Articles Posted in Car Accidents

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Earlier today, I blogged about medical malpractice after an auto accident. The take-home message was that malpractice after a car accident is foreseeable and the negligent driver is responsible for all the harms caused by the accident.

One of our clients has an interesting issue that falls under the same logic. In this case, the car was destroyed not by the accident but, at least allegedly, by the negligence of the repair shop in fixing the vehicle. GEICO, being GEICO, has denied the claim.

GEICO will lose this claim but it will not happen without a lawsuit. This is the way it is in 2010.

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Random car accident statistics:

  • Car crashes are the leading cause of teenage deaths, ages 15-20, in the United States
  • Teenagers are three times more likely to be involved in a fatal car accident than any other driver (an incredible statistic that underscores the need to raise the minimum driving age in the country, inconvenient as that may be)
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Red light/green light cases are maddening to take to trial. Sometimes, an accident lawyer just knows the defendant is lying… but can’t prove it. Often, there is no solution to this problem in red light/green light or other liability dispute car and truck accident cases. There are no witnesses and all you have is the police report. But sometimes, there is proof out there that the defendant is lying because the light sequence report is mutually exclusive of the defendant’s version of how the car accident occurred.

The solution by now for Maryland accident lawyers is obvious: if you have a liability dispute where light sequencing is an issue, get a copy of the traffic sequence report from the state of Maryland.

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For years, Maryland law—specifically Insurance Code Section 19-513—expressly prohibited the stacking of insurance policies. This meant that for uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, the insurer was liable to its insured for the full amount of the accident victim’s damages minus the amount paid by the liability carrier or the Defendant.

After years of criticism for this, the Maryland legislature finally changed the law. As of July 1, 2018, insurance companies who write private auto policies in Maryland are required to offer something called Enhanced Underinsured Motorist Coverage (EUIM). Insureds who chose to add EUIM to their policy will be able to “stack” coverage to ensure they receive full compensation up to their UIM limits. This means that drivers with EUIM can get a policy limit settlement and still get the full policy limits of their UIM coverage.

Here is a simplified example to demonstrate how stacking will work for drivers with the new EUIM coverage and for drivers who don’t have EUIM coverage:

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What insurance company in Maryland is most likely to take their car accident cases to trial? I have never asked myself that specific question but I started thinking about it after reading the most recent Metro Verdicts Monthly (Volume 22, Issue 3). From reading this issue with that question in mind and just reflecting unscientifically on the cases we have tried over the last year, I think the answer clearly is State Farm.

For whatever reason, I think State Farm has less concern about taking a bad faith verdict than other insurance companies. I have no idea why. But it also seems that at least with respect to its own insureds, who are defendants, State Farm will stand behind them by paying an excess verdict. As I understand it, keeping in mind that this is all based on hearsay and second and third hand reports, State Farm sends a “good neighbor letter” to its insured letting them know that if there is a verdict in excess of the State Farm policy limits, State Farm will pay the claim.

Why is State Farm willing to try so many cases in Maryland? I think it is a clear message to Maryland accident lawyers that if they do not take State Farm’s often pitiful offer; they had better be prepared for trial. Does this tough guy tactic work? I think in many cases it does. Many Maryland car accident lawyers are not prepared to go to trial. So even if State Farm loses on most cases that go to trial – as I believe they do – the overall message to other accident lawyers may well make it a loss worth taking for them.

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There is a popular conception that lawsuits in car accident cases are filed directly against the insurance companies. It is easy to understand the source of the confusion. The insurance company that insured the driver of the vehicle will stand behind their insured and pay any claim up to the policy limit of the policy. The insurance company will also decide how much to offer as a settlement, not the actual defendant, who is usually kept in the dark on the entire process from initial settlement offer through the tactics the insurance company will take at trial.

Technically, in Maryland car accident lawsuits are generally filed against the defendant themselves. This technical distinction makes a difference at trial because the jury is not told there is insurance behind the case under Maryland’s collateral source rule. I remember trying a case against a defendant once where we got a good verdict ($298,000 award after a $25,000 offer before trial). When we met with the jurors after the trial, their big concern was whether there was insurance because they were concerned that the defendant—who was a pretty good guy—would have to pay the verdict themselves.

The exception to this is underinsured/uninsured motorist cases. In Maryland, claims are brought directly against the insurance company. To serve an insurance company defendant with a lawsuit in Maryland, you can serve the Maryland Insurance Administration. It looks like this:

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If this blog is named Maryland Accident Lawyer, why are our lawyers talking about car accident cases in Atlanta? We are based in Maryland, not Atlanta. Our car accident cases will always be predominantly from Maryland. But we have a lawyer who is a member of the bar in Georgia and we are looking to expand our practice to be competitive nationally.

To be honest, our lawyers are not looking for soft tissue injury car accident cases in Atlanta. If you call with one of those, we are most likely going to refer you to a local Atlanta car accident lawyer who is qualified to handle your claim.

We are looking to get involved with clients who have extremely serious injuries from a car accident in the Atlanta area. Actually, we are looking at the entire state of Georgia, but certainly, the bulk of the serious injury cases will come from the greater Atlanta area, which also has jury pools more conducive to large jury verdicts. We handled birth injury cases not just in Georgia but in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

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Certainly, State Farm is a major player in the auto accident insurance market share in Maryland, getting barely nudged out of the top spot by GEICO. According, Maryland accident lawyers see plenty of State Farm cases… over and over again. State Farm is not a bad company. They have quality accident lawyers in Maryland and good adjusters. In fact, the only issue our Maryland accident lawyers differ with State Farm over typically is the value of individual accident cases. The problem is, of course, is that value is the key ingredient in Maryland accident cases.

Our Maryland car accident lawyers lift up the veil behind State Farm in Maryland and explain some important details worth knowing in attempting to achieve a settlement with State Farm in the Baltimore-Washington area. Click on the preceding link for our attorneys’ analysis of State Farm.

 

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We get a lot of questions about suing someone who has passed. It is not fun to sue a dead person, but you have to do what you have to do to ensure a recovery for your client. Thankfully, you are suing the estate almost invariably in name only and there is an insurance company standing behind the lawsuit.

If the decedent had an estate, it is pretty easy: you sue the estate and serve the personal representative.

Put the Estate on Notice

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Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed into law on Senate Bill 277, a controversial law that I suspect will decrease the number of fatal accidents in Maryland. This new Maryland law provides for the use of speed cameras in highway work zones and within a half-mile radius of schools, which means that they can be placed on freeways in work zones or close to schools.

Maryland and Arizona are the only states with laws on the books that provide for the use of freeway speed cameras.

Is it apodictic that a disproportionate number of fatal Maryland car accidents involve pedestrians? What kind of pedestrians? With incredible frequency, our accident lawyers see two kinds of fatal pedestrian accident cases: kids and workers in a work zone. This law addresses both problems.

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