Baltimore Personal Injury Attorney

Personal Injury

Have you been injured through no fault of your own? You need to talk to an experienced personal injury attorney about your legal rights.

With more than 100 years of combined legal experience, the respected Baltimore personal injury lawyers of Cohen & Dwin, P.A., can help you pursue the full compensation you need for your physical and emotional recovery. We can review your case for free, and our firm does not charge any fees upfront to begin work on your personal injury claim. In fact, you don’t pay us unless we recover money for you.

Please contact us today to get started.

Do I Need a Personal Injury Lawyer in Baltimore?

When you are injured in an accident or other incident, you may wonder whether you need a personal injury attorney. There are several questions you can ask yourself that will indicate whether you should speak to a personal injury lawyer about your case.

Is someone else to blame for your injury?

In order to have a viable personal injury claim, another party must have been responsible for your injury. For example, if you were hurt in a car accident caused by a negligent driver, you may be entitled to file a personal injury claim against that person. If you were injured by defective products or due to dangerous conditions on someone else’s property, you may be entitled to pursue a claim against the people and entities that made the defective products or were responsible for maintaining the property.

Are there multiple parties potentially responsible?

In many personal injury claims, there are multiple parties who bear some share of responsibility for your injuries. When multiple parties are potentially responsible, a personal injury lawyer can be critical in pursuing compensation from each party and ensuring that each party pays their fair share of the damages that you have incurred.

Does your injury require ongoing treatment?

When you are injured in an accident or incident, you may be offered a quick cash settlement by the responsible party or the insurance company. When your injuries require extended, ongoing treatment, however, accepting a quick settlement may mean that you will not receive compensation for any treatment that takes place long afterward. A personal injury attorney will know how to accurately evaluate your current and future losses to ensure that you demand total compensation for your injuries.

Are you missing work?

If you have to miss work due to your injuries, you are entitled to compensation for the wages and income that you would otherwise have earned. A personal injury lawyer will have experience in calculating lost wage damages and will know how to calculate the compensation to which you may be entitled if your injuries temporarily or permanently prevent you from returning to the level and kind of work that you performed prior to your accident.

Are you experiencing emotional stress and anxiety due to your injury?

The physical pain of injuries and the difficulties of treatment and recovery can cause you to suffer emotional stress and anxiety. You may be entitled to compensation for this. A personal injury lawyer will be able to show how stress and anxiety may have caused you damage and establish a fair compensation amount.

Has your life changed since your accident?

Injuries can leave you with changes that are long-lasting or even lifelong, such as visible disfigurements or physical disabilities. You are entitled to compensation when your quality of life is impacted by your injuries. A Baltimore personal injury attorney can show how your life has been negatively impacted by your accident or injuries, and build a case for the financial compensation to which you should be entitled to the loss of quality of life.

How Long Do I Have to File a Personal Injury Claim in Baltimore?

In Maryland, you generally have three years from the date on which an injury occurred to file a personal injury claim. However, this statute of limitations also allows exceptions.

One exception relates to the discovery of the injury. If you suffered an injury due to the negligence of another and the symptoms of that injury were not immediately evident, you have three years from the date on which you discovered or should have reasonably discovered the injury to file a personal injury claim.

The statute of limitations for filing a medical malpractice claim in Maryland differs from other personal injury claims. Medical malpractice suits must be filed within five years of the date on which the injury was sustained, regardless of when you discovered the injury.

In any personal injury or medical malpractice claim, it’s important to contact the accomplished Baltimore attorneys at Cohen & Dwin as soon as possible. Consulting with an experienced personal injury attorney immediately following your injury or the discovery of your injury allows a timely case evaluation and helps ensure that relevant evidence and documentation can be preserved.

If you were hurt in an accident, please contact the Baltimore personal injury attorneys at Cohen & Dwin for your no-cost case consultation.

Damages in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

When you are injured in an accident, you may be entitled to compensation for the various forms of damage you incur as a result of your injuries. Some of the common damages that you can recover compensation for in a personal injury claim include:

  • Medical expenses, including hospital bills, doctor’s visits, surgeries, and prescription medication
  • Rehabilitation expenses, including physical/occupational rehab, speech therapy, other kinds of rehab or therapy, or durable medical equipment
  • Lost income due to work missed while you recovered from your injuries
  • Reduced earning capacity, if your injuries prevent you from returning to the kind or amount of work that you performed before
  • Property damage, which can occur in personal injury claims like motor vehicle accidents
  • Pain and suffering, which is the physical and emotional anguish and distress caused by your injuries

Since 1977, the Baltimore personal injury attorneys of Cohen & Dwin have helped injured Marylanders recover the compensation they deserve for injuries caused by others’ acts and negligence. To talk to one of our trusted lawyers, call now for your free consultation.

Types of Personal Injury Cases We Handle in Baltimore

At Cohen & Dwin, our Baltimore personal injury lawyers have helped numerous clients recover compensation for all different kinds of personal injury claims. Some of the common types of personal injury cases that our firm handles include:

No matter the circumstances of your injury, the Baltimore personal injury lawyers of Cohen & Dwin have the experience and resources to help you demand the full and fair compensation you deserve. With more than 100 years of combined experience, our attorneys have helped accident victims throughout Maryland successfully resolve all types of complex personal injury claims.

What Should I Do After an Accident Involving Personal Injury?

