Maryland Brain Injury Law: The Rules That Decide Most Claims

How long do you have to file a brain injury lawsuit in Maryland?

Most Maryland personal injury lawsuits must be filed within three years of the injury. Claims involving children, government bodies and medical care follow different rules, and some require written notice much sooner.

• Children: claims on behalf of a child follow their own rules, which can extend the time available.
• Medical care: a claim over medical care must generally be filed within five years of the injury, or within three years of the date the injury was discovered, whichever comes first.
• Government bodies: claims against a county, city or state agency can require written notice long before the lawsuit deadline.

A brain injury can make it hard for the injured person to manage deadlines at all. That is one reason families often make the first call. The deadline is calendared at the start of every case, in stage 2 of a brain injury case.

What is contributory negligence, and why does it matter so much in Maryland?

Maryland is one of the few states where a person found even slightly at fault for their own injury can be barred from recovering. Most states reduce the award by the injured person’s share of fault instead.

Maryland’s highest court declined to abandon the rule in Coleman v. Soccer Association of Columbia in 2013, leaving any change to the legislature.

In practice, insurers look hard for any fault they can assign: a pedestrian outside a crosswalk, a driver a few miles over the limit, a person who did not see a hazard. For that reason, fault evidence is gathered early, and a recorded statement to the other side’s insurer should be given only after advice, if at all.

Does Maryland cap damages in brain injury cases?

Maryland limits non-economic damages in personal injury cases, and applies a separate cap in medical negligence cases. The cap amount rises each year, so the figure that applies depends on when the claim arose.

The personal injury cap is adjusted each October 1. Non-economic damages cover losses such as pain, suffering and loss of enjoyment of life. Economic losses, such as medical costs and lost earnings, are proven with bills, records and calculations by economists and life care planners.

For a serious brain injury the economic side is often the larger part of the claim, because it includes future care and lost earning capacity over a lifetime. Brain injury damages goes through each category. This site does not publish a cap figure, because a figure without its effective date misleads more than it helps.

What claims can a family bring after a fatal brain injury?

Maryland allows certain family members to bring a wrongful death claim, and the estate can bring a separate survival claim.

• Wrongful death claim: brought for the family’s own loss.
• Survival claim: brought through the estate for what the person experienced before death, and for losses such as medical and funeral costs.

A Maryland wrongful death claim generally must be filed within three years of the death, with narrow exceptions for particular causes. See fatal brain injuries for who can bring each claim.

How do these rules show up in an insurance claim?

Mostly as pressure. The contributory negligence rule gives insurers a reason to question every detail of how the accident happened. The damages cap gives them a reason to argue that the non-economic side of the claim has a ceiling. And the deadline gives them a reason to wait.

A brain injury claim is built to take away each of those points: fault evidence gathered early, economic losses proven in full, and a filing date that is never left to chance. The traumatic brain injury page shows how that plays out in a typical case.