MARYLAND CAR ACCIDENT LAWYER
The Law Office of Marc Atas and Associates handles auto accidents that occur in the Baltimore City and all 23 Maryland Counties. We have obtained millions of dollars in compensation for injured victims throughout Maryland.
Negligent drivers put others on the road at risk, and unfortunately, they often cause accidents with serious and sometimes fatal injuries. Many car accident victims suffer from broken bones, whiplash, spinal cord injuries, back pain, and brain injuries after a collision.
Some of these injuries will heal within a few months, but others can continue to affect the victim for the rest of his or her life. Victims may require round-the-clock care at home or be unable to work as a result of their injuries.
Personal relationships can also be affected after a serious car accident as everyone in the victim’s family struggles to adjust to the new normal. For these reasons, victims are entitled to recover compensation if they have been injured by a negligent driver.
If you have been injured in an auto accident caused by another driver’s negligence, you will need to speak with a skilled car accident attorney regarding your case today. Get in touch with our team by calling 410-752-4878. Our car accident attorneys can review the details of your case and discuss your legal options during a free case evaluation.
YOU NEED AN AUTO ACCIDENT ATTORNEY YOU CAN AFFORD.
Is there an initial cost to meet with you?
The simple answer is no. The initial consultation is free.
Often, I can answer simple legal questions over the phone. My general philosophy with regard to giving legal advice is as follows. If you have a relatively simple question, that can be answered based upon my present knowledge, I will be glad to answer to question or give you some guidance without charging you for my expertise.
I have had wide legal experience over more than thirty- eight years, so there are many topics that I am familiar with. If I do not know the answer, but can figure it out with minimal work, for an old client there is likely to be no charge. If the matter is outside of my areas of knowledge or expertise, then I still encourage clients to call. I like to act as the gatekeeper for all of my clients’ legal problems.
I keep a list of lawyers I recommend for all types of legal problems. Most of these lawyers I personally know or have referred clients in the past with successful results.
A lawyer can- not possibly know all of the laws in all of the areas of law. It is hard enough to know all of the law in one area of expertise.
The initial consultation is important to the lawyer as well as the client. For the client it is your opportunity to meet the lawyer and tell him about the case. Questions should be asked of the lawyer regarding your case, as well as about the lawyer. Clients should size up the lawyer at that time to make sure the lawyer is someone the client wants to work with.
If you take my case, how is your fee determined?
In auto accident and personal injury claims, the fee is one third of whatever is recovered. The fee is based upon the gross recovery. If there is no recovery, there is no fee and no expenses reimbursement is due. In addition, you may be responsible for any expenses incurred if there is a recovery.
If, suit has to be filed because the case can- not be settled, the fee percentage will raise to forty percent of any gross recovery. Gross recovery means the total amount recovered before any medical bills, expenses, liens, and lost wages are paid. There normally is no fee for personal injury protection benefits or property damages paid unless suit is required to collect those benefits.
In addition, clients will be responsible for reimbursing the attorney for any expenses incurred by the attorney only if there is a settlement or jury or judge verdict. Expenses are explained in the next section.
How long will my Car, Truck or Motorcycle Accident take to Settle?
When you are involved in an accident, the legal process can be confusing. Ideally, the client’s goals are to obtain great medical treatment and to settle the case as quickly as possible for the most amount of money.
There are numerous steps in order to accomplish all of the client’s goals. Cases can be resolved or settled during three different time periods, before suit is filed, after suit is filed but before trial, or at a trial. Factors that effect when cases are resolved are numerous.
Cases often settle without a trial or before suit is filed. The steps necessary to prepare a case for settlement without a trial or before suit is filed are outlined in the following four blog articles:
ROADMAP FOR A MARYLAND AUTO MOTORCYCLE OR TRUCK ACCIDENT CASE
Baltimore Injury Lawyer Explains What Determines Who Is Responsible in An Auto Accident
What Can an Accident Lawyer Baltimore Do for Me in An Automobile Accident Case?
How Long for Car Accident Claim to Settle?
Auto Accidents from A to Z
Many questions may be running through your mind if you have been involved in an accident while driving. An attorney can restore the quiet and provide answers to help you understand how to handle your case, every step of the way.
What should I do when involved in an auto accident?
- Stay calm and do not admit fault to anyone.
- Call the police.
- Exchange information with the other driver.
