Although it’s nice to tell your friends and neighbors that your lawyer graduated No. 1 in his or her class from Harvard Law School, it will not be comforting when you are in court for the first time and you find out it’s the lawyer’s first time too!

Obviously, it is important that the lawyer has passed the state bar exam and is properly licensed. However, there is no substitute for experience. Ask the lawyer how many similar cases he or she has handled. How long ago? What was the outcome? Get the specific details. If the lawyer doesn’t have experience, what will he or she do to get it? Is the lawyer willing to work with another experienced lawyer and learn? see attached article on how to choose an attorney

Some lawyers limit their practice to a certain area, which is becoming more common because of all the rapid changes in laws. Determine if the lawyer specializes in the type of case you have. Furthermore, the state bar certifies lawyers in certain limited areas (i.e. family law, tax, and workers’ compensation). Determine from the lawyer whether a certification for your particular area of interest exists and whether the lawyer is certified.

One of the most common disputes between lawyers and clients involves fees. The main reason: poor communication. Ask, up front, what it will cost to handle your case.

Get into the specific details. Ask if your first visit is free. Determine whether you will be billed for telephone conversations with the lawyer. Although it may be difficult for an attorney to predict exactly what the fee will be, an experienced lawyer should be able to give you an estimate or range.

Ask about the billing policies. Will you pay an hourly fee, a fixed fee or a contingency fee? Ask about costs (i.e. filing fees, experts, court reporters, etc.), who will pay them and when. Also ask about whether the lawyer charges for copies, faxes, postage and long-distance telephone calls. If so, how much? If your matter will exceed $1,000, the lawyer’s fee agreement must be in writing. Make sure you carefully read the fee agreement before signing.

Fees in a personal injury case.

These include references from other lawyers, judges and especially clients. Past or present clients have valuable insight and knowledge about the lawyer and his services. Ask for client references and call them.

Lawyers not returning calls on a timely basis is another complaint of disgruntled clients. Ask how quickly you can expect a return telephone call.

Ask about the process and how long each stage will take.

Another complaint from unhappy clients is that after retaining the lawyer, they never hear from him or her again except when they receive a bill. Ask whether you will receive copies of documents generated or received by the lawyer. Ask whether you will be advised of contacts made by your lawyer.

If the lawyer works in a firm, determine who will be primarily responsible for your case. It is not unusual or unethical for a senior lawyer to oversee and supervise a junior lawyer handling a case. In fact, if your legal issue involves lengthy research, it may be more economical to have the work done by a junior attorney at a lower billable rate. However, ask so there are no surprises later.

If a potential conflict exists, you may have to continue looking for another lawyer. If the conflict is not significant, it may be possible to waive the conflict with your full written consent.

Under rules governing lawyers, the lawyer must advise you in writing whether she or he maintains malpractice insurance.

To pursue a claim against another party for unintentionally causing an injury, you must prove that he/she has been negligent. Negligence is the legal word for carelessness. The legal definition of negligence requires four elements:

• that there is a legal duty owned to you by the other party
• that the party breached that duty to you
• that as a result of said breach of duty you sustained injuries
• that those injuries were caused by the negligent action or breach of duty

A more simple definition is that the person who caused the injuries did not act in a normal way in which a reasonable person would act under similar circumstances. Negligence can occur in many different circumstances. If an accident is caused on property that is dangerous because it is poorly built or maintained, the owner of the property is liable for being careless in maintaining the property, regardless of whether he or she actually created the dangerous condition.

For example, if you are on someone else’s property either as a visitor or a tenant and are doing business on the property, the owner of that property has a responsibility to keep the premises properly maintained. If that owner knows or should have known about a dangerous or defective condition but fails to remedy the situation in a timely manner despite adequate time, he/she is liable and is considered negligent for not preventing your injuries.

These situations frequently arise in slips and falls on an owner’s piece of property or when a tenant or one of his guests is injured in a rental property. To hold the owner of a property liable, it is not sufficient to merely say that the injury took place on that property; you must also prove that the owner owed you a duty in that you were some sort of patron or authorized guest and that the owner either knew or should have known of the dangerous or defective condition that caused the accident.

If the landlord or business owner has a defective condition or slippery area and is unaware of it, because he/she has not been notified and had no way of doing a reasonable inspection to discover the situation, he/she may not be liable, because he/she did not have enough notice to remedy the situation.

