Removal from District Court To Circuit Court In Maryland Personal Injury

In Maryland personal injury cases the District Court has jurisdiction over cases up to the limit of a damage demand not to exceed $30,000.00. Like everything else in the law there are several rules that guide the Maryland personal injury lawyer thru the process of removal. For example the defendant can remove only if the request is made with in 15 days of the due date of their Notice of Intent to Defend. see Maryland Rule 3-307. Notice of intention to defend

(1) Generally.- Except as provided by subsection (b)(2) of this Rule, the notice shall be filed within 15 days after service of the complaint, counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party claim.

With in 10 days after the Notice of Intention to Defendant is to be filed the Defendant may request his jury trial see Maryland Rule 3-325 A defendant, counter-defendant, cross-defendant, or third-party defendant may elect a trial by jury of any action triable of right by a jury by filing a separate written demand therefore within ten days after the time for filing a notice of intention to defend. The failure of a party to file the demand as provided in section (a) of this Rule constitutes a waiver of trial by jury of the action for all purposes, including trial on appeal.

When a timely demand for jury trial is filed, the clerk shall transmit the record to the circuit court within 15 days. At any time before the record is transmitted pursuant to this section, the District Court may determine, on motion or on its own initiative, that the demand for jury trial was not timely filed or that the action is not triable of right by a jury.

The Maryland Rules thereafter pick up the case under Maryland Rule 2-326. Certain transfers from District Court

(a) Notice.- Upon entry on the docket of an action transferred from the District Court pursuant to a demand for jury trial or a demand for transfer pursuant to section (d) of Rule 3-326, the clerk shall send to the plaintiff and each party who has been served in the District Court action a notice that states the date of entry and the assigned docket reference and includes a "Notice to Defendant" in substantially the following form:

Notice to Defendant

If you are a "defendant," "counter-defendant," "cross defendant,"
or "third-party defendant" in this action and you wish to contest the case
against you, you must file in this court an answer or other response to the
complaint, counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party claim within 30 days
after the date of this notice, regardless of whether you filed a notice of
intention to defend or other response in the District Court.

If an action is transferred and a defendant or third-party defendant has not been served with process, the burden is on the plaintiff or third-party plaintiff to obtain service, as if the action were originally filed in a circuit court.

(b) Answer or other response; subsequent proceedings.- Regardless of whether a notice of intention to defend or other response was filed in the District Court, a defendant, counter-defendant, cross defendant, or third-party defendant shall file an answer or other response to the complaint, counterclaim, cross-claim, or third-party claim within 30 days after the clerk sends the notice required by section (a) of this Rule. Following the expiration of the 30-day period, the action shall thereafter proceed as if originally filed in the circuit court.

As such once served the defendant has 25 days to seek a removal of the case from the district court to the circuit court. With in 15 days after the clerk transfers the case the plaintiff can object to the removal on the basis of an untimely request. After the case is transferred and docketed the defendant has 30 days to file his new answer to the complaint.

Slip and Fall Lawyer

The owner of a property can be held liable to pay for your injury. In Maryland the owner's liability depends on what kind of property he has (business or residential) and why you were there in the first place (business reasons, social reasons or trespasser). For example, if the property is a business or the property is some one's home. In each case the owner has a different duty to you the visitor. If you are invited there or you are a trespasser the owner has a different duty to you. Most times premises liability is difficult to prove. Not impossible but difficult. I personally have had very good success with the premises liability claims. My largest recovery was against a hotel in Ocean City where my client slipped on ice. It was late on New Years eve the hotel had left the outdoor hot tub open and available. My client a wonderful women in her early 50's had gone with friends to the hotel. After dinner they looked outside and saw the hit tub was still open. They changed cloths and as my client exited onto the patio approaching the tub, down she went. Our theory of liability focused on the hotel's knowledge that water turned to ice in the cold. Hard to dispute that truth. And oh yeah people in hot tubs get wet. And when wet people walk from the hot tub to the door to enter the hotel they drip water. The long and short of it, don't leave the hot tub open in the freezing cold. If you do then at least warn people that is might be slippery between the patio door and the hot tub. That seems to make sense since the hotel owners have been there for many winters and knew or should have known of the danger they created and this was my client's first time ever to this hotel. You see the basis of this type of liability involving a business and a business invitee is the knowledge the owner has of the danger and the opportunity they had to correct it or warn. One of the first questions to ask a client on a slip and fall is where did you fall and secondly what made you fall. Where tells you the duty owed by the owner to your client. What made you fall is critical to success. As a lawyer you must establish the owner knew of the danger. This knowledge can be established if you can prove the danger was there for a long time or the owner created the danger. I had a slip and fall at a gas station which I won. The client slipped on oil. The owner argued the oil could have been left by the car immediately before my client arrived. In which case how could they know there was a danger in time to fix or warn. I was able to prove by eyes witnesses that the oil spill had tire marks thru it and foot prints in it. The foot prints lead directly to the glass windowed pay booth. Had the attendant been looking he would have seen the oily foot prints and could have taken corrective action to make the area safe or warned my client of the danger. It is important to note the owner of a property is not an insurer of the safety of the visitors. Giant Food v Mitchell 640 A 2d 1134. As a plaintiff you need to prove the business owner had knowledge and an opportunity to clean or warn and you the plaintiff had no reason to know or expect there was a danger there. Three ways to prove knowledge to the owner: 1. owner created the danger (Ocean City Hotel above); 2. an admission by the owner or an employee that they knew (extremely rare); and 3. constructive knowledge of the danger (the oily gas station above). Do appreciate the owner must have had an opportunity to clean or warn. So proving how long the danger existed is critical.
If you or your family member has been injured in a slip and fall, please feel free to call me. I am happy to discuss the case with you over the phone at no cost to you.

