Property owners and businesses are required by law to maintain their premises in such a way that’s reasonably safe for visitors.

If they don’t provide adequate security and someone gets hurt, the injured party may have grounds to file a negligent security claim. These cases typically arise when someone is assaulted, robbed, or otherwise injured because of insufficient security measures.

Proving a negligent security claim requires demonstrating that the owner or manager of the property didn’t take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harm. Several key elements must be established in court to hold the responsible party accountable.

Establishing a Duty of Care

The first step in proving a negligent security claim is showing that the property owner or manager had a legal duty of care to the victim. This is the reasonable duty that exists when people or businesses invite others onto their property for commercial, residential, or public purposes.

Places like shopping malls, apartment complexes, hotels, parking garages, and entertainment venues are expected to provide security at a reasonable level to protect visitors from foreseeable dangers.

Maryland law recognizes that property owners are not automatically responsible for every crime that occurs on their premises.

However, if the owner knew or should have known about possible safety issues and failed to act, they may be held liable for negligence. The level of necessary security typically depends on things like crime rates in the area, previous criminal incidents on the property, and the type of business.

Everything we do is based on how long it will take to get it done. That’s true for everything from cooking dinner to commuting to work.

The latest data collected from the Maryland Department of Transportation shows that in 2022 alone, there were 108,443 car crashes across the state. Not every one of those crashes resulted in trips to the ER or a courtroom. However, many of those victims who suffered serious harm were likely entitled to compensation for their economic and noneconomic damages.

The amount of damages victims are entitled to can vary quite a bit. Why? Actual costs and non-tangible losses are calculated differently.

When demanding compensation from an insurer after a car accident, your attorney calculates all your accident-related losses. Economic damages are actual costs you incurred. What are noneconomic damages, though? Below, we’ll further explain what different types of damages are and any caps that may apply to them.

If you’re involved in a vehicle collision on Baltimore streets, you’re likely to hear terms like “personal injury” or “bodily injury” being used frequently afterward. And when you look at the damage done to your vehicle, and you feel yourself hurting or see injuries to others, you could probably take a good guess at what those terms might mean.

But, in the aftermath of an accident, how do you know what is the difference between personal and bodily injury? And why do these differences matter?

We’ll explain more in this blog post.

The 1.6-mile long Francis Scott Key Bridge, which forms part of the North-South connector, I-695, crashed into the extremely cold waters of the Patapsco River at around 1:30 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday, March 26.

Now that daylight has broken after the launch of an initial investigation and search and rescue mission, media reports suggest that there are only two potential survivors.

As many as 20 could still be unaccounted for.

If you’re in the process of filing a personal injury claim, you’ll benefit from understanding how it works and what a successful claim looks like. When it comes to proving you’re deserving of compensation for your injuries and losses, your attorney will need to build a claim that meets the burden of proof. This legal term refers to being able to believe something beyond a certain level of doubt.

The lawyers at Belsky & Horowitz, LLC understand how confusing and complicated civil cases can seem when you’re dealing with legal terminology. That’s why we make sure to break the information down for our clients so it’s digestible and they feel comfortable with how their cases are being handled. Let’s take a closer look at how the burden of proof applies to negligence claims.

If you’ve ever been in a life or death situation, you know how there’s often little time to act before something catastrophic happens. In some cases, there are those good-willed individuals who are willing to risk their safety to come to the aid of others. When this happens, there are often legal questions that arise after the fact as to whether or not the rescuer should be owed compensation for injuries they sustained because they were acting voluntarily. The answer to this question is yes.

According to the Rescue Doctrine, a rescuer can recover damages from a defendant when the rescuer is injured while helping someone. In order for an injured party to seek compensation through this doctrine, however, they need to be able to prove four specific elements. If you’ve been in a situation where you helped someone in an accident and were hurt as a result, our lawyers may be able to help you prove you are owed monetary damages for your losses.

If you’ve filed a personal injury claim after suffering catastrophic injuries, you may be eligible for compensation from the negligent party that caused your injuries. Calculating that compensation can be difficult if your future cost of care or future lost wages need to be taken into consideration. This is where the concept of present value comes into play.

In order to understand the concept of present value of future losses, you first need to understand how compensation works for personal injury claims. The legal term for compensation is damages. In a typical personal injury case, damages are separated into economic and noneconomic categories.

Economic damages refer to the monetary expenses related to your injury. These can be calculated exactly and there is no limit to the types of claims that can be made or the amount a person can be awarded. The most common types of economic damages include loss of earning, loss of future earnings, medical expenses, cost of future medical care, costs associated with canceled plans, and household expenses.