For example, if you are in a store and a customer spills a foreign substance on the floor prior to you walking in that area and nobody notifies the store owner, the owner of that building is not liable for your injuries even though it happened on those premises because he did not have proper notice and had no way of knowing about the slippery condition. On the other hand, if the substance had been there for a long period of time and there was sufficient time for the owner to have done reasonable inspections or for someone to have notified him, he may be liable even if he had no notice.

In typical landlord/tenant situations where the tenant lives in the property and doesn’t notify the landlord of the problem, he/she may not be able to file an action against the landlord because he/she failed to notify the landlord of the dangerous condition. Without adequate time and notice, the landlord or owner cannot be held accountable. If, however, the tenant notifies the landlord of the dangerous and defective condition and the landlord fails to properly fix the condition, the landlord may be liable because he/she has had notice and still failed to do his/her duty.

If an accident is caused by a defective product, the manufacturer and the seller of the product may both be liable for the injury. Defective products are everywhere, including cars, baby cribs, medicines, etc. In these particular cases you don’t normally have to prove negligence and may proceed on a theory of strict liability.

Maryland Dog Bite Law

Maryland is a one bite state, does not recognize a separate cause of action for dog owner negligence, and will not permit a victim to recover if his own actions contributed even just one percent to the cause of the accident.

Overview

The traditional doctrine that makes a person liable for harm inflicted by a domestic animal is referred to as “scienter” (the Latin word for “knowingly”), “common law strict liability,” and “the one bite rule.” As it applies to dog bites, this doctrine holds that a victim can recover compensation from the owner, harborer or keeper of a dog (a) the dog previously bit a person or acted like it wanted to, and (b) the defendant was aware of the dog’s previous conduct. If either of those conditions are not met, however, this doctrine prevents the victim from recovering anything.

With the exception of pit bulls, Maryland adheres to the one bite rule. The owner or keeper of an animal, if he has actual or constructive knowledge of its ferocious or dangerous propensities, may be responsible, depending upon the circumstances, for all proximately caused injury or damage. Twigg v. Ryland, 62 Md. 380 (1884). The defendant will be held liable whether the incident happens on a public street (Bachman v. Clark, 128 Md. 245, 97 A. 440 (1916)) or the defendant’s own premises (Hamilton v. Smith,242 Md. 599, 219 A.2d 783 (1966)), but in the latter case the victim cannot recover if he is an intentional or inadvertent trespasser Bramble v. Thompson 264 Md 518).

The one bite rule is the foundation of dog bite law. It exists in every state. The majority of states, however, have statutes that supplement the one bite rule. These dog bite statutes or animal liability statutes make dog owners responsible for all bites including the first one. Additionally, the majority of states impose liability on dog owners and others under a variety of other legal doctrines, including negligence, premises liability, nuisance, and negligence per se for a violation of an animal control law such as a leash law, a law prohibiting dogs from being at large, or a law prohibiting dogs from trespassing.

This particular state does not have a dog bite statute. Critics have asserted that not having a dog bite statute is at odds with modern American beliefs about personal responsibility, because the one bite rule shields a dog owner from liability each time one of his dogs bites a person for the first time unless it can be proved that the owner knew that the dog had the propensity to bite people without justification. Whether one agrees with these critics or not, it nevertheless is true that a dog bite victim has more to prove in the absence of a dog bite statute.

This state also has sharply limited the dog bite victim’s cause of action for negligence. Negligence is the lack of ordinary care; that is, the absence of the kind of care a reasonably prudent and careful person would exercise in similar circumstances. If a person’s conduct in a given circumstance doesn’t measure up to the conduct of an ordinarily prudent and careful person, then that person is negligent. For example, letting a stray dog into a day care center is negligence. . To recover compensation on the ground of negligence in this state, however, the victim must prove the elements of the one bite rule (i.e., that the dog had the propensity to bite people without justification, and that the owner, harborer or keeper knew it). See below, Liability based upon common law strict liability. Therefore the dog bite victim in this state has to satisfy more requirements than victims who are negligently injured by other means. For example, if a dog owner brought his pit bull to a day care center, and the dog mauled a toddler, the dog owner would have no liability at all unless the parents of the child could prove that the dog had demonstrated the specific dangerous propensity to bite people. The sheer stupidity and recklessness of bringing the dog there in the first place would not be enough to make the dog owner liable in this state.

