There is nothing more devastating for Baltimore residents than to experience the death of a loved one. While there is never a good time for this to happen, the situation can seem even worse when the loved one dies suddenly and unexpectedly, like in a fatal car crash.

When a fatal auto accident occurs, it can seem to come out of nowhere. For instance, a woman recently died in a car accident after she and her boyfriend had stopped to address a deer that had been killed on the road from a prior accident. While the couple was pulled over on the side of the road, a truck struck the couple's Jeep, and the woman died as a result.

The driver of the truck fled from the scene of the accident. After conducting a search, police officers found the driver of the truck hiding in a bush. The driver was later charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

Typically, when a person is killed because of another person's negligence, it may give rise to ta cause of action for wrongful death. Often, a wrongful death action will follow a criminal trial against the other party, who may face criminal charges as a result of the accident.

While the two actions may stem from the same circumstances, the elements of each case differ. For example, in a criminal trial for DUI, there may be defenses available to the charges for the accused person, such as a faulty breathalyzer test. These defenses may not apply in the civil case for wrongful death, as it is only required to show that person's negligence. The burden of proof is also lower in the civil case, as the injured party need only show the other person caused the death by a preponderance of the evidence, rather than the beyond a reasonable doubt standard used in criminal trials.

For many Baltimore residents, there is nothing more valuable to them then their personal health. The thought of being sick or injured is enough to strike fear in many individuals, particularly those who have had some personal experience with serious personal injury, whether it be suffering a personal injury themselves or watching loved ones go through the pain and suffering.

Fortunately, individuals may obtain some form of relief if the injury occurred at the hands of another person's negligence. Through a personal injury lawsuit, individuals can be awarded different types of damages to compensate them for their losses.

For instance, one man recently was awarded $6.7 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit against a doctor, based on surgeon negligence. During a hernia operation, the man's small intestine was punctured by the surgeon, who apparently knew the intestine was penetrated during the surgery, but did not think it was serious enough to cause a leak.

Instead, the man's condition continued to worsen after the procedure, until the leak was eventually found and repaired. Ultimately, the man was bedridden in intensive care for months, after which he had to endure several more surgeries. Also, as a result of his illness, the man lost his job and his wife quit her job in order to care for him.

The case illustrates how, in a medical malpractice case, different types of considerations play into the damages calculation. For example, not only may individuals recover damages based on the medical expenses they incur, but also compensation for their pain and suffering, disfigurement and mental anguish. Moreover, individuals may also recover damages based on the effects the personal injury has on their professional life, including damages for lost wages and lost earning capacity. While nothing can replace what was taken from the person through the injury, these damages can help the person get some relief.

In the movies, car crashes are often over the top, and filled with drama and suspense. In the daily lives of Baltimore residents, however, a collision often occurs for the most basic and ordinary reasons, such as an inattentive truck driver who strikes another vehicle. In either case, individuals can be left with serious injuries, and left looking for relief after the incident.

For instance, a box truck driver was killed recently after he rear-ended a tractor-trailer. The tractor-trailer was stopped in traffic at the time of the truck accident, when the man in the box truck hit it from behind. As a result, the driver of the tractor-trailer was taken to the hospital to treat his injuries, while the driver of the box truck was pronounced dead at the scene.

Rear-end accidents are a very common type of accident. Moreover, there are established rules that may determine if negligence was involved in these types of accidents.

Typically, the driver who hits another vehicle from behind is at fault. This is true even where the vehicle in front was stopped at the time of the crash; the rules of the road dictate that individuals driving behind another person should leave enough room to enable them to stop.

Nonetheless, there may be different circumstances that can change the results in a personal injury lawsuit. For example, if the person who was driving ahead had brake lights out at the time they were rear-ended, this could lead to a finding of contributory negligence. This means that both drivers are assessed some percentage of fault for the accident.

