In my opinion, the crucial element in every personal injury case is obtaining fair value for your non-economic damages. However, the system works in a way that makes it impossible to get a fair settlement value for pain and suffering damages (non-economic damages). Think about this. When an insurance adjuster reviews your accident claim, they have a copy of your medical records and bills. That’s all. If a fact is not included in the medical record, the adjuster doesn’t treat that fact as if it has been substantiated. For the most part, medical records do not mention how an accident victim’s injuries are effecting his day-to-day. At this point in the settlement process, the adjuster has not heard you tell your story and has not heard your family members describe what an inconvenience the car accident was.

As a result, the adjuster does not factor in appropriate compensation for pain and suffering largely because they don’t know about how much you’ve been suffering. The insurance adjuster does not know that you could not walk your dog for three months, or that you had to stop going to the gym for a year which caused to you put on considerable weight, or that you had to spend an extra hour at work each day in order to complete your normal obligations because you spent so much time shifting and stretching your injury.

In order to get a fair assessment of your non-economic damages, an injury victim has to take their case to trial so that they can tell their story to the judge. For every car accident case I handle as a Rockville Car Accident Lawyer, I supply the insurance carrier with a demand letter in which I include information about how the collision caused you to suffer. Sometimes providing this information helps and the adjuster will include it in their analysis. Sadly, it seems that many insurance adjusters do not even bother to read the demand letters and rely only on the medical records. Even worse, many insurance adjusters have told me that they cannot even consider the actual effect of the car accident on the injury victim’s life because there is no documentation to support it.

There are a obviously a variety of ways to find a good Rockville person injury lawyer. I always think it is wise to ask family and friends if they know of a lawyer that they have had a good experience with in the past. You may be surprised that they know a Rockville personal injury lawyer that can assist you in pursuing your case following a car accident. If you, like most people, need to find a lawyer from scratch, I recommend spending some time consulting with the lawyer simply to see if you feel comfortable with them.

Comfort is critical. As the lawyer, I routinely decline cases simply because the client is not the best personality match for me. For that reason, injury victims are always offered a free consultation at the Law Offices of Jeffrey R. Bloom. It gives the client an opportunity to ask as many questions as they like about their case, the process, or our contingency fee arrangements which makes it so that clients don’t need to pay the lawyer during the claim or suit process.

Car accidents can happen at anytime and can leave you injured and missing work. If you find yourself in this position, it is only prudent to meet wwith a maryland lawyer that does personal injury cases and see what recourse you may have to be compensated for the injuires you have sustained.

It is generally best to speak to a car accident lawyer shortly after the event and this is true whether the accident occurred anywhere in MOntgomey County, Maryland including in Rockville, MD or Germantown, MD. It is best to talk to a Maryland lawyer that handles car accident cases before you speaking with the insurance company for the driver that was responsble for the automobile accident. One of the top reasons to do so is that Maryland car accident lawyer can advise you of the potential recovery you can anticipate if a car accident lawsuit is filed.

Many car accident lawyers in Maryland will offer free consultations. At the free consultation with Maryland Car Accident lawyer you will be able to ask some of the questions you may have: including what is is involved in filing a car accident lawsuit in Maryland, how much time it may take for the car accident lawsuit in Maryland; and what might be the best recovery in Maryland car accident case you can anticipate.

At the Law Offices of Jeffry R. Bloom we handle Maryland car accident lawsuits all the time. These car accidents occur in Rockville, Md, Germantown MD and thorughout Montgomery County, Maryland. As other Maryland Car accident lawyers do, our office takes car accident lawsuits on a contingency basis. This means you will not pay us anything unless you recover funds from the car accident in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Whether you elect to retain us or not, speaking to a Maryland car accident lawyer (Montgomery County, MD) only makes sense before you make any decisions after a car accident or settle a claim with an insurance company after a car accident in Montgomery County. This is especially true in light of the initial consultation being free.