The violation of an animal control law can result in liability on the part of the violator, whether or not he owns the dog. States, counties and cities often have laws requiring dogs to be on leash, or prohibiting them from being at large or from trespassing. With few exceptions, courts have ruled that violating such laws can be the basis of liability. In this state, the violation constitutes evidence of negligence. (Moura v. Randall, 119 Md. App. 632, 705 A.2d 334 (1998).)

There is one circumstance in which owners and harborers of a dog will be held strictly liable without the proof required by the doctrines of scienter or negligence. Maryland has imposed “a strict liability standard in respect to the owning, harboring or control of pit bulls and cross-bred pit bulls in lieu of the traditional common law liability principles.” In Tracey v. Solesky, the state’s highest court ruled that pure pit bulls are inherently dangerous as a breed, making their owners and harborers strictly liable for injuries inflicted by these dogs. As revised, the decision applies to “pure” pit bulls, leaving open the question as to whether the strict liability standard shall be applied to owners and harborers of cross-bred or “mixed” pit bulls in the future.

Liability based upon common law strict liability

The basic rule of liability in Maryland was stated as follows in Herbert v. Ziegler, 216 Md. 212, 139 A.2d 699 (1958):

To hold liable the owner of a domestic animal that has caused injury, the claimant must show that the owner knew, or by the exercise of ordinary and reasonable care should have known, of the inclination or propensity of the animal to do the particular mischief that was the cause of the harm. Twigg v. Ryland, 62 Md. 380, 386 [1884]; and May Co. v. Drury [160 Md. 143, 153 Atl. 61 (1931)], Evans v. Upmier [16 N.W. 2d 6 (Ia. 1944)] and Lynch v. Richardson, [39 N.E. 801 (Mass. 1895)], all supra; Prosser, Page 457} Torts (2d ed.), Sec. 57, pp. 323-325; Restatement, Torts, Sec. 518. Id. at 216.

In Hamilton v. Smith, 242 Md. 599, 608, 219 A.2d 783 (1965), it was established that the owner of three dogs who had savagely attacked a nine-year old boy had actual knowledge of the dogs’ vicious propensities. The court held that “there are three elements which must be proven against a defendant in order to show negligence on his part: (1) owning or harboring of an animal; (2) with vicious propensities, (3) with knowledge (scienter) of its vicious propensities.”

Scienter means knowledge of dangerousness and does not necessarily require a prior bite. In Twigg v. Ryland, 62 Md. 380 (1884), it was held that:

The owner or keeper of the dog or other domestic animal must be shown to have had knowledge of its disposition to commit such injury, and the burden of proving this fact is on the plaintiff, though it would be otherwise if the animal was of a nature to be fierce and untamable, such as bears, tigers, etc. Spring Co. v. Edgar, 99 U.S. 645. The notice which will charge the owner or keeper with liability for the vicious conduct of the animal must be notice that it was inclined to do the particular mischief that has been done. Hence, notice that a dog is ferociously disposed towards cattle, is no notice that he will attack persons. It is not necessary to show that the owner or keeper of a vicious dog has seen the animal attack mankind; but it is sufficient to show that the vicious propensity of the animal has, in some way, been brought to the knowledge of the owner or keeper, so as to admonish him to take the necessary precaution to prevent injury in the future. Hence the question in each case is whether the notice was sufficient to put the owner or keeper on his guard, and to require him to anticipate the injury that has actually been done. Id. at 385-86.

Knowledge of dangerousness can be proved by circumstantial evidence that infers knowledge of dangerousness on the part of the dog owner. Bachman v. Clark, 128 Md. 245, 248, 97 A. 440 (1916). In that case, there was evidence that the dog was always kept in an enclosure; that the dog would jump on people entering the enclosure; that the dog would become excited, bark and run up and down the fence, attempting to bite a stick thrust between the palings by boys upon the outside; that the dog would growl; and that the dog was always kept within the enclosure except when on a strap. On the basis of that evidence, the court held there was legally sufficient evidence to go to the jury as tending to show the defendant’s knowledge of the dog’s vicious propensity or inclination to bite mankind.

It must first be shown, in order to render the owner liable for damages to one bitten by his dog, that the dog had a vicious propensity, and second that such vicious propensity or inclination was known to its owner. But the owner’s knowledge of the dog’s vicious propensity need only be such as to put him on his guard and to require him as an ordinary prudent person to anticipate the act or conduct of the dog resulting in the injury for which the owner is sought to be held liable. 3 C.J. 96. The owner’s knowledge of the propensity of the dog may be, and most generally is, acquired from its conduct and behavior, although such knowledge may be acquired from other persons, and in some cases the knowledge of others is imputed to the owner.

