Maryland Car Accident Attorney Blog

When Can a Maryland City Be Held Responsible for its Employees?

January 28, 2020 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Maryland car accident claims that are filed against state and local governments can pose additional obstacles. In general, state and local governments are immune from suit, unless immunity is waived. In cases against Maryland cities and their employees, the cities are immune from suit unless the person involved in the accident was carrying out certain duties. Cities and other local governments are normally protected while performing governmental functions, as opposed to proprietary functions. Governmental functions are considered by courts to be functions that are solely for public benefit, do not have an element of private interest, and are sanctioned by the legislature.

When an employee is carrying out a proprietary function of the government, a city is liable for the acts of the employees as long as they are acting within their official capacity. This means that city employees are generally protected as individuals as long as they are acting within the scope of their employment and are not acting with malice or gross negligence. Under the Maryland Tort Claims Act, a claimant generally must submit a claim in writing to the state’s treasurer within one year of the injury. If the treasurer denies the claim, then the claim can be filed in court within three years.

One recent case was dismissed against the city after a city employee hit and killed a pedestrian. The employee was on his way to work at his job at a water treatment plant and was driving his own car. His job rarely required him to travel for work and he was not required to use his car at work. The pedestrian’s surviving family filed a claim against the city, arguing that the city was liable for the pedestrian’s death.

What To Do When Insurance Companies Act in Bad Faith Following a Maryland Car Accident

January 21, 2020 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Maryland law requires every driver to purchase auto insurance, which ideally should cover them for damages caused in an accident. But anyone who has dealt with an insurance company in the wake of a Maryland car accident knows that insurers are notoriously difficult to work with. Sometimes, insurance companies will deny worthy claims against them, in the hopes that accident victims will lack the resources and knowledge needed to compel them to pay, and will instead give up.

For example, if Driver A gets into an accident with Driver B, and Driver B was at fault, Driver A may be able to recover for his medical expenses from Driver B’s insurance company. However, Driver B’s insurance company has an interest in paying as little as possible. In situations such as this, the insurance company may deny the claim and refuse to pay, sometimes without even giving a reason. Driver B may not be able to pay the claims on his own, and Driver A is then left with outstanding medical bills.

Driver A and Driver B may both feel frustrated in this case—they purchased auto insurance and followed the rules, and yet they still were not covered when an accident happened. In these cases, however, a lesser-known legal doctrine may come into play. When insurance companies deny worthy claims, they may be acting in “bad faith.” Acting in bad faith means they are violating their legal duty to act in “good faith” towards their clients, denying meritorious claims or otherwise operating in a deceitful manner to try and limit their liability. Importantly, both Driver A and Driver B may have a claim of bad faith against the insurance company. If they can prove bad faith, they may be entitled to the actual damages suffered by the accident victim and monetary compensation for the cost of litigation, such as attorney’s fees.

Liability of Drivers Passing School Buses in Maryland Car Accident Cases

January 15, 2020 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

During a six-month period last school year, 12 children were killed and 47 were injured through the country while getting on and off school buses. According to AAA Mid-Atlantic, 133 pedestrians were killed in Maryland car accidents and 214 students were injured as they were walking during school arrival and dismissal times. The Maryland State Department of Education reported 3,812 incidents involving vehicles passing a stopped school bus with their lights activated during a one-day survey of bus drivers.

Section 21-706 of the Maryland Transportation Code states that if a school vehicle is stopped and is flashing red lights, a driver must stop for the school vehicle at least 20 feet from the front or the rear of the vehicle, depending on the direction of the driver. A driver must remain stopped and cannot proceed until the school vehicle resumes driving or deactivates the flashing red lights. A bus will normally flash yellow lights to indicate that the bus is preparing to load or unload children, and motorists are supposed to slow down and be prepared to stop. Last year, Maryland imposed a new $500 maximum penalty for drivers caught on school bus stop-arm cameras for failing to stop when required.

If a child is injured in a car accident while getting on or off the school bus, or on the way to school, the driver of the car that struck them may be held responsible for any resulting injuries. A personal injury claim against a driver would allow an injured victim to recover damages such as medical bills, as well as compensation for their pain and suffering damages. As the following article shows, such accidents occur all too frequently. In that case, a student was hit and seriously injured as a driver passed a school bus as the student was boarding the bus.

Can the Maryland Government Be Liable for a Roadside Hazard?