- If injured, try to go to the hospital the same day.
- Make sure you write down the tag number, name of driver, name of other car’s owner, insurance information and the police report number, even if the police officer tells you that he has gotten all the information and will give you a police report.
- Contact your attorney to discuss the options in your case.
- Contact your insurance company to report the accident.
- If you don’t intend to use a lawyer, contact the other driver’s insurance company.
Automobile Accident Frequently Asked Questions
How long for car accident claim to settle?
Clients often ask how long does it take for a car accident claim to be settled. In fact, typically that’s one of the first questions that clients ask in the initial interview.
I give clients the same answer each time. “It depends.”
If the insurance company accepts responsibility immediately, and the if client’s injuries are relatively minor and if I receive all the medical bills in a relatively short period of time and if the insurance company is reasonable in negotiations and calls me back when I call, then the case can settle usually within 30 days after the client’s treatment has completed.
However, there’s a lot if’s in this particular sentence and for that reason while some cases can settle within two months of the accident other cases can take years before the case is resolved by the courts.
How much do car accident lawyers charge?
There is no standard fee that a car accident lawyer can charge his client in order to answer the question, How much do car accident lawyers charge?
It is against the law, for lawyers to collude and agree that every lawyer in a State would charge the same fee for the same service.
Under Maryland law while there is no minimum fee for a car accident case or automobile accident case, the Courts as well as the attorney grievance commission has made it clear that an attorney fee should not be unreasonable and seems to have defined unreasonable as any fee greater than 40% contingency fee plus expenses. Therefore, the answer to the question, how much do car accident lawyers charge? can be complicated
Most people involved in a car accident want to know How much do car accident lawyers charge? Most people involved in a car accident cannot afford to pay an attorney by the hour to represent them in a car accident case.
If the lawyer charged by the hour at the going rate of $200.00 per hour to as high as $450.00 per hour and asked for a Retainer up front (for instance $2500.00 up front), most clients would not be able to afford to pay the retainer or the cost per hour.
In order to solve the problem of the little guy fighting the big insurance company, the contingency fee arrangement has answered the question How much do car accident lawyers charge?
A contingency fee means that if there is no recovery in the client’s case then there will be no fee. If there is a recovery in the client’s case than the fee will be a percentage of whatever the client recovers. No money is paid by the client until the end of the case and only paid if money is won.
How much do car accident lawyers charge? In addition to the contingency fee, most, if not all lawyers also expect to be reimbursed, for expenses incurred in order to prove or win your case.
What Money Can I Recover As a Result of a Truck, Motorcycle Or Baltimore Car Accident?
The first item of damage in a car accident is the damage to your motor vehicle. Motor vehicle damages has three parts.
Actual physical damage to the vehicle. You have the absolute right to have your vehicle fixed at the shop of your choice. You have a right to require the shop to use parts that will not void your manufacturer’s warranty. If the parts the insurance company wants to use are of equal quality to manufacturers parts, you may require manufacturers parts but would have to pay the difference in costs.
You are entitled to a rental car with a model comparable to the one you were driving at the time of the accident
If as a result of the accident, even after your vehicle has been repaired, the value of the vehicle has diminished because it now has a history of being involved in an accident, thereby lessening of the value of the vehicle, then you can present a diminished value claim. In order to make a diminished value claim, it is necessary to obtain an expert in order to calculate what the diminished value is.
The Second item of damage in a car accident is the damage to your body.
You’re entitled to be reimbursed for any lost wages. If you miss any time from work as result of the accident because you are physically or mentally unable, then you can be reimbursed for the lost time.
If you’re not able to get to work because you don’t have transportation due to the accident than you should be reimbursed for your lost wages. If you are permanently unable to return back to the type of work you were doing at the time of the accident, then damages should be awarded for any loss of earning capacity.
If you lose your job because you are not able to return to work before the employer needs to replace you, then you should be compensated for the loss of the job.
You’re entitled to be reimbursed for any medical expenses including medical expenses in the past incurred up to the time the case is settled including chiropractors in physical therapy any x-rays and doctors, etc.
If you need treatment in the future on a periodic basis for chiropractors in physical therapy any x-rays and doctors, etc. as recommended by your doctor, then it would be necessary to retain a life care planner to calculate those future costs and attempt to collect them.