However, knowledge of dangerousness is not implied if it is based solely on breed, as least in a case that did not involve a pit bull. In McDonald v. Burgess, 254 Md. 452, 255 A.2d 299 (Md.App. 07/01/1969), a child apparently was injured by a German Shepherd when the owner took the child into the dog’s dog run. The plaintiff argued that the fact that the dog was a German Shepherd should have put the dog owner on notice that the dog might be dangerous. The court rejected that argument.

Landlord Liability

“`[W]here a landlord leases separate portions of his property to different tenants and reserves under his control the passageways and stairways, and other parts of the property for the common use of all the tenants[,] he must then exercise ordinary care and diligence to maintain the retained portions in a reasonably safe condition.’ Langley Park Apts. v. Lund Adm’r, 234 Md. 402, 407, 199 A.2d 620, 623 (1964).

The duty to maintain these areas in a reasonably safe condition extends not only to the tenant but “includes the members of his family, his guests, his invitees, and others on the land in the right of the tenant.” Landay v. Cohn, 220 Md. 24, 27, 150 A.2d 739, 741 (1959). “It has been held that a child on the land at the invitation of the child of the tenant is entitled to the benefit of the landlord’s obligation in this respect.” Landay v. Cohn, supra, 220 Md. at 27-28, 150 A.2d at 741.

Accordingly, in Shields v. Wagman, [citation needed], the Supreme Court held that landlords of a strip shopping center may be liable for injuries sustained by a business invitee and a tenant when they were attacked by a pit bull dog owned by another tenant and kept on the leased premises. The injuries in Shields occurred in a common area, the parking lot of the shopping center, on two occasions when the pit bull escaped from the leased premises.

Where a landlord agrees to rectify a dangerous condition in the leased premises, and fails to do so, he may be liable for injuries caused by the condition. See, e.g., Sacks v. Pleasant, 253 Md. 40, 44-46, 251 A.2d 858, 861-862 (1969) (landlord held liable for injuries caused by a defective toilet seat where the landlord promised but failed to repair the same); Farley v. Yerman, 231 Md. 444, 448, 190 A.2d 773, 775 (1963) (“a tenant . . . may maintain an action for injuries sustained as a result of an uncorrected defect . . . if there was a contractual obligation to repair the particular defect and a reasonable opportunity to correct it. . . . A promise made in the face of a threat to move or a request by the landlord that the tenant remain creates a contract supported by consideration”).

Similarly, if a landlord voluntarily undertakes to rectify a dangerous or defective condition within the leased premises, and does so negligently, the landlord is liable for resulting injuries even though he was not contractually obligated to correct the condition in the first place. Miller v. Howard, 206 Md. 148, 155, 110 A.2d 683, 686 (1955); Miller v. Fisher, 111 Md. 91, 94, 73 A. 891, 892 (1909) (“although a landlord, in the absence of a covenant to that effect, is ordinarily not bound to repair, yet if he assumes to do so, and performs the work so negligently as to cause an injury thereby, he is responsible”).

Defective or dangerous conditions in the leased premises which violate statutes or ordinances may also be the basis for a negligence action against the landlord. See, e.g., Richwind v. Brunson, supra, 335 Md. at 671, 645 A.2d at 1152 (adopting Restatement (Second) of Property: Landlord and Tenant 17.6 (1977)).

The doctrine of strict liability applies to cases involving pit bulls on the leased premises. A landlord may be held liable for injuries inflicted by a pit bull which is owned, kept or harbored on the leased premises, provided that the landlord has the right to prohibit such dogs on the premises and knows or has reason to know that the dog is a pit bull. See the discussion of Tracey v. Solesky, supra.

Defenses to dog bite cases

Contributory negligence

Maryland is one of the few American states that adheres to the ancient rule of contributory negligence, as opposed to the modern variants of that rule. In a contributory negligence state, a victim cannot recover any compensation for his injuries if he contributed even slightly to the occurrence of the accident. “One who by his own negligence has contributed to an  accident in any essential degree cannot recover damages therefore.”  Baltimore & O. R.R. Co. v. State, 29 Md. 252 (1868).

