Personal Injury Attorneys Maryland

Personal Injury Attorneys Maryland

The Personal Injury Lawyer: Maryland Civil Code And Intent

For the personal injury lawyer, Maryland and other state laws recognize two broad categories:  injuries due to negligence and injuries that were caused deliberately. The latter falls under the category of intentional torts.

Negligence vs. Intent

For example, let us suppose you are driving down the street and your car is struck broadside by a vehicle driven by someone who was chatting on a cell phone and thus failed to see a stop sign. Currently, there is no law in Maryland that prohibits the use of a cell phone by an adult while driving; however, this driver could be found liable for your injuries due to his/her negligence.

On the other hand, if someone decides they don’t like one of your bumper stickers or is frustrated because you are not going fast enough and runs you off the road, causing you to plow into a tree – this would clearly be an example of an intentional tort. (In addition, this driver could be charged in criminal court with vehicular assault – but this is a separate issue.)

The Burden of Proof

Much of the time, the difference between negligence and intent is not clear. The argument here is similar to the one used against the doctrine of “hate crimes;” intent is highly subjective and very difficult to prove in a court of law. As the injured party or plaintiff, the burden of proof is on you to demonstrate that the defendant acted with malicious intent.

If intent cannot be proven with a preponderance of evidence, it does not necessarily mean that the plaintiff loses his/her case; the defendant can still be found liable on grounds of negligence. However, courts tend to grant higher awards in cases in which the act is found to be intentional and will even grant punitive damages in such cases.

Transferred Intent

Here is another scenario: you are driving along a multi-lane highway when you notice two vehicles – A and B – ahead of you;  they appear to be involved in a “road rage” incident. Suddenly, the driver of vehicle A veers to one side in a deliberate fashion, forcing vehicle B toward the shoulder of the road. This causes vehicle B to flip sideways, and you slam into it as a result.

Although the driver of vehicle A did not intend for you and your vehicle to come into harm, his intentions toward the driver of vehicle B are patently clear – and you wound up getting hurt in the process. Under the legal doctrine of transferred intent, you could sue the first driver for an intentional tort, even if you were not the target of his actions.

This doctrine also has a parallel in criminal law.  If Fred shoots Barney and the bullet goes through the latter and the bedroom wall killing Betty as well, Fred could face two counts of murder, even though he was actually having an affair with her and did not intend for her to come into harm.

maryland injury lawyer | dc personal injury lawyer | va personal injury lawyer I’m attorney Roger Greenberg. Welcome to the website of my law firm, Greenberg & Bederman. In this web site we’ll explain to you the areas in which we practice. We’ll give you examples of some of the types of cases we’ve handled. But, more importantly, we’d like you to know who we are and what we’re about. When we started this firm over 20 years ago, Andy Bederman and I had a philosophy. And that philosophy is that we want our clients to feel that they’re being treated just like our family would be treated if they were in a similar circumstance. And, to that end that’s what we’ve done. We want you to know what we’re doing as we’re doing it. We encourage you to call us to find out what stage your case is in. We don’t want you to wonder what’s going on. To that end also we’ll contact you every 20 to 30 days after you’ve retained us. Even if there’s nothing going on in your case, we’ll be happy to tell you that. We’ll tell you what it means, what the next stage is. As the case goes on, you will be kept informed as to everything that’s happening. And, if you feel that that’s not enough, call us. We’re happy to talk to you. Our staff and our attorneys are quite willing to let you know everything as it transpires. When we take your case, we want you to know there is no small case in our office. Every person has a problem or they wouldn’t have called us. We want you to know we will work on your case …
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