Experts in Maryland Injury Cases

For an expert to be permitted to testify first they must qualify as an expert. Then the experts opinions will be permitted only when

1). The opinions assist a jury in understanding questions that inexperienced people are not likely to decide correctly without the assistance of an expert. In circumstances where knowledge, training, and experience enable the expert witness to form an opinion that is going to aid the jury then an expert witness will be permitted to offer his testimony.

2). When the opinions are based on facts in evidence. The facts upon which the opinion of an expert witness is predicated must be stated. The jury must be informed of the facts or the assumed facts upon which the expert's opinion is based. An expert witness may not deliver his opinions in a factual vacuum. Furthermore, there must be evidence to support these facts. Beyond that it is for the jury to determine whether the facts exist or not. It has been the practice in Maryland for some years to permit an expert to express his opinion upon the facts in evidence which he has heard or read on the assumption that these facts are true. Twombley v. Fuller Brush Co., 221 Md. 476, 158 A.2d 110 (1960). Although expert opinion that assumes the truthfulness of disputed testimony is generally admissible, the expert opinion that asserts that the disputed testimony is true is not admissible. Hall v. State, 107 Md. App. 684, 670 A.2d 962 (1996. Md. Rule 5-703 If the jury's finding on controverted questions of fact is contra to the premise upon which the expert bases his opinion, his opinion falls with the premise. Mehlman v. Powell, 281 Md. 269, 378 A.2d 1121 (1977).

It is generally true that the opinion of an expert may not be based in whole or in part on the conclusions and opinions of other witnesses. Jackson v. Jackson, 249 Md. 170, 238 A.2d 852 (1968); nor on reports of others if they contain only opinions, inferences or conclusions. Pennsylvania Threshermen and Farmers' Mut. Cas. Co. v. Messenger, 181 Md. 295, 29 A.2d 653 (1943), Experts may rely on opinion evidence, based in part on reports of others which are not in evidence, but which the expert customarily relies on in the practice of his profession. Cohen v. Rubin, 55 Md. App. 83, 460 A.2d 1046 (1983).Where an expert relies on reports of others, he must demonstrate to the court not only that the reports were made in a reliable manner, but that they are reliable sources of information for the purposes to which the expert puts them. Madden v. Mercantile-Safe Deposit & Trust Co., 27Md. App. 17, 339 A.2d 340(1975).

In many personal injury case in Maryland I encounter situations where defense counsel seeks to introduce an expert for the sake of having an expert impress the jury. It is worth the fling of a Motion in Limine to challenge the use of experts that add nothing to the jury's need to understand and are no more then window dressing.

Medical Malpractice In Maryland Areas Of Liability

The areas of liability in a Maryland medical malpractice case fall generally into four categories. Plaintiff's will often find liability in general medical care, surgical errors, radiological errors and pathological areas. Once liability is determined the theories of liability generally fall into the following list.
1. Failure of proper treatment
2. Failure to tell the patient of test results
3. Lack of informed consent
4. Failure to refer a patient to a specialist.
5. Failure to preform surgery properly, including the failure to use proper tools and equipment.