The last piece of the puzzle is called pain-and-suffering. Pain-and-suffering is usually the biggest piece of a settlement. Pain-and-suffering is reimbursement for the physical and emotional pain incurred prior to the case being settled as well as physical and emotional pain incurred in the future.
Pain and suffering can include any disability, scaring, loss of consortium, which is how it affected your marriage and inconvenience, how the accident changed your life during treatment time, and perhaps for the rest of your life.
What is My Maryland Car Accident Worth?
How does a lawyer know what is my car accident or personal injury case worth? Does the lawyer just pick a number out of the air? Does the lawyer make it up? Can I just multiply the medical times three? What is the magic secret?
I have been evaluating, settling, and trying auto accident and personal injury claims for over 38 years.
The methods I have used has changed over the years as insurance company methods and verdicts have changed. Juries attitudes over the years change and tend to run in cycles. Juries can be very conservative for a period of years and then times may change.
As a result, insurance companies as well as lawyers must change in order to adapt to the times. When I first started practicing law, insurance companies would add up the medicals and multiply the medicals by three and add in the lost wages.
As insurance companies started having good success trying cases, they developed a computer system called Colossus. Colossus is a computer program with information from all of the country and the insurance companies use Colossus to evaluate a claim.
Even though the insurance company uses Colossus to standardize their evaluation of the claim, a good car accident lawyer uses his own expertise and experience in order to evaluate the claim.
There are so many factors that a good car accident lawyer will consider in order to evaluate a claim. Clients insist there must be a formula, but there is not.
No one really knows what a judge or jury will award in a case if the case goes to trial. But an experienced trial lawyer will have a feel for what impresses a jury and what does not impress them. There are hundreds of factors to consider.
What determines who is responsible in an automobile accident?
Figuring out who is at fault in a traffic accident is a matter of deciding who was careless. And for vehicle accidents, there is a set of official written rules telling people how they are supposed to drive and providing guidelines by which liability may be measured.
These rules of the road are the traffic laws everyone must learn to pass the driver’s license test. Complete rules are contained in each state’s Vehicle Code, and they apply not only to automobiles but also to motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians.
Figuring out who is at fault in a traffic accident is a matter of deciding who was careless. And for vehicle accidents, there is a set of official written rules telling people how they are supposed to drive and providing guidelines by which liability may be measured.
These rules of the road are the traffic laws everyone must learn to pass the driver’s license test. Complete rules are contained in each state’s Vehicle Code, and they apply not only to automobiles but also to motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians.
The rules of the road are complex. Clients often tell me well he hit me so he is at fault. Who hit whom is usually irrelevant. Clients should never try to handle the case without a lawyer.
While there are thousands of traffic laws that deal with drivers’ obligations to each other, there are some basic traffic rules which repeatedly appear relevant in determining liability and which a good Baltimore Injury lawyer will know.
- Negligence is doing something that a person using reasonable care would not do, or not doing something that a person using reasonable care would do. Reasonable care means that caution, attention or skill a reasonable person would use under similar circumstances.
- A reasonable person changes conduct according to the circumstances and the danger that is known or would be appreciated by a reasonable person. Therefore, if the foreseeable danger increases, a reasonable person acts more carefully.
- The violation of a statute, which is a cause of plaintiff’s injuries or damages, is evidence of negligence.
- Striking a stopped car or a moving car in the rear
- If you change lanes and hit another car in the lane you are changing into
- If you run a red light and collide with a vehicle that has a green light
- If you run a stop sign and collide with a vehicle that did not have a stop sign
- If you fail to yield the right of way at a yield sign and collide with a vehicle that did not have a yield sign
- If you make a left turn, in front of traffic going in the opposite direction
- If you pull from a park position and hit another vehicle on the boulevard
- If you pull out of a parking lot or side street and collide with a car on the boulevard
- If you stop at a red light and make a right turn on red or go straight after you stop while the light is still red and collide with a vehicle that has a green light
- If you stop at the stop sign and then proceed and collide with a vehicle that did not have a stop sign
- Crossing the center line
- roundabout road law
- speeding
What Happens When A Car Accident or Personal Injury Case Cannot Be Settled? Atas Law- (410) 752-4878
Preparing For Direct & Cross Examination In A Car Accident Or Personal Injury Case- (410) 752-4878
How To Value My Car Accident or Personal Injury Case- Atas Law- (410) 752-4878
How To Prepare For A Deposition- Atas Law-
(410) 752-4878