Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog

July 1, 2020

The Good Samaritan Doctrine in Maryland

Good Samaritan laws are intended to protect people from liability when they voluntarily assist others in emergencies.

Here is an example of how Good Samaritan laws work. Let’s say you’re driving to work and you witness a car accident. One of the vehicles flips over the driver is stuck and yelling for help. You pull over and run to help, but in extracting him from the car, you end up breaking his leg and causes other injuries. Under traditional tort law, you could be liable for the driver’s injuries. The rationale was that you have no duty to render aid. But if you helped, you assumed a duty of helping safely and reasonably.

It is a well-established rule that ordinarily, in the absence of some special relationship, no legal duty rests on a member of the public to render services to an injured person. So you can immorally but legally let someone you could help suffer and die.

June 12, 2020

I’m Looking for Nursing Home Whistleblowers in Maryland

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Since shortly after I became a plaintiffs’ lawyer, I have been preaching that we need fundamental change in our nursing homes in this country. Profit drivers the train. These nursing homes need to be fixed. In ten years, we won’t believe what we as a society turned a blind eye to in 2020. Everything about the COVID-19 pandemic has enhanced this view.

If you have evidence that a nursing home or long-term care facility is providing grossly negligent care, overbilling, or engaging in other fraudulent practices, you can bring a whistleblower lawsuit and get a percentage of any money awarded in the case. Whistleblower plaintiffs in these cases are usually employees at the nursing home, but anyone with direct knowledge of fraud or neglect at the facility can potentially bring a case.

Nursing Home Liability Under the False Claims Act

June 10, 2020

Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) Misdiagnosis

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) is an uncommon neurologic condition causing impairment of the arms and legs. CIDP is a condition that is frequently misdiagnosed leading to harmful delays in treatment or unnecessary treatments. If you have been harmed by a misdiagnosis of CIDP you may be entitled to bring a malpractice case and get compensation.

April 14, 2020

New (Unreported) Maryland Voir Dire Opinion

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Just before the coronavirus shut the world down, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals issued an interesting unreported opinion in a premises liability case in Montogmery Counrty that looks at voir dire in Maryland, an issue that has always interested me in Smith v. Rollins Real Estate.

Case Facts

The case itself is pretty boring. It is slip and fall on the way to a restaurant case. A woman gets dropped off at the door. She rolls her foot getting out and blames a separation in the sidewalk. It is not a case I would ever take.

April 13, 2020

Elmiron Vision Loss Lawsuits

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Elmiron, the brand-name for the drug pentosan polysulfate sodium (PPS), is used to treat interstitial cystitis (IC), a chronic and incurable bladder condition. IC, which primarily affects women, causes mild to severe pain and pressure in the bladder area. Having IC is like having a bladder infection that never goes away, and the condition can also cause lower urinary tract symptoms and pain during sex. IC is also known as bladder pain syndrome (BPS). Currently, Elmiron is the only drug approved by the FDA specifically to treat IC, though there are other medications and treatments.

My law firm is now reviewing Elmiron vision loss lawsuits. I think this could be the next big mass tort claim. This is national litigation and our firm is reviewing these cases in every state in the United States. If you have a claim, call our lawyers at 800-553-8082. You can also reach out to me online. There is no cost or fee unless we get a recovery for you.

According to Janssen Pharmaceuticals (Johnson & Johnson), the drug’s manufacturer, IC is believed to be caused by damage to the bladder’s lining. Painful symptoms arise because substances in the urine irritate the damaged spots. Pentosan polysulfate sodium, the Elmiron drug, is a blood thinner. PPS seems to attach to the bladder wall, protecting the damaged areas of the bladder wall from outside irritants. In this way, Elmiron is sort of like a band-aid, in how covering a cut with a band-aid immediately relieves pain and prevents it from further irritation.

April 1, 2020

Roundup Cancer Lawsuits (May 14, 2020 Update)

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Monsanto Roundup weed killer lawsuits are the biggest mass tort in the country. Lawyers everywhere are looking for potential victims. Our law firm is no exception. Stunning verdicts and talk of a settlement in excess of $10 billion have poured even more gasoline on the fire. What are these weed killer cases about and what can we expect moving forward?

Before we start that, there is something you need to know. If you have a Roundup herbicide non-Hodgin’s lymphoma cancer case, call a Roundup cancer lawsuit attorney. Not today. Right now. The Roundup settlement is on hold and more cases are being filed. But you want to get in before the settlement, not after (not to mention the possible statute of limitations issues)

May 14, 2020 Roundup Update

March 18, 2020

First Coronavirus Lawsuit

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The first negligence lawsuit arising from the Covid-19 pandemic has already been filed. On March 9, 2020, a couple sued Princess Cruises for their experience onboard the Grand Princess Cruise ship. An outbreak of Covid-19 on the Grand Princess resulted in 28 or more cases of the virus.

There will be a ton of lawsuits that directly or indirectly involve the coronavirus. Like the virus itself, I can’t figure out quite how it will all play out. But it will be a big thing for years to come, even long after this virus is hopefully long gone or controlled.

Background of This Case

February 29, 2020

Wrist Fracture Verdicts and Settlements

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

image describing what a wrist injury is and why they are on the rise

Click to enlarge

Metro Verdicts Monthly provides the median verdict and settlement value of wrist fracture cases over the last 22 years. The average settlement/verdict in Washington D.C. is $105,000. Maryland is less than half that: $50,000. The average settlement/verdict in a wrist fracture case in Virginia is $52,583.

Maryland jury verdicts in series personal injury cases are generally higher in the District of Columbia. Again, I don’t know the methodology of how MVM gets its numbers. If they rely on personal injury lawyers reporting that data – which I do not think they do – then that could skew the data as could a lot of other things that only a statistician could find. Particularly since Metro Verdicts includes settlements in their statistics, it is hard not to suspect that data could be skewed.

February 29, 2020

Breast Cancer Misdiagnosis Verdict/Settlement Statistics

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Metro Verdicts Monthly’s cover graph is failure to diagnose breast cancer settlements and verdicts in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia.

By some estimates, between 8% and 12% of cancer cases are initially misdiagnosed. It is hard to call one type of cancer misdiagnosis case more tragic than another. Every misdiagnosis is going to decrease the chance of treating and defeating the cancer. But, many cancer misdiagnosis cases are not medical malpractice cases because the cancer is so aggressive, but breast cancer misdiagnosis cases are fueled by tragedy because breast cancer is often extremely manageable when caught early, and often fatal when missed. Continue reading

February 27, 2020

Maryland Sexual Abuse Lawsuits Against Churches

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Miller & Zois lawyers are assisting victims of sexual abuse committed by clergy who abused their authority in the worst way imaginable. These lawsuits are against not only church officials but against the churches themselves. The crimes committed in sexual abuse cases do more than violate Maryland law. The involve unimaginable cruelty and evil. This is why our attorneys have sought out sex abuse cases. There is no question these are emotionally challenging cases for our entire legal team. We are human beings first. We feel the pain of these victims.

Sexual abuse in religious institutions is especially distressing to talk about due to the potential for religious intolerance and the fact that children and teens are normally the victims. Some nuns, too, have spoken out about sexual assault and harassment.

International scandals broke in the past two decades, first in 2002 and again in 2018, that revealed chronic and widespread abuse of young boys in the Catholic Church. Worst of all? Investigations, which first began in Ireland and Boston, found that the abuse had been covered up and that perpetrators were barely punished.