Maryland Injury Claims
Process Explained

Maryland Injury Claims Process Explained.

You’ve been injured due to someone else’s carelessness. You’ve hired us and you’re wondering what will happen from now until your claim is resolved.

Let me tell you what usually happens. Obviously, there are exceptions to these general rules.

Investigation

We will also begin to gather the medical records and bills that will be needed when it is time to try to resolve your claim.

Should You Try to Settle? When?

In almost all cases, you should begin to try to resolve your claim only after you are fully recovered from your injuries, or, if you are not going to recovery fully, only after you reach “maximum medical improvement,” or MMI.

Only when you get to this point will you know the full nature and extent of your injuries. Only then will you know all of the consequences of your injuries.

When you recover or reach MMI, figuratively speaking you can look back over your shoulder and see where you have been. How long have you suffered from your injuries? Have you recovered fully? How much has your medical treatment cost? How much income did you lose because you couldn’t work? How has your life been affected by your accident and injuries?

Until Then, It's as Simple as 1-2-3!

First, until you recover, you should focus on getting better. Get whatever medical treatment you need and continue with the treatment until you are released by your physician. Your purposes for getting the treatment are to get better and to minimize your symptoms while you are recovering. An additional result of you getting necessary medical care is that the physician’s records of treatment document your condition and the treatment that you received.

So, Rule 1 is: “get necessary medical care.”

After we are hired, we will promptly notify the appropriate insurance company that we represent you and that they should deal with us, and not with you. After we put them on notice of our representation, it is unlikely that the insurance company for the at-fault party will contact you.

However, before you hire a lawyer or if the insurance company contacts you even though you have a lawyer, don’t talk to them. If you have hired us, direct them to us. If you haven’t hired a lawyer, politely tell them that you don’t wish to talk now and that you will contact them later.

There are important reasons for not talking to the opposing insurance company.

We have seen a number of cases where statements that an injured person made to an insurance company – often very soon after a serious injury and perhaps while under the influence of potent medications – have been misunderstood, misinterpreted or, possibly, even misrepresented.

Why risk it? There is no penalty for declining to talk to them. It is completely lawful. You can still settle your claim. It will not be delayed.

There is no penalty if you do not talk to the opposing forces, and there is a risk of harm if you do, so Rule 2 is “don’t talk to the Bad Guys.”

I call the adjuster and the adverse insurance company the Bad Guys to remind you that they are not on your side. Their purpose is not to help you. It is to protect them. Don’t forget these realities.

Third, you should also make notes along the way so that you will not forget any important details. It usually takes months, or even longer, to resolve claims. If you don’t write details down, you will forget some of them . . . guaranteed. If we instruct you to make these notes, they are “privileged” which means that only you and we can see them. You will not have to give them to our adversaries.

Making notes includes making photos of the scene of your injury, of the damage to your vehicle if you have had a motor vehicle accident or of injuries that can be shown by photographs.

Let’s call this what it is. You have to become “evidence conscious.” You have to preserve ways that you can explain, to someone who has not lived through it, what you have gone through.

Rule 3: “keep notes and records,” or “be evidence conscious.”

How Your Claim Will Be Presented

Before a case is filed in court, there is an incentive for both sides to avoid the hassle and expense of the court process.

We will prepare a “settlement letter,” which is also called a “demand letter,” that will be sent to the opposing insurance company. We will want you to review the letter and help to improve it. After all, you are the one who has lived through your experience and no one knows more about what you have gone through than you.

The settlement letter will explain how the incident that caused your injury occurred and why the insurance company’s policyholder is responsible. In other words, why their insured is liable.

The settlement letter will also explain all of the injuries and damages that you have suffered. Medical bills and records, and perhaps other evidence, such as accident reports, reports of experts and photos of injuries, will be submitted with the settlement letter.

Settlement Negotiations

We will take appropriate action if the insurance company does not respond within the time limit.

After we speak to the claims adjuster for the first time, we will have a better idea whether your claim will be able to be settled. From experience, we will gleen from the initial discussion and from the insurance company’s initial offer to you how much they will probably offer later on.