Please give us a call at 1-301-658-6776

As a result, many smaller cases are filed in the District Court of Maryland which allows for a recovery of up to $30,000.00. District Court cases moves quite quickly. It also allows car accident victims to avoid the expense of paying a medical provider to testify for them at trial by availing themselves of a statute that lets you submit medical records and bills (typically inadmissible hearsay) instead of live testimony. While you can use medical records in lieu of live testimony in Circuit Court too, you would have to limit your claim to $30,000.00 and risk a jury being persuaded by the live testimony of the doctor that the insurance company uses for trial. In essence, the District Court process is simply quicker and less expensive than Circuit Court.

However, there is a major obstacle that accident victims are forced to overcome in District Court. The Judges of the District Court see so many “soft tissue” cases i.e. cases involving muscle strains, whiplash, and shorter recovery periods, that they must all seem the same to the judges. Because the judges are desensitized to back strain like cases, it makes it more difficult to recover large, or even appropriate, amounts of compensation. Simply put, it is very hard to shock a judge with a muscle strain case these days no matter how aggravating the injuries are.

In my experience, the best way to impress a District Court judge with a sprain/strain case is to offer anecdotal evidence about the little things that your injury prevented you from doing. In one District Court case, I obtained an excellent recovery after eliciting testimony that my client was a workout fanatic, could not routinely exercise for 5 months, and as a result gained an unusual amount of weight. The judge realized how important my client’s exercise regimen was to him. Because my client proved he could not go to the gym regularly despite the incredible import of this routine to his life, the judge realized that this seemingly slight injury really affected my client’s life and gave appropriate compensation.

In Maryland, this is incredibly beneficial for accident victims especially those who cannot afford medical treatment otherwise. It allows injured victims to get the treatment they need without compromising their claim against the at-fault driver – often people feel pressure to settle their cases for less than fair value because they need the money to get medical treatment immediately.

Sadly, the District of Columbia has a statute that renders the benefits of PIP essentially meaningless. Pursuant to DC law, an injured driver must choose between (1) filing a PIP claim or (2) pursuing a claim against at-fault fault driver within sixty days of the collision (there are narrow exceptions). This puts incredible pressure on an injury victim. Essentially, victims have to decide whether to forego the most critical element of their claims i.e. pain and suffering compensation by electing the safe option of using PIP coverage within sixty days of an accident.

This quick election is problematic. It is possible that the other driver only carried minimal liability coverage which would cause you to want to elect PIP. However, within 60 days of a collision, you really don’t know what the amount of coverage is available under the other driver’s policy. This is information that insurance carriers keep close to the vest for negotiating leverage. Often, you find out the other driver’s coverage amounts after filing suit (potentially years after the collision occurred).

As a result, you have to make a major financial decision without knowing a critical factor that affects whether your decision is appropriate. If you elect to pursue pain and suffering damages by suing the at-fault driver and it turns out they have very limited coverage, you may have made a disastrous decision by electing not to take PIP benefits. It is patently unfair to force consumers and injured victims to make such quick and life-altering decisions without even being able to get sufficient information necessary to evaluate that decision appropriately.

If you happen to be injured in a car accident, getting medical attention should, of course, always be your top priority. However, if another person caused your injuries by negligently causing the car accident, your next important step is choosing a lawyer to represent you to help recover damages.Its important to speak with a lawyer as soon as possible after a car accident so that you preserve as much evidence relating to the car accident as possible.

With our experience, we understand the struggle that may result when you are in a car accident, suffer an injury and may be out of work. Coping with the loss of income, medical bills and getting health again is always difficult. As your car accident lawyer, we will deal with the insurance company and take care of every part of your lawsuit so you can spend your time and energy getting better and focusing on getting your life back in order.

We offer a free initial appointment to discuss your car accident and accept all personal injury cases, including car accident cases, on a contingency basis, meaning you do not owe us a fee unless we recover damages for you.

Call us anytime at (301)658-6776 to set up an appointment to review your options and for a free evaluation of your legal claim relating to your car accident in Rockville, Gaithersburg, Germantown or elsewhere in Montgomery County, Maryland.

If your injuries or schedule preclude you from visiting our office, we will be glad to meet with you at a time and place convenient for you.