Negligence of parents as a defense

A parent’s negligence will be deemed to constitute an “independent and superseding cause of the child’s injuries” in only an “extraordinary situation.” Caroline v. Reicher, supra, 269 Md. at 130, 304 A.2d at 834.

Negligence of child under five years old not a defense

The case of Miller v. Graff, 196 Md. 609, 620, 78 A.2d 220, 224 (1951) held that “a child four years old cannot be guilty of contributory negligence under any circumstances.” If the victim is 5 or over, he may be contributorily negligent if he failed to exercise that degree of care of reasonable person of like age, intelligence, and experience under like circumstances. Taylor v. Armiger, 277 Md. 638, 358 A.2d 883 (1976). In other words, a child is not judged by the same standards as an adult.

Lack of time to evict tenant not a defense where no attempt was made to evict

A landlord can be held liable for injuries inflicted by a tenant’s dog under certain circumstances, described above. One of the landlord’s defenses is that he lacked the time to evict the tenant who harbored the vicious dog. In the case of Matthews v. Amberwood Associates Limited Partnership Inc., 351 Md. 544, 719 A.2d 119 (Md. 10/07/1998), the landlord defended on the ground that the victim could not prove that the landlord had enough time to evict the dog owner. The plaintiff won, however, because defendant landlord had taken no steps to initiate the eviction.

Trespass

A dog owner is not liable when his dog bites a trespasser, whether the trespass is intentional or inadvertent. Bramble v. Thompson, 264 Md. 518 (1972).

Assumption of the Risk

In Benton v. Aquarium Inc., 62 Md. App. 373, 489 A.2d 549 (Md.Sp.App. 04/03/1985), a delivery man saw a sign in a warehouse that said “Guard Dog on Duty.” Despite reading the sign, the man opened the door of an office, where he was attacked by a dog. His conduct was deemed to have constituted an assumption of the risk of injury, and on that basis his case was lost.

The following are guidelines that will help you determine who is responsible in a typical slip, trip or fall case on property belonging to someone else. Thousands of people are injured each year in slip, trip or fall cases. Sometimes the owners of a property are responsible and other times they are not.

Remember it is a normal part of living for things to fall on or drip onto a floor and that someone who owns or occupies a property cannot always be responsible for accidents. Further, the property owner is not responsible where someone slips or trips on something that an ordinary person would expect to find there and would ordinarily see and/or avoid. We all have an obligation to watch where we were walking. In determining whether a property owner should have known of a defective condition when in fact they did not have actual knowledge of the condition you would have to look at the following factors:

• How long has the dangerous area been there? Was it there long enough that the owner should have known about it?
• Does the property owner have a regular procedure for examining, cleaning or repairing the premises? If so, what proof does the owner have of this regular maintenance? If you tripped over an object that was on the floor for a good reason, does there still exist a good reason to have the property on the floor or is there another place that the particular object could have been placed that would have been more safe without any greater inconvenience or expense to the property owner?
• Could a simple barrier have been created or a warning have been given to prevent people from slipping or tripping?
• Did the lighting in the particular area contribute to the accident?
• Defenses to your negligence action can destroy your cause of action. If a defendant in a slip and fall case or a products liability case or a landlord/tenant negligence case can prove that the plaintiff was in way contributory negligent or assumed the risk then that is an absolute defense to any claim that may be made. Maryland is a contributory negligence state, which means that in order for a plaintiff to prevail in a personal injury claim the plaintiff must be 100 percent in the right and must not contribute in any way to the accident. If the plaintiff contributes even 1 percent to an accident, the plaintiff loses and cannot recover anything. While this may seem very harsh, many defendants use this legal theory to disavow liability.

  For instance, in a typical slip and fall on ice in front of a business, the landlord will prevail if he can show that the tenant saw the ice prior to walking on it but made a conscious decision to walk on the ice anyway. The landlord can then assert the defense of contributory negligence and/or assumption of risk and can successfully dodge liability even though he may have been negligent in not cleaning up the ice in the first place.

After the demand package has been submitted to the insurance company, negotiations will take place between the attorney and the insurance carrier. After negotiations, it is hopeful that a reasonable settlement offer will be obtained. At that point, the settlement offer is conveyed to the client.

The client is not bound by a settlement offer made by the insurance company. Ultimately, the decision on settlement is up to the client and not up to the insurance company and/or lawyer.