After consulting with you, if there is any hope of settlement, we will negotiate with the claims adjuster, trying to get an acceptable settlement offer.

We will report all settlement offers to you. Part of our job is to advise you, to explain the offer and to make a recommendation to you. In our advice, we will be very practical. We will consider and advise you concerning the net amount that you will receive and the time involved and costs of the alternative, filing the case in court.

Remember that only you can decide to settle your claim. We work for you . . . not the other way around.

Frankly, negotiating is more art than science. Some lawyers are better at it than others. Generally, the most effective negotiators are the lawyers that . . .

** understand all of the facts of your case because they have listened carefully to you and thoroughly reviewed the evidence,

** who have passion for your case,

** who can articulate clearly what you have gone through and

** who understand what are realistic expectations for a settlement in your case.

If an offer is made that you will accept, all that remains is processing the paperwork. Within about two weeks after an agreement is reached, the proceeds of your settlement should be in your hands.

When you settle a claim, you make a trade. The insurance company, on behalf of the person who caused your injuries, pays you money to compensate you for all of your injuries and damages. In return, you sign a release giving up your right to make any further claims as a result of your accident.

Obviously, you do not make this trade unless you are sure it is what you want to do.

If a settlement is made, the insurance company will send us a check and a release. After we review the release and advise you about it, and any necessary changes are made, you must sign the release.

You must also review and approve a proposed disbursement of the proceeds of your settlement which we will prepare. On this disbursement sheet, we will explain the payments that we propose to make after the settlement check clears. Deductions will include any costs of the process that you are obligated to pay, any accident related medical bills that you want us to pay or which we are required to pay, legal fees, and the like.

You have to sign the release and approve the disbursements before we can disburse the settlement proceeds to you.

Finally, we send the release back to the insurance company, completing the settlement.

Going to Court

Actually, there are 2 courts in Maryland, the lower District Court and the higher Circuit Court. So, the first decision is which court to choose.

We will advise you concerning going to court. We will explain the procedures, the amount of time involved, the cost of going to court and our best estimate of what is likely to happen in court.

While it is our job to estimate what will happen in court, remember that no lawyer, no matter how much experience the lawyer may have, can read minds or predict with certainty what a judge or a jury will do in the future.

Therefore, since predicting court results is very difficult, a decision to file your case in court often turns on the question of how much of a gambler you are.

Remember this: only you can decide to take your case to court. We cannot take your case to court without your approval.

If we file your case in court, can you still reach a settlement? Yes, you can.

However, once the case is filed in court, settlement possibilities are usually slim until we get close to the time that we will go to court. There are exceptions, but this is the way it usually works.

Pretrial Discovery Procedures

As part of the discovery process, you will probably be asked to answer written questions -- called Interrogatories -- to produce documents , to appear and answer questions at a deposition and to submit to a medical examination by a doctor chosen by our adversary about the injuries that you claim. We thoroughly prepare you for these procedures and are at your side every step of the way.

At the same time, we will be using the same procedures to learn the details of the other side's case.

This exchange of information is usually governed by an order from the court that establishes deadlines for completing various procedures, and there are serious penalties if you miss the deadlines. So be sure to always act promptly when we ask you to help with these pretrial procedures.

Arbitration & Mediation

Mediation is different from something else that you have probably heard of, arbitration. Arbitration is a “rent-a-judge” procedure where the parties hire an experienced and respected person to hear the evidence at a hearing and then decide the case.

A mediator, on the other hand, has no authority to impose a solution on you. Instead, the mediator acts as a facilitator, trying to help the two sides reach an agreement. Although there is usually a charge for going to mediation, I think that you should usually try mediation. Generally, I believe that the more ways you try to resolve your claim the more likely you will be to get a good result.

If this all fails to result in a settlement, your case goes to trial. To learn more about what that means, see our explanation of trials.

To learn more about the Maryland Injury Claims Process, contact us.