January 6, 2020 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Maryland property owners generally maintain the responsibility to keep their property safe for people whom they invite onto their property. If an individual suffers injuries on an owner’s property, the property owner or occupier may be liable for the damages that the visitor sustained. Under Maryland personal injury law, accident victims who want to hold a property owner responsible for their injuries must be able to establish four main factors:

The property owner had a duty to keep their property safe from dangers;
The owner failed to abide by that duty;
The dangerous condition caused the victim’s injuries; and
The victim’s injuries resulted in damages.

In some cases, this also applies to roadside hazards. However, challenges may arise when the negligent party is a governmental entity, such as a city, county, state, or federal agency. Historically, under the theory of sovereign immunity, Maryland government agencies cannot face liability without their consent. However, to address this fundamental unfairness, Maryland lawmakers established the Maryland Tort Claims Act, which waives governmental immunity in specific instances.

To determine whether a Maryland governmental agency or official can face liability, the courts will analyze whether the party was engaging in discretionary or ministerial duties. Discretionary duties occur when a governmental agent or employee chooses between different options. Accident victims who suffer damages because of a governmental agency’s discretionary duty cannot hold the government liable. On the other hand, ministerial duties are those that do not require any judgment calls or independent decision-making. Accident victims can recover damages that they sustained because of a negligent government official’s ministerial decision-making.

Maryland Texting While Driving Citations Remain Rare, Despite High Number of Fatalities

December 27, 2019 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Texting while driving remains a serious issue throughout the country. Despite the seriousness of the issue, prosecutions of drivers remain rare, and proving that a driver was using their phone can be tricky in Maryland car accident cases. Without proof that a driver sent a message just before a crash, it can be hard to show that a driver was using their phone, including reading a text message.

According to a recent news report, a woman was recently convicted of vehicular homicide in a rare texting while driving prosecution. In that case, a woman was out for a walk during a break from her job when she was hit by a car. A driver believed to have been texting had rear-ended another car, which crashed into the pedestrian. The crash occurred at around 8:20 a.m. on a weekday in September. The driver was charged with vehicular homicide because she was texting while driving, and a jury recently convicted the driver after a trial. The case was believed to be the first in which a jury considered whether texting while driving could be considered akin to drunk driving.

The driver’s trial centered on whether the driver had been texting while driving. The driver had received a text asking her about dinner plans. The prosecution argued that she had read the text and had typed the letters “m” and “e” as part of her response. The driver claimed that she was not texting at the time of the crash. She said that she had typed those letters but did not remember when and was planning to call the person instead. The driver testified that she had looked down to turn on a window defogger and that when she looked up, the other car was “right in front” of her.

Wrong-Way Car Accidents in Maryland

December 21, 2019 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Wrong-way car accidents are often more devastating than most types of Maryland car accidents. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, wrong-way collisions are one of the most serious types of accidents that occur on highways. A recent study showed that such collisions are much more likely to result in fatal or serious injuries than other kinds of highway collisions. One study looking at wrong-way collisions on controlled-access highways found that the fatality rate was 27 times that of other kinds of accidents.

A study by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that more than half of wrong-way drivers are impaired by alcohol. It also found that many wrong-way controlled-access cases begin when a driver enters an exit ramp. The NTSB study also found that nearly 80 percent of fatal wrong-way crashes occurred at night, between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.

While each case is different, there are several potential defendants in a wrong-way car accident case. Of course, the wrong-way driver is often to blame, due to intoxication or another negligent act. The driver’s employer may be liable if the driver is driving for work purposes. Finally, a municipality can be liable if the road’s design or signs contributed to the crash in some way. Defendants and their insurance companies generally deny liability and try to point the finger at other parties. Building a strong case against all potential parties sets a plaintiff up for the best possible scenario.

The Importance of Foreseeability in Maryland Car Accident Cases

December 16, 2019 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Any Maryland negligence claim requires proving that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty, that the defendant breached that duty, that the plaintiff suffered an injury or loss, and that the damages proximately resulted from the defendant’s breach of the duty. The legal relationship between the breach of duty and the injury is known as proximate cause. Under Maryland law, to establish proximate cause, the plaintiff must show that the negligence was both the cause in fact of the injury and a legally cognizable cause.

Cause in fact refers only to whether a defendant’s actions actually caused an injury. Whether there is a legally cognizable cause considers whether the injury was a foreseeable result of the defendant’s negligent actions. The issue becomes whether the injury to the plaintiff was within the general field of danger that the defendant should have expected or anticipated. Legal cause often requires a consideration of policy considerations and whether a defendant should be held liable under the circumstances. Generally, proximate cause must be decided by a jury (or a judge if the judge is the trier of fact), unless there is only one possible inference that can be drawn based on the facts of the case, or unless “reasoning minds cannot differ.”

