Ron Miller is an attorney who focuses on serious injury and wrongful death cases involving motor vehicle collisions, medical malpractice, and products and premises liability. If you are looking for a Maryland personal injury attorney for your case, call him today at 800-553-8082.

Metro Verdicts Monthly’s graph this month is non-fatal settlements and verdicts in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia in premises liability cases since 1987.

The median non-fatal premises liability case in Maryland was $69,000. The recoveries in Virginia and the District of Columbia are slightly less, $50,000 and $65,000, respectively.

If you look at the national data, you see an enormous difference between Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia and the rest of the country.  What is the common thread?  Contributory negligence is still the law in all three jurisdictions.

As I have said before, I love seeing these different verdicts in Maryland each month. It is always interesting to see different lawyers that you know and see what cases they had and how they fared. What diminishes the value of Metro Verdicts, in my mind, is the turnaround time. I have a case in this month’s edition that I tried 6 months ago. It does not diminish the quality of the information, but in the Internet era, it is not as enjoyable to read stale news.

maryland premises liability settlements

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Medical malpractice cases involving a stroke can be a challenge.  Stroke cases are difficult to prove. Are there viable cases?   Absolutely.

This post is for lawyers who are getting stroke misdiagnosis cases but do not know whether the claim is viable. There are common threads that run through the most successful stroke misdiagnosis/failure to treat cases.  Cases that result in a settlement or a jury verdict for the plaintiff are usually one of these two breeds: Failing to prevent a stroke and failing to treat a stroke once it has occurred. Continue reading

fractured shoulder verdicts

Value of Shoulder Separation Cases

Some time ago Metro Verdicts had a graph comparing settlement amounts in different regions or distinct types of injuries. This month, they had a fascinating graph comparing fractured shoulder injury verdicts and settlements in Maryland and Virginia since 1987, omitting defense verdicts. The average fractured shoulder verdict or settlement in Maryland was $154,800, whereas, in Virginia, it was only $52,500.  

This is a remarkable disparity. If you have a choice over the venue – not common, but it happens – it would seem that a smart lawyer with a client with a shoulder injury would choose Maryland. In reality, it is probably more complicated than that and would depend on the injury, the client, and what county in Maryland would have an appropriate venue for the lawsuit. While I love verdict data, all of it is suspect and should be just a weapon in a lawyer’s arsenal trying to figure out the value of a tort case.

back fracture

Back Injury Verdicts

Metro Verdicts Monthly graphs the median verdict and settlement value of back fracture cases over the last 23 years. The median settlement/verdict in Washington D.C. is $52,500. Maryland has a slightly lower median of $43,126. The median settlement/verdict in a back fracture lawsuit in Virginia is $125,000. These are back fracture cases where there is no paralysis. These statistics are not a bit dated but the numbers still track.

Most back factures come from some trauma, usually from a motor vehicle crash or falling. The reason the numbers may sound lower than you are might expect is because many back fractures are not as serious as the ominous-sounding “back fracture” would suggest. When I was in high school, I hurt my back swinging a baseball bat at baseball camp in Florida. A chiropractor worked on me for a while but I made no progress. I went to an orthopedic doctor and, low and behold, I had a fractured back. It ruined my baseball season, and I had to wear a back brace for eight weeks but I suffered no ill effects after removing the back brace. Continue reading

wrist injury cases

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Over the last 20 years, our car accident lawyers have handled many wrist fracture cases.  We have seen wrist fracture cases with very high, very low, and everything in between. Our firm has a history of maximizing the trial and settlement value of wrist injury lawsuits.

What Is the Settlement Value of the Average Wrist Fracture Claim?

The settlement value of a wrist fracture claim will vary wildly with the severity of the fracture. Some time ago, Metro Verdicts Monthly provided 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.

Obviously, emails are hearsay evidence that are admissible at trial.  Donati v. State is a criminal case that teaches us a lesson in how to get an email into evidence at trial.

Emails are admissible in court.  You just have to know what the law requires to admit emails into evidence.  In medical malpractice and product liability cases, this is something you often need to do. This case shows us how to present an email at trial and get it into evidence.

The Facts of Donati v. State

If I will have to read a criminal case, I want some whacked-out facts to keep me interested.  This case delivers.  And this example helps explain how to get emails authenticated and in evidence. 

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Obviously, there are a lot of vexing injuries that occur in car and truck accidents. Foot and ankle injuries rank high on this list of hard to solve accident injuries. There are so many bones in the foot — one-fourth of all of your bones — and the bones are so small. Just too many things can go wrong.foot injury lawsuits

What Is the Average Settlement Value of a Foot Injury Accident Claim?

According to a Jury Verdict Research study, the overall median jury award for foot injuries is approximately $100,000 (maybe slightly less in Maryland).  More serious foot injuries see a corresponding rise in value. Multiple fractures to a foot increase the median verdict to $144,000. In foot injury cases where both feet are fractured, the median rises to $296,940. For plaintiffs’ lawyers repeating the “scope property damage does not matter” credo, it is hard to ignore the conclusion that if you have suffered fractures to both of your feet, you were most likely in a serious accident. Another Jury Verdict Research study found that 39% of the foot injury cases that went to verdict were suffered in motor vehicle collisions. A remarkable 11% of serious foot injury cases were in motorcycle accident cases. This stat underscores how dangerous motorcycles are compared to cars or trucks.

