Are you preparing to file an injury claim and wondering how Maryland’s contributory negligence law affects your case? You might already know that if another person acted carelessly and thereby caused your injury accident, that negligent individual owes you compensation. This is largely true; however, Maryland’s contributory negligence law could affect whether your claim succeeds.
How Personal Injury Lawsuits Work in Maryland
Basics of Liability
Personal injury lawsuits and claims are the primary methods by which injury victims obtain compensation for their losses. Through these legal claims, victims pursue financial compensation, called “damages,” against those whose reckless or careless conduct caused their injuries. This compensation is intended to make a victim whole.
A personal injury lawsuit can succeed if the plaintiff shows that it is more likely true than not that the defendant’s behavior led to the plaintiff’s injuries and losses. The plaintiff must also show that no reasonably careful person would have engaged in the same behaviors or made the same decisions as the defendant.
Compensation Available to Victims
With a successful lawsuit, the victim can recover economic damages to address their hospital bills, ongoing therapeutic or medical needs, and wages they could not earn from their job because of their injuries. Their compensation may also include any damaged property, like a totaled car.
Personal injury compensation can also encompass a victim’s mental and emotional suffering. Non-economic damages reimburse a victim for experiencing pain, psychological trauma, and a loss in their satisfaction with life. The more severe a victim’s physical injuries and losses, the larger the amount of non-economic damages they could likely receive.
Following car wrecks, slip and fall incidents, and other injury accidents, the at-fault party’s insurance provider typically pays compensation to the victim. If their insurance coverage limit is too low, or if the at-fault party has no insurance, the victim can try to seek compensation directly from the at-fault party.
Have another’s careless acts in Maryland injured you or a loved one? Contact Steven H. Heisler at (410) 625-4878 immediately.
How Maryland’s Contributory Negligence Law Affects Your Case
What Is Contributory Negligence?
Although accidents can happen in mere seconds, they come about because of a variety of individual choices. For example, a grocery store may be negligent for failing to clean up a wet spill or other hazard in a timely manner. If their negligence was the primary cause of your slip and fall injury, the store may be liable to you for damages.
However, suppose that you do not see the spill because you are looking at your cell phone while walking through the store. Your inattentiveness could have contributed to the accident. If you had paid attention to your surroundings, you might have avoided slipping and falling. While this does not excuse the store’s negligence, it does help explain the accident.
Contributory negligence is one way the law deals with a situation in which the victim’s negligent behavior contributes in some way to their injuries and losses. Maryland, the District of Columbia, and three other states are the only U.S. jurisdictions that follow the contributory negligence doctrine. All other states use some form of comparative negligence.
Difference Between Comparative Negligence and Contributory Negligence
The doctrine of contributory negligence can be much more devastating to injury victims than comparative negligence. The two are not the same.
Although contributory negligence and comparative negligence may sound similar, they are two distinct legal principles. Under comparative negligence, any careless act a victim commits that contributes to their injuries will not remove their legal right to damages. Any such negligence could, however, reduce the amount of compensation they receive.
In some comparative negligence states, for example, a victim could be 99% responsible for their injuries and still recover some damages, however small, from the other party. Other comparative negligence states eliminate a victim’s right to recovery only if the victim is as much or more at fault than the other party.
In contrast, contributory negligence jurisdictions are much less forgiving. Under Maryland’s contributory negligence law, you lose the right to recover any damages if your negligence contributed to the accident or your losses in any way. Even if the other party was 99% responsible for the accident and you were only 1% at fault, the law can prevent you from getting any compensation.
Contributory Negligence in Action
Consider the example of walking through the grocery store when you slip and fall on a spill. If a judge or jury believes your actions in looking at your phone while walking were negligent and contributed in any way to the accident itself or the injuries you sustained, you will not be able to recover any damages from the store.
Any negligent or careless act committed by a victim may be enough to trigger this effect. Some unexpected ways that victims can be negligent include:
- Not seeking medical assistance in a timely manner after an injury
- Discharging oneself from a hospital against medical advice
- Failing to follow a doctor’s reasonable orders regarding treatment and follow-up care
- Abusing prescription medications or not taking medications as prescribed
- Returning to work against a doctor’s advice.
It is ultimately up to the factfinder in your case, whether that is a judge or a jury, to decide whether your actions contributed to your injuries and losses.
However, committing a negligent act does not necessarily deprive a victim of the right to recover damages. It is only when that victim’s actions contribute to the accident and their resulting injuries that contributory negligence comes into play.
What a Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer Can Do to Help
A skilled personal injury lawyer in Maryland will do more than gather evidence to prove the other party’s negligence and liability. They will also gather evidence to disprove the effects of any negligent action you may have committed. In this way, your lawyer can build the strongest case for recovering the financial compensation you need after an accident.
Seek the experienced assistance of Steven H. Heisler if you have suffered harm in an accident. Call (410) 625-4878 today.