Over the last six months, our blog has dedicated a series of posts to examining how those employees who suffer an “accidental personal injury arising out of and in the course of employment” are entitled to benefits under the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Act.

Specifically, we’ve been spent time exploring temporary partial disability benefits, temporary total disability benefits and permanent partial disability benefits. We’ll conclude this discussion in today’s post by taking a closer look at permanent total disability benefits.

While motorists can now rely on everything from GPS systems and in-dash navigation programs to smartphones to provide them with directions, many nevertheless still rely on such tried-and-true techniques as consulting paper maps, asking strangers for directions and, of course, following friends.

Interestingly enough, a recently published study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology set out to determine just how safe this last method of getting from Point A to Point B really is.

If you’ve been to the doctor’s office or the hospital recently, chances are good that your medical information was recorded into and/or read from a computer screen or tablet. Indeed, paper charts appear to be racing toward obsolescence.

While this development is not altogether unsurprising given our reliance on technology in so many other aspects of our everyday lives, what is perhaps surprising is that electronic health records — or EHRs — have emerged as a serious threat to patient safety.

Indeed, the threats posed by EHRs aren’t just confined to things like breaches of cyber security or system crashes, but also include the absence of clarity and uniformity in how vital health information is displayed.

Anyone who must undergo some manner of operation knows through their conversations with surgeons and their own research or personal experience that there is always some degree of risk involved. Indeed, postoperative complications can arise, infections can develop, and the underlying disease or condition can remain unchanged.

However, there is at least one aspect of surgery about which patients should be able to have complete confidence: avoiding wrong-site, wrong-procedure, wrong-patient errors or simply WSPEs. That’s because these types of surgical errors are typically 100 percent preventable and considered so flagrant that federal health officials have labeled them as “never events,” meaning they should simply never occur.

The unfortunate reality, however, is that even though WSPEs should never occur, they still do — and often with devastating results.

When the time came for more care than you could provide to your elderly mother, she preferred to move to a nursing home that was close to the area of town she knew and loved. You toured the facility and felt satisfied it would cover all her needs.

The building looked clean and tidy, and the staff seemed capable and friendly. But after your mom moved in, you began to have concerns about her safety and security. Did you miss the signs? Are you imagining things or is there a pattern of health risks and lackadaisical care?

Back in May, our blog spent some time discussing how the very first decree in the Maryland Attorneys’ Rules of Professional Conduct dictates that all attorneys must provide clients with competent representation, meaning services demonstrating a reasonably necessary degree of “legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation.”

We also discussed how even though this may seem simple enough, it’s a far more complex matter, with multiple factors needing to be accounted for when considering an individual attorney’s legal knowledge and skill. We’ll continue this important discussion in today’s post.

For teens, the period running from Memorial Day through Labor Day ranks as one of the best of the year. That’s because school is officially out, meaning they are free from homework, able to earn much-needed income at summer jobs and, of course, hang out with their friends far more often.

On the other hand, the period running from Memorial Day through Labor Day ranks as one of the worst of the year for parents, emergency responders and safety advocates. That’s because it’s come to be known as the “100 deadliest days,” a timeframe in which the average number of teen driving fatalities has been shown to rise by as much as 15 percent compared to the remainder of the year.

Experts at the National Safety Council expressed alarm at the deaths of nearly 19,000 people reported in traffic accidents across the U.S. during a six-month period in 2015. They see the statistics not as an aberration, but rather as a disturbing trend in the wrong direction.

People who plan to take the family on a road trip when vacation time rolls around should pay heed. The NSC researchers speculate that the cause of the increase in traffic accidents is in part to do with the economy.

As we’ve discussed on our blog before, more people than ever are now choosing to forgo their vehicles in favor of going by mass transit, bicycle or even on foot. The motivations for this drastic lifestyle change vary, of course, with some motivated by environmental concerns, others by finances and still others by healthy living.

As we’ve also discussed, however, this decision, while laudable, is not without risk given the dangerous driving practices of motorists from speeding to distracted driving.

Consider the recently released report from the Governors Highway Safety Association, which found that preliminary data from state highway safety offices indicated that 2016 was the most deadly year for pedestrians in a decade.

Indeed, the GHSA report found that 5,997 pedestrians lost their lives last year, an 11 percent increase from 2015 and yet another notch on an upward trend that has seen pedestrian deaths rise by 12 percent since 1996.

Without question, one of the most stressful moments in the life of any parent is when their child is old enough to start driving. Indeed, this stress has only been exacerbated in recent years, as moms and dads not only have to worry about things like speeders and impaired drivers, but also distracted drivers.

There is good news for parents here in Maryland, however, as a recently released study by an independent insurance marketplace and consumer guide recently ranked the Old Line State as the safest in the nation for teen drivers.