Following an accident or incident that leaves you injured, there are steps you can take to protect your legal rights and options, putting yourself in the best position to fight for compensation for your injuries and damages.

First, you should seek prompt medical attention for your injuries. You should do this even if you aren’t in a lot of pain or don’t think you have the time to go to the doctor. Prompt medical attention for your injuries will not only improve the timeline and prognosis for your recovery, but it will also help you document your injuries. This will be important for supporting a personal injury claim.

Next, you should try to take photographs of the accident scene, if possible. These photographs may be critical to proving how your accident occurred and how the other party was responsible. You should also get the names of any witnesses to the accident.

Finally, you should avoid making statements to insurance companies or investigators for the party responsible for your injury. You should also avoid signing any documents or agreeing to any settlement without first speaking with a Baltimore personal injury attorney. Insurance companies and defense attorneys will try to use any statements you make to argue that you are not entitled to the full compensation you deserve. An experienced personal injury attorney will ensure that your rights are protected and that any settlement or recovery that you accept fully compensates you for all your losses.

Frequently Asked Questions in Personal Injury Cases

Personal Injury

What is personal injury law?

Personal injury law governs the right to pursue financial compensation when you suffer injury due to the intentional acts or negligence of another person or entity. Although most people think of car accidents when they speak of personal injury claims, personal injury law covers a wide range of accidents and incidents that have the potential to cause injury, such as defective products, premises liability, medical malpractice, nursing home abuse, dog bites, motorcycle accidents, truck accidents, or pedestrian accidents.

Even though most personal injury claims are brought when a party suffers a serious injury, like traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, or soft-tissue and joint injuries, even less significant injuries can require expensive medical treatment, leading to considerable damages in the form of medical bills, lost wages and earning potential, and pain and suffering.

What do you have to prove in a personal injury claim?

In a personal injury claim, it is necessary to prove that your injuries were caused by the intentional acts or negligence of another person or entity. If you claim that your injuries were caused by someone else’s negligence, you will have to prove that:

  • The other party owed you a duty of care.
  • They breached this duty of care through some act or omission.
  • Their breach of the duty of care directly and proximately caused you injury
  • Your injuries have resulted in some compensable damages.

What is a serious injury?

Even if an accident is caused by someone else’s intentional acts or negligence, if the accident does not cause serious injuries, it is usually not necessary to pursue a personal injury claim. When an accident or incident does cause serious injury, however, it is almost always necessary to pursue a personal injury claim against the persons or entities responsible for the injury.

Typically, a serious injury is any injury that will require extended or ongoing medical care, physical or occupational therapy, extended time away from work, resignation from employment, or changes to lifestyle or physical ability. Examples of serious injuries that lead to personal injury claims include:

  • Spinal cord injuries
  • Traumatic brain injuries
  • Burn injuries
  • Disfigurement
  • Amputation

Serious injuries often require months or years of medical care, rehabilitation, and therapy, along with medical equipment, adaptive technology and prosthetics, home modifications, or in-home nursing care.

Why do I need a personal injury attorney?

If you are injured in an accident, you may be quickly presented with a settlement offer from the responsible party’s insurance company, or even from your own insurance company. When you are offered compensation with no effort on your part, you may wonder why you need to hire a personal injury attorney. The fact is that such quick offers for a personal injury settlement are often totally inadequate to cover the expenses and damages you have incurred and will continue to incur long after you accept a check.

When you hire a personal injury attorney to represent you, your lawyer will advocate on your behalf to push the insurance companies to offer you a settlement that fully compensates you for all your past and future medical expenses, lost wages and earning capacity, and pain and suffering. If the insurance companies are not willing to fully compensate you, an attorney can file and pursue a personal injury lawsuit on your behalf.

How long will my case take?

It is very difficult to estimate how long a personal injury case will take. If the other party accepts responsibility for your damages, and your damages can be easily calculated, it may be possible to resolve your case in a matter of weeks. However, many personal injury cases will take at least a few months to resolve. If the other party denies responsibility for your injuries, or contests the amount of damages you have suffered, it may become necessary to file a lawsuit to pursue your claim. Personal injury lawsuits sometimes take years to resolve.

Will my case go to trial?

The reality is that most personal injury claims do not go to trial or even see the inside of a courtroom. Instead, most claims are settled before they go to trial. However, if you have a clear right to recover compensation and the other party denies that it is responsible for your injuries, or if it wants to contest the amount of compensation to which you claim you are entitled, it may be necessary for your case to go to trial.

How much is my case worth?

At a minimum, you should be compensated for the specific financial losses that you have incurred as a result of your injuries, including medical expenses, lost wages due to missed work, and property damage. If you are unable to return to your old job because of your injuries, it may be necessary to calculate your lost earning potential – or the future income you would have earned – had you not been injured.

You may also be entitled to recover pain and suffering damages, which is a more subjective determination of damages. Our veteran personal injury lawyers have decades of experience in personal injury cases, and we can use that experience to help you determine how much your personal injury case is worth.

Talk to a Personal Injury Attorney in Baltimore Now

When you are injured through no fault of your own, you are entitled to seek compensation for your medical expenses, lost income, property damage, and pain and suffering. Having experienced legal representation by your side can take the pressure off of you and allow you to focus on your recovery rather than your legal claim.

If you believe you have a personal injury claim, talk to the Baltimore personal injury lawyers at Cohen & Dwin to learn how we can help. Contact us today for a free consultation to learn more about your legal rights and options.