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Should traffic ticket guilty pleas be admissible in a civil case? Most courts, including Maryland, believe that it is unfair to defendants in civil cases to allow traffic ticket guilty pleas to hover over an accident case because tickets are – for better or worse – not a big deal to most people. Maybe the defendant pled guilty because he didn’t feel like presenting a defense or taking the day off work. Or maybe the pain of sitting through all the idiotic arguments of silly people in traffic court was just not their cup of tea. (Has anyone actually seen a decent argument made in traffic court? Does such footage even exist?)

Another school of thought – my preferred school of thought – is the “juries are not stupid” argument. Novel idea, sure. But here is how it goes. “Okay, Mr. Defendant, you skipped your criminal trial, pleading guilty, because you didn’t feel like going. Fair enough. Tell the jury that.”

Makes sense, right? The defendant is free to explain the circumstances of the decision to the jury. It is not unduly prejudicial or complex. Everyone gets it. Let the jury decide how much weight should be given to the evidence.

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Last week, I opined that you pretty much have to be drunk to face jail time after killing someone on the road. I saw a story today that reminded me that I left something out. An Indianapolis woman whose car struck and killed a police officer will certainly spend time in prison?

Right? Sort of. This woman in Indiana pled guilty to failure to stop after an accident resulting in death. She bolted to save herself. In a pathetic attempt to defend her, it is fair to point out that she saw that the victim was receiving assistance. Still, she ran.

So what is the sentence for this wrongful death? Four years on electronic home detention (assuming the judge accepts the terms of a plea agreement).

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How can you make your way to jail if you kill (or nearly kill) someone on a Maryland road? A Fort Washington man who nearly killed two people was sentenced yesterday to six months in jail and a year of house arrest. The key is being drunk. Otherwise, Maryland law continues – despite a bill pending before the Maryland legislature this year – to let you off with a few traffic citations. In this case, the man pled guilty to causing life-threatening injuries while driving drunk. As part of the plea bargain, other related charges were dismissed.

Personally, I think we could save lives by being tougher on drunk drivers that cause serious and fatal accidents. The more difficult call is the one Maryland legislators are dealing with now. Is there justice in letting people slide who negligently kill another person in a Maryland car accident? Usually, the at-fault driver is a good guy/gal who just made an awful mistake any of us could make. But, believe me, this nuance is often lost on the person who lost the love of their life, or their mother/father or son/daughter.

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The obvious safety benefits of black boxes in cars should culminate in a decision by the feds by the end of the year to make black box data recorders mandatory in new cars.

Long term, this will decrease business for car accident lawyers because universal black boxes will give manufacturers and safety experts a ton on information to breakdown how accidents really happen and what can be done to make safety modifications to prevent serious accidents.

We will hear a lot of libertarian “big brother is watching me” junk but, ultimately, we can use these black boxes however we agree as a society they can and should be used. Clearly, using black boxes to figure out how to avoid accidents is a good thing.

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The hardest car accident cases to try are he said/she said accidents where there are not natural facts that make one version more likely than another. The classic example of this scenario is lane change/merger accidents. Which car came over into which lane? Even a good accident reconstructionist struggles to put the pieces together. So it often comes down two factors: (1) which version seems more likely (incredibly subjective), and (2) which driver has more credibility (incredibly subjective squared).

According to a Jury Verdict Research study of jury verdicts in these types of cases, the results are what you might intuitively expect: 50/50. The JVR study found car accident plaintiffs win about 48 percent for lane change collisions and 45 percent for merging collisions. The average verdict is $47,807.

lane change accidents

We have tried and won these cases. But our firm will turn down most lane change or merging crash cases unless there is something compelling that makes us think we will win the case. We need two things to move forward in a lane change or merge crash case: (1) a very serious injury (sad but true commentary on the real world), and (2) a client that is extremely credible.

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A while back, I wrote about the issue of what the punishment should be in Maryland fatal accident cases where there are no aggravating factors (almost always alcohol) but still someone dies because someone just was not paying attention. Should this mean prison? Is the pain of killing someone enough punishment?

Clients usually feel strongly about this issue one way or the other, there is very little in between. Either they view the defendant as a killer or they see the accident as a mistake that could have happened to anyone.

A bill has been floating around the Maryland legislature for years that would give prosecutors more latitude when charging these drivers. In a swap, House Del. Luiz Simmons, a criminal defense lawyer from Montgomery County, proposes a law that would sentence someone to up to three years in prison for killing a person as the result of a “substantial deviation from the standard of care.” Standing in the way of the bill is Maryland State Senator Brian Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat, who questions whether prison should follow for drivers who negligently kill another person.

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Jury Verdict Research did a study that found that the average money damages verdict in a car/truck accident case brought by the passenger is $486,098. It sounds like a lot, but high (and maybe uncollectable) verdicts distort the average. The median passenger verdict is $30,000. passenger accident lawsuits Here is where it gets interesting. I think it is difficult to lose a passenger accident case. Certainly, the passenger is not responsible for the accident (ignoring for a second the “I knew he was drunk out of his mind and I got in the car with him anyway” passenger). Yet plaintiffs only receive money damages in 62 percent of passenger cases that go to verdict. I just can’t make sense of the numbers. Here is how it breaks out: Host Driver’s Negligence: 58% Both Drivers’ Negligence: 64% Driver & Business Negligence: 73% Driver & Government Negligence: 74% Passenger Suits Generally: 62%

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Defendants in car accident cases frequently look to pass the buck of responsibility, usually claiming the injury victim caused or contributed to the car accident. In some cases, the facts are such that the idea of such an allegation would fall flat before it even began. In these cases, when the facts allow, defendants will often place blame on the culprit that cannot defend themselves: the phantom car or truck.

These claims vary from “I could see that” to “that’s impossible.” Either way, smart Maryland accident lawyers do one of two things when this happens: place the uninsured motorist carrier on notice of the potential uninsured motorist claim (it can intervene if it wants) or file an amended complaint pointing alternatively to the phantom car.