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More and more police departments in Maryland are joining the rest of us in 2012 and making car accident police reports available online. Calvert County police reports for car crashes will generally be available within 5-7 business days after the date of the accident.

This is that rare development in car accident cases that is a win-win for everyone: car accident lawyers, insurance companies, and the drivers themselves can get police reports with much greater ease.

To get an accident report in Calvert County, go to their website.

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The Louisiana Supreme Court this week overturned a jury’s verdict in a sidewalk slip and fall case. The court found that, as a matter of law, the defect on the sidewalk did not present an unreasonable risk of harm.

For slip and fall cases, plaintiffs’ lawyers want the story to begin in a good way. This one does: “Plaintiff was walking home from church when….” As she was walking, Plaintiff slipped and fell on a section of the sidewalk and sustained a comminuted fracture of the radius of her right arm.

The sidewalk ran into a driveway. Two sections had become, or were installed, depressed in relation to the rest of the sidewalk. So they sat a few inches lower than the remaining sidewalk. The elevation change was approximately one-and-one-quarter to one-and-one-half inch in addition to the elevation change created by the depression.

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Accident lawyers can’t help but homogenize insurance companies. But the reality is that they are all very different with different models and agendas.

On our Maryland car accident claim overview on our website, we provide on the bottom right-hand side a summary of our lawyers’ thoughts on dealing with 18 – count them, 18! – insurance companies who handle claims in Maryland.

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The Western District Missouri Court of Appeals last week affirmed a $ 950,000 jury verdict in a motorcycle accident case, concluding that the condition of the road during construction was the primary cause of the man’s injuries.

The jury award surprises me. Plaintiff was driving his motorcycle through an “inactive” construction zone. While passing a truck at 70 miles per hour, he lost control of his motorcycle as the result of uneven payment, a nearly two-inch difference in the grades. (Arguably that 70 mph did not help, either.)

Plaintiff’s lawsuit alleged the motorcycle accident would not have occurred if there had been proper warning of the uneven surfaces. The jury largely agreed, finding the defendants 95% at fault for the accident and the motorcyclist only 5% at fault (which would lead to a defense verdict under Maryland law). http://www.courts.mo.gov/file.jsp?id=51217

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Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board called for a nationwide ban on the use of cell phones and text messaging devices while driving although the recommendation is not, as it probably should be, for hands-free phones (or passengers). Maryland already had passed a similar law.

This recommendation underscores that the federal government is growing increasingly concerned by statistics that show cell phones are killing people in massive numbers. What would have been more impressive is asking for a ban on cell phones for drivers. Period. But regardless of the death toll, that is not in the political cards, at least not now.

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In Dunbar v. State Farm, a federal judge in Oklahoma granted summary judgment to State Farm in what was really a silly bad faith case.

This case involved a pedestrian accident where somebody backed out of their driveway and hit someone. USAA tendered, albeit slowly, its $100,000 limits for the at-fault driver. State Farm did what it does, it slowly increased the offers over time. But in this case, medical records were provided, for whatever reason, over time, making State Farm’s increase in offers seem quite reasonable. Eventually, State Farm tended its entire policy of $200,000. Because it was an uninsured motorist case, that should have resolved the claim. But Plaintiff’s accident lawyer proceeded with the claim under the theory that State Farm should have made the offer sooner but was dragging their feet.

I don’t get it. Neither did the appellate court. The opinion also underscores Oklahoma law – and Maryland’s – that regardless of the severity of the injury, an underinsured claim does not kick in until the underlying policy tenders its limits. So if you have a death case and the at-fault driver has a $30,000 policy, the underinsured motorist coverage obligations do not kick in until the underlying policy has been offered.

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We’ve all been through it before…trying to locate either the defendant or the “friend of a friend” who was with our client at the time of the accident. When this person appears to be absolutely nowhere, it is worth checking out whether this defendant or witness is a guest of the state of Maryland.

Thankfully, people in jail are relatively easy to find. All but 8 state departments of corrections – including Maryland – makes available to the general public, information and photographs of inmates who are incarcerated. While originally created in the interest of public safety, it has become a tool in which witnesses have been located. There is no charge for these inmate locators, and new states are being added as they become available. You can choose the state you want to search and it will take you directly to their inmate locator. Some states will show pictures, release date, crimes, etc. while others will only list their age with no photo.

You have located your incarcerated witness, now what? If your defendant is in jail, you have an easy means of obtaining service of your Complaint. If you are trying to find a witness to the accident, you can arrange a meeting and can videotape the inmate’s trial testimony by videotape. This can usually be set up by contacting their caseworker, though every detention center is different. In most cases, you will need the warden’s permission, as this process will bring in a lot of outsiders (all counsel, court reporter, videographer, etc.).

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A wrongful death suit has been filed in Utah, stemming from a horrific boating accident.

The facts here are rather unbelievable. The suit contends that the driver of a boat negligently struck the decedent while she was swimming, causing critical injuries, as the propeller “tore” into her torso and lower abdomen. It gets worse from here. According to witnesses, after striking the swimmer, the boat turned around and the boat’s occupants were overheard calling to the woman. They were heard yelling, “Hey lady, are you all right?” The witnesses said that the defendants talked to the decedent, but did not offer aide and left the scene, leaving her in the water bleeding and severely injured.

In addition to five John Does, three men were named in the suit, claiming that the men failed their “duty” to use “reasonable care” to avoid an accident. The suit further claims that the power boat was operated in a negligent and reckless manner. The driver and at least one other occupant had smoked marijuana prior to the accident, and at least three of the occupants had been drinking alcohol.

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I have never thought about the correlation between the severity of injury in car accidents and the amount of congestion on the highway. But it certainly makes sense that (1) traffic jams lead to more accidents because the traffic is stop-and-go, and (2) high traffic means low speeds, which means less serious accidents.

A new study bears this out. Washington, D.C., which includes Maryland for the study, has the worst congestion in the United States. But the cost of car accidents is low compared to the rest of the nation. Some car accident lawyers like to pretend that there is no correlation between the impact and severity of injury because people get seriously hurt and killed in accidents with little property damage. But common sense tells us that serious accidents are likely to lead to more serious injuries and more deaths.

The overall national cost of accidents – which includes the fender benders, the medevacs, the lawsuits, and the lives lost, was estimated at a whopping $300 billion a year. Statistics like this are a little dry, but $300 billion is an amazing amount of money.

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Before filing a lawsuit in Maryland, or anywhere for that matter, you need to find and serve the defendant. Usually, this is a breeze. But in a painful minority of cases, it can take real effort. Tracking down and locating defendants can get costly. In this economy, people are moving more quickly and leave fewer tracks when they move. Certainly, the most complete option is to hire a private investigator. Before jumping into that money pit, one effective weapon we use is Accurint which provides access to over 34 billion current public records that you can use to find your man or woman.

What is your next step….a Whitepages search? Perhaps the Maryland Department of Assessment and Taxation? Well, that will tell you if your Defendant sold his property, if he OWNED the property, but not where he went. Maybe a Maryland Judiciary Case Search? Let’s be serious, not everyone can be found….you may have a fresh defendant that has never been sued, and has never broken the law. And let’s not just pick on the Defendants. I have certainly had clients whose mail is returned as “moved – left no forwarding address”, that’s always appreciated, right?

In my office, Accurint gets used daily, probably hourly. Accurint provides information that allows users to quickly and easily extract valuable knowledge from enormous amounts of data. You can access thousands of data sources, from phone directories to property records to motor vehicle registrations.

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