It is important that the client listens to the lawyer with regard to any advice he gives concerning a settlement offer, whether favorable or not. Sometimes the insurance company makes offers that seem unacceptable to the attorney, however, it is the obligation of the attorney to at least present that offer to the client.

The attorney will then present the pros and cons of all offers to the client and will give his opinion whether the client should accept or reject the offer. After the attorney’s presentation, the client has the ultimate decision as to whether the offer is acceptable or not. Despite having this power of the final say, clients need to remember why they hire an attorney in the first place.

Because attorneys have substantial experience in handling these should give substantial weight to the recommendations of their attorney. The attorney will then make his recommendations with regard to those offers as well, however, ultimately the client can make a decision on whether they want to accept the money or not.

A Circuit Court trial is similar to the District Court trial with the same questions. The main difference between a District Court trial and a Circuit Court trial is that Circuit Court trials usually involve a jury and the medicals records are usually deemed inadmissible unless the doctor comes in to testify. At a typical

On your trial date in District Court your case will be scheduled along with five or ten other cases. Your case is a public trial, meaning anyone is entitled to view its proceedings. At least several people will be in attendance to hear your case, as other individuals will be waiting for their cases to

If it turns out that the case cannot be settled, a Baltimore auto accident attorney can be extremely helpful in pursuing the rest of a claim. The next part of the process, filing the claim in court, is done so that a judge and/or jury can determine the value of the claim. Baltimore auto accident

If the initial claim that is filed in Court is for more than $30,000, then the case must be filed in the Circuit Court. In addition, all jury trials are in the Circuit Court. In the Circuit Court, trial dates are typically 1 year to 18 months away, which allow the parties ample time to

Possible verdicts After you testify, the rest of your witnesses will be called to testify, to help bolster your case and, to be cross-examined by the defense attorney. At the end of your case the Defendant’s attorney will make a motion to dismiss your claim. If the Judge feels that you have presented a prima

These are the typical questions asked in a District Court case and these questions may also be asked in a Circuit Court case. After your Baltimore auto accident attorney asks you questions on direct examination, the defense attorney will then ask you questions on cross-examination. The job of a good defense attorney is to try

What does a typical complaint look like? There are many different types of auto accident complaints. The link below contains a couple of examples. Sample Complaints

When the lawyer is asking you a question, keep in mind the question itself may seem irrelevant, but the question’s importance lies in whether the question is relevant and could lead to relevant material. Questions that may seem irrelevant to you may seem pertinent to the lawyers involved in the case and may lead to

After Interrogatories are exchanged between the parties and answers are given, depositions may be taken. In a deposition, the other attorney discusses the circumstances of the case and takes a statement from any party involved, either at his/her office or at your attorney’s office in front of a court reporter. Depositions can be taken from

After Interrogatories are exchanged between the parties and answers are given, depositions may be taken. In a deposition, the other attorney discusses the circumstances of the case and takes a statement from any party involved, either at his/her office or at your attorney’s office in front of a court reporter. Depositions can be taken from

Interrogatories—establishing basic information After the Defendant has filed an Answer, Interrogatories, or thirty questions exchanged between the parties, are typically exchanged. Click to see a typical list of questions filed by the Defendant:   State your full name, home address, date of birth, marital status and social security number. By whom were you employed and

A typical list of questions filed by the Defendant: State your full name, home address, date of birth, marital status and social security number. By whom were you employed and what were your duties and wages at the time of the occurrence? State the reason for termination of any employment during the last five (5)

After the Defendant has filed an Answer, Interrogatories, or thirty questions exchanged between the parties, are typically exchanged.

Keep your appointment: Please make sure that when you have a medical evaluation scheduled with the insurance company, you keep the appointment. Failure to keep the appointment can result in suspension of your workers’ compensation benefits, refusal of the insurance company to pay your medical bills and/or you being held responsible for the doctors’ fee

Insurance companies usually schedule independent medical evaluations when they are skeptical of the claimant or plaintiff’s injuries, when they feel that the property damage of the car in the accident is not consistent with the medical treatment that been provided to date, when they want to get the injured party back to work, when they

In a personal injury or a worker’s compensation claim, insurance companies typically set up the plaintiff or claimant for an evaluation to be done by the insurance company doctor. Insurance companies call this an independent medical evaluation; however, this is actually an insurance company’s medical evaluation. The insurance companies carefully and deliberately pick what doctors