Maryland Injury Lawsuit Information Center

If you are considering bringing a wrongful death lawsuit, one question may have is what is the most you can sue for in a wrongful death case?

The better question is how much money can a jury award you.  Because in a wrongful death case in Maryland, you no longer ask for a specific amount of money in the Complaint.  Assuming the plaintiff’s lawyer understands Maryland law, the days of the Baltimore Sun publishing a story about a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit are over.  Today, we do not sue for a specific amount, but we ask for what a judge or jury deems just.

A wrongful death claim is a statutory cause of action governed by the specific rules of Maryland law.   It bears repeating that actions for wrongful death in Maryland must be commenced within three years of the death of the injured person. To date, the Maryland General Assembly has only enacted exceptions for deaths caused by occupational disease and criminal homicide.

The question of how much money to ask for in a car accident settlement hinges on whether you are a personal injury lawyer, whether you are willing to file a lawsuit, and the size of your claim.   At our law firm, all roads lead to the same Rome:  how to do we maximize the value of this case?   The demand is an important part of this equation.

• Sample demand letters in personal injury cases
• What is the value of your case?

According to a recent Jury Verdict Research study on knee injuries:

• the average verdict in a severe knee injury case is $359,149
• the median knee injury verdict is $114,299
• 8% of knee injury verdicts were over $1,000,000.

How do you define severe? JVR defines it as knee dislocation, fractures, replacements, and aggravation of a preexisting knee injury. I certainly understand the first three categories; aggravation of a preexisting knee injury more subjective and a little harder to define — and brings the average verdict lower.

Half of these cases are car accident lawsuits, and the other half includes every personal injury case under the sun. In Maryland, I’ll bet it is probably approaching 75% of the cases because we have fewer premises liability cases because of contributory negligence. It is the most frequent injury in premises liability cases, most from slip and falls.   So it is hard to extract much meaning from this average serious knee injury verdict. But there are a lot of numbers in the report that breaks it down a little further.

JVR does not provide the average accident knee injury verdict in motor vehicle collision cases. I wish they did because the average verdict always gets you more pumped up. But the median is probably more illustrative. The median knee injury verdict in a car accident case is $94,406. More interesting is the middle 50% – the 25th to the 75th percentile – ranges from $26,255-$216,726.  Obviously, that is a big range, and I would suggest that bottom quartile is not severe injury cases.

The last knee injury case we took to trial led to a $5.2 million verdict.  That was a severe injury case where the client required a below-the-knee amputation.

• Get example knee injury settlements and verdicts
• Get leg injury verdicts generally
• The value of personal injury case based on the type of injury

Knee injury verdict statistics

Here are some more knee injury verdict statistics of interest, at least, to me:

• Intersection collision accidents have a median of $70,748. The middle 50% range is $28,250-$237,500
• Pedestrian accidents have a median of $150,000. The middle 50% range is $80,071-$240,000
• Turning collision car accidents have a median of $90,203. The middle 50% range is $34,750-$192,038
• Motorcycle accident knee injuries involve, as you would expect, more serious injuries. The median verdict is $191,884. The middle 50% range is $83,300-$287,500. Keep in mind, this is a survey of plaintiffs’ verdicts. The hard part in motorcycle accident cases is getting the verdict in the first place. It is amazing how many motorcycle accident lawsuits involve contested liability. Motorcycle cases get fought like World War III on liability in cases where the defendant’s lawyer would stipulate to liability under the same facts if the plaintiff were driving a car. It never ceases to amaze me. But I’ll admit there is a method to the madness: juries don’t like motorcyclists. Is this unfair? Of course it is. Can good counsel overcome it? Often, yes.
• Rear end accident knee injuries have a median verdict of woeful $9,095. The middle 50% range is $1,624-$41,098. These statistics make sense.  There are just not a lot of knee injuries in rear-end accidents.  So many of the claims are those with preexisting injuries, which are the toughest cases to bring.  There are not a lot of serious “knee injuries only” in rear-end car accidents. If you hurt your knee badly in the accident, chances are you have a more serious injury than just your knee.

Keep in mind that all of these stats are third-party insurance claims.  Workers comp cases have an entirely different — and lower — formula to calculate the value of knee injury cases at work.

Hiring a lawyer to fight for you

If you have a knee injury claim in Maryland or Washington, D.C., call us today at 800-553-8082 so we can discuss your options.  You can also fill out this free claim evaluation form, and we can talk about your case on-line.  We have recovered millions for our client in knee injury cases, and we may be able to help you.