are true. For example, if the defendant fled the scene, they may later claim in court that they were never on that road at all during that time. However, timestamped dash camera footage with geo-data will prove otherwise.
Facilitation of Insurance Processes

Before we file suit, we always attempt to settle your case. Doing so has a plethora of benefits for you. But most importantly, it keeps your costs down far faster than filing a lawsuit. It also requires less effort as you will not need to testify in court. However, we can only sometimes negotiate a settlement. Sometimes, the adverse insurer will deny our argument based solely on the word of their insured. It should be no surprise that, sometimes, negligent drivers lie to their insurance providers about their role in the accident. However, insurance providers sometimes believe their insured, causing us to proceed to trial. But, if you have a dash cam in a Maryland car accident, we can successfully dispute their insured’s version and proceed with settlement.
In our 70 years of practicing personal injury law, this scenario has been repeated hundreds of times. It would only happen more if more car accident victims had a dash camera in their car at the time of the accident.
Hit and Run Accidents
A dash cam in a Maryland car accident is already helpful. But your dash camera may record their license plate if a car hits you and later tries to flee the scene without exchanging information. While this is only sometimes enough to utilize the adverse driver’s insurance company as the vehicle may be stolen, it is always worth exploring. Generally, the more coverage available in a car accident, the better the odds of receiving total and fair compensation for your injuries.
Enhancing Driver Behavior
This is an indirect benefit to your legal case. However, dash cameras will enhance driver behavior in the aggregate. Insurance providers know this, so some offer discounts on premiums to place a device in your car to track your speed. For those devices, they will not penalize you for speeding. Instead, they understand that knowing your speed and driving behavior are being monitored can be enough for you to drive more carefully. While that may not make proving facts in your legal case any easier, it is a crucial benefit that will protect your safety.
Challenges and Limitations of Dash Cams in Maryland Car Accidents
One significant limitation of dash cams in Maryland car accidents is the field of view captured by the camera. Unfortunately, the view can sometimes be misleading. Important events often occur outside the field of view of the camera. This fact may mislead a jury and require additional testimony to fill in the gaps missed by the incomplete dash camera footage. You should also consider the possibility that you are infringing on privacy rights. This may make your video evidence inadmissible in court. Consider whether you are invading the privacy of others. This may make a part of your dash camera footage inadmissible or the entire thing.
Also, consider that your dash camera is susceptible to theft. If someone sees an expensive dash camera, they may be tempted to steal it. While this has no bearing on your civil case, it is imperative to consider if you live in a high-crime area. If so, we suggest using a dash camera for Maryland car accidents. However, consider moving your dash cam out of sight of people outside your car.
Contact an Attorney
Our attorneys have seen the effects of dash cams in Maryland car accidents. If you have any questions regarding the admissibility of their footage or the viability of your claim, contact our office today. We offer free consultations at (202) 331-7227.