Foreseeability is also a consideration in determining whether a duty exists in personal injury cases. In a 1985 case that is still cited today, one Maryland judge explained that “courts have given further effect to the social policy of limitation of liability for remote consequences by narrowing the concept of duty to embrace only those persons or classes of persons to whom harm of some type might reasonably have been foreseen as a result of the particular tortious conduct.”

Presumptions of Negligence in Maryland Rear-End Collisions

December 6, 2019 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

In some cases, a presumption of negligence can work in a party’s favor. However, presumptions can also work against a party. For example, in rear-end collisions, in many states, there is a presumption that the rear driver was negligent. Maryland courts have found that in Maryland rear-end collision cases, if a vehicle is lawfully stopped while waiting for traffic to clear and that vehicle is rear-ended by another car, the operator of the car that rear-ended the stopped vehicle is presumed to have been negligent. However, the presumption is rebuttable, and the burden of persuasion remains with the plaintiff. Thus, a plaintiff still has the ultimate responsibility to prove that the defendant was negligent, which includes establishing all the elements of negligence.

In addition, Maryland courts have found that in the case of a rear-end collision that occurs after the first vehicle stops, there is no presumption that the rear driver was negligent, unless the rear driver had the opportunity to stop after the need to stop became apparent. Under Maryland Code section 21–310(a), a driver cannot follow another vehicle more closely than is reasonable and prudent, considering traffic, the speed of the other car, and the conditions on the road.

Court Directs Verdict Against Rear-End Driver Despite Jury’s Verdict

Admitting Business Records into Evidence in Maryland Injury Cases

November 26, 2019 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Before a document can be admitted in evidence in a Maryland injury case, the court must determine if the document is genuine and true. Courts refer to this as authentication. Maryland Rule 5-901 provides that authentication is satisfied “by evidence sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question is what its proponent claims.” For example, a witness can testify that another person signed a contract in order to prove the authenticity of a signature on a document. A witness might also be able to testify as to the authenticity of a signature through testimony that establishes that the witness is familiar with the person’s signature.

Even if a document is properly authenticated, documents must still be admissible under hearsay rules. Maryland Rule 5-803(b)(6) concerns the admission of business records under Maryland law. Under the rule, a business record can be admitted if it is proven the record was made “at or near the time of the act, event, or condition, or the rendition of the diagnosis,” was made by a person with knowledge or from information given by a person with knowledge, that the business regularly made and maintained such a record, and that the record was made and maintained in the course of the regular course of business. This rule applies to businesses and associations, whether or not they are for-profit or not-for-profit. A recent case considered whether a medical record was properly admitted in a personal injury case.

In that case, the plaintiff was a passenger in a car when the car was involved in an accident with another vehicle. The plaintiff sued the drivers of both cars for injuries she claimed were caused by the crash. The case went to trial, and the jury found in the plaintiff’s favor on liability but awarded her no damages, so the plaintiff appealed. She claimed that her prior medical records should not have been admitted into evidence because they were not authenticated.

Personal Injury Claims and Insurance Disputes Following Maryland Car Accidents

November 18, 2019 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

The Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) reports that thousands of people are hurt or killed in Maryland car accidents every year. Crash report statistics have shown there has been a rise in Maryland car accidents every year since 2012. These incidents range from minor to severe, and Maryland car accident victims often suffer significant financial repercussions as a result of these accidents. Many accident victims do not realize that their insurance companies may not cover the extent of damages that they sustained. In these situations, injury victims may need to file a dispute with their insurance company to recover fully for their losses. In some cases, a Maryland personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault party may be necessary.

Injury victims are often surprised to discover that their insurance company is taking an adversarial role when the policyholder attempts to collect on a claim. Many times, insurance companies will go to great lengths to dispute a claim, deny coverage, and escape making a payment.

For example, recently, a state appellate court issued a ruling in a lawsuit stemming from a claim dispute between a policyholder and her insurance company. In that case, a woman suffered injuries while she was exercising at a mobile gym. The woman filed and settled a negligence lawsuit against the gym’s owner and the personal trainer. The gym was run out of the back of a pickup truck, so she filed a car insurance claim with her provider to recover her remaining damages. Her insurance company disputed coverage, arguing that her uninsured/underinsured coverage did not extend to motor vehicles such as a mobile gym. The insurance company cited specific provisions in her policy that limited the insurance company’s obligation to pay a claim. Ultimately, the appellate court ruled in the insurance company’s favor finding that the coverage did not extend to motor vehicles that are “located for use as a premises,” such as a mobile gym.