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This post is supposed to be about a New Jersey Supreme Court decision on whether expert testimony for the admission of photographs of car or truck damage as probative to a plaintiff’s damages/injuries.

But I’m hijacking this post.  Because people see to want to know how to get a property damage photograph into evidence and the questions you have to answer this witness.  How do I know?  I saw it in our traffic analytics.  I’m not sure why that made sense but I want to give people what they want. So here we go:

How to Admit Photograph of Property Damage Pictures

Q: Are you familiar with this photograph?

A: Yes, I am.

Q: Can you describe what is shown in the photograph?

A: It shows the property damage picture to my vehicle after the crash.

Q: Was this photograph taken by you or someone you know?

A: I took the picture.

Q: Is this picture of your vehicle after the crash a true and accurate representation of you vehicle after the car crash with David Johnson on March 1, 2023

A: Yes.

Q: Is this photograph a fair and accurate depiction of what you saw at the time?

A: Yes, it is.

Q: Does this photograph accurately represent the scene as you recall it?

A: Yes, it does.

Q: Did you alter or manipulate this photograph in any way (2023 question we ask)?

A: No, I have not.

Q: Is this photograph a true and accurate representation of what it purports to depict?

A: Yes, it is.

Q: Your Honor, I would like to offer this photograph Exhibit A. We have established the foundation for its authenticity through the testimony of Mr. Davis, who took the photograph and can identify what is depicted in it. We ask that the photograph be admitted into evidence and made part of the record.”

Brenman v. Demellon

In Brenman v. Demellon, is a New Jersey Supreme Court decision on whether expert testimony for the admission of photographs of car or truck damage as probative to a plaintiff’s damages/injuries.

Simple facts:  the Plaintiff was driving in stop-and-go traffic when she was rear-ended by the Defendant. The Plaintiff allegedly suffered a herniated cervical disc requiring cervical fusion.

Trial

At trial, the Defendant sought to introduce photographs showing minimal damage to the rear bumper of Plaintiff’s car to contend that the Plaintiff could not have suffered a herniated disc in this accident given the property damage to the vehicles. Plaintiff filed a motion in limine seeking to bar the admission of the photographs absent expert proof to connect the condition depicted in the photographs to the biomechanical forces that resulted from the impact between the two cars.

The trial court admitted the photographs, specifically concluding that “[j]urors can infer from their viewing photographs that the plaintiff could not have been as seriously injured as she claimed” and noted they should leave this question to the discretion of the trial court.

Zero Damages

After an award of zero damages, the Plaintiff appealed, I’m sure with bitterness. The Appellate Division (New Jersey’s intermediate appellate court) reversed and remanded the case for a new trial, adopting a per se rule that requires expert testimony to prove a causal link between the extent of damage to an automobile in an accident and the cause or extent of injuries arising from that accident consistent with Delaware law in Davis v. Maute, 770 A.2d 36 (Del. 2001).

In that case, the Supreme Court of Delaware held that: (1) as a general rule, a party in an automobile accident case may not directly argue the relationship between the damage to the vehicles in the car accident and the extent of Plaintiff’s injuries caused by the accident absent expert testimony on the issue; (2) lawyers may not argue by implication what the lawyer could not argue indirectly, i.e., they may not characterize the accident as a fender-bender or otherwise downplay the seriousness of the accident; and (3) the lower court erred in admitting the photographs of the Plaintiff’s car without a specific instruction limiting the jury’s use of the photographs.

Bumper tap lawyers love Davis v. Maute because they want to keep out photographs of the crash because you want to say what is important is what happened inside the vehicle.  If you have a serous accident case with serious property damage, you want those pictures into evidence.

Supreme Court Reverses

The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the admissibility of photographs of the vehicles rests on whether the photograph fairly and accurately depicts what it purports to represent and that this decision rests in the discretion of the trial court. The New Jersey Supreme Court specifically rejected a per se rule requiring expert testimony as a foundation for the admissibility of a photograph of a vehicle even when the photograph is used to show a correlation between the damage to the vehicle and the extent of a plaintiff’s injuries. There was, however, a dissenting opinion that urged a per se rule requiring expert testimony before the admission of property damage photos.

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The most common question I get from friends and acquaintances is whether you can sue if you are not injured in a car accident?   The answer is yes, but with caveats.

Most auto accidents do not result in any physical injuries (75% according to the NHTSA). Even when your vehicle is the only thing that is damaged, you can still file a lawsuit after an auto accident if you were not at fault. This is what is known as a “property damage” auto accident lawsuit. If you file a property damage auto tort case, you can get compensation for the full cost of any damage to your vehicle.

Can I Still Sue If I'm Not Insured in the Auto Accident?

Let’s set aside the property damage because I address that below. The question here is do you have pain and suffering in a car accident where you either had no physical injuries or did not seek medical treatment?

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