In turn, these circumstances can change not only who may be negligent, but what the person's damages might be. Accordingly, individuals should consult a qualified attorney to determine what the circumstances of their particular accident may be, and how it may affect the issues of liability and damages.

When Baltimore residents hit the road, they are often thinking of other things going on in their lives. Nonetheless, most individuals are usually careful to follow the rules of the road and watch out for other vehicles. However, not everyone follows these rules, which can, unfortunately, lead to serious injury for others who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This occurred recently after a car was traveling on a highway and crossed over from the northbound lane to the southbound lane. The car, which reportedly was travelling at a high rate of speed, then caused a head-on collision with a pickup. This was just the start of the incident, however, as multiple other cars then became part of the car accident. In all six cars were involved, leaving one person with life threatening injuries, and at least a dozen others with various other injuries.

In cases like this, injured parties understandably want some recourse against the party at fault for causing their injuries. This can be done through a personal injury lawsuit.

One of the primary issues in a lawsuit stemming from a car accident is determining whether the person who caused the crash was a negligent driver. In order to recover any damages for injuries, the plaintiff must establish liability on the part of the defendant.

Typically, this may be done in a variety of ways, including eyewitness testimony, accident reconstructions and expert opinions. Trials also commonly involve the rules of the road and whether the person who caused the crash violated any statutes. For instance, speeding is a statutory violation, which can then be used against the person to show negligence at the time of the crash.

With Major League Baseball playoffs now underway, baseball fans around Baltimore are cheering for their favorite teams, if they were fortunate enough to make the playoffs. Those teams will be doing whatever they can to try and win it all. One player is now making waves off the field, however, after suing his team's doctor for medical malpractice.

Yankees player Alex Rodriguez, who has seen his share of headlines this year, recently filed a medical malpractice action against the Yankees' team doctor and a hospital. The suit focuses on the doctor's alleged misdiagnosis of Rodriguez's hip injury last year, which allowed Rodriguez to keep playing during last year's playoffs. By not informing Rodriguez of the superior labral tear in his left hip, Rodriguez alleges that he sustained further injury, which required additional surgeries that forced him to miss a great deal of time this season.

While the lawsuit may seem somewhat unique, in that professional sports players do not often sue their team's doctors, this suit illustrates that multiple individuals may be sued for medical malpractice when their negligence causes personal injury to a patient. For instance, in addition to the doctor himself or herself, patients may sue nurses, anesthesiologists, or other medical professionals who were involved in the treatment of the patient.

Besides those directly involved in the care, patients may also sue the hospital or other facility itself that provided the services, or even pharmaceutical or other companies who provided medications and other medical devices to the patient. Accordingly, there are a wide variety of individuals and entities that may be held accountable for medical malpractice, depending on the facts and circumstances surrounding a particular case.

Baltimore residents understand that, at one time or another, everyone makes mistakes. Learning to admit these mistakes and learn from them is what may make the difference in not repeating them again. For some professionals in the medical community, however, not only are mistakes not being corrected, but patients who have suffered personal injury because of the mistakes are not even being told about them.

According to a new study from the Institute of Medicine, 75,000 unnecessary deaths occur as a result of medical errors in the United States each year, along with more than one million injuries. Despite these staggering numbers, more than 30 percent of doctors and nurses actually underreported their clinical oversights.

Of course, not every mistake that is made in the hospital results in actionable medical malpractice. Minor errors may not even cause personal injury. Of those that do, however, the injured patient will need to establish that the injury was caused by doctor negligence in order to support a medical malpractice claim.

This entails showing that the doctor violated the standard of care that he or she was bound to follow. Often times, expert testimony may be necessary to show what the standard of care was in a particular case, and how the doctor or nurse in the case violated it.

Many doctors neglect to inform their patients when a mistake has been made. Accordingly, when a patient has been injured, he or she must take the necessary steps in order to determine whether the doctor was negligent, as a matter of law, and learn how to recover relief for the injury.