About Injury Law Group
Do I Need an Attorney if I am Injured?
Should I Retain an Attorney Immediately?
Why Engage Stein Sperling?
Process
Personal Injury Law Group Capabilities
Services
What type of Auto Insurance Will Affect Your Personal Injury Claim?
What are PIP, Med Pay and Income Loss Benefits?
What is Full Coverage?
What is UM and UIM Coverage?
What is Rental Reimbursement Coverage?
What is Property Damage/Collision Coverage?
Litigation

Stein Sperling has helped thousands of people just like you who have been hurt and have to go through the difficult time of healing and getting back to work. Stein Sperling is there to help you and your family through these tough times. When you are hurt, both you and your family suffer.

• How do you pay for necessary medical treatment?

• How an you pay for living expenses when a primary wage earner is out of work for an extended period of time?

• How much compensation is adequate for the pain and suffering associated with your injuries?

Stein Sperling’s Personal Injury Law Group has the experience and expertise to help you answer these and many other questions that often arise in a personal injury claim.

The Stein Sperling team of experienced attorneys and paralegals (which includes a health care professional and former insurance claims adjusters) provide zealous representation and assistance around-the-clock to help you and your family make it through this difficult time.

Let our Personal Injury Law Group put their experience and expertise to work for you.

Absolutely! At the very least, to learn of your legal rights, you should always consult with an attorney following an accident in which you are injured. The laws in the District of Columbia/Maryland/Virginia area vary by jurisdiction. If you fail to obtain timely legal advice, you could lose your rights and be prevented from recovering compensation for your injuries.

You should always consult with an attorney

The interests of the insurer may not be the same as the interests of the injured party

Stein Sperling recommends retaining an attorney immediately after any accident in which an injury is sustained.

Our Personal Injury Law Group is keenly aware of the substantial resources that are available to insurance companies. These resources are used to control the claims process, if you allow it, and are applied to settle injury claims quickly for the least money possible. Today, insurance companies may contact you as an injured party directly, often within 24 hours, in an effort to get you to settle your claim—even before. you start your treatment. In some cases, injured parties are pressured to sign documents that they do not fully understand and are offered nominal amounts of money to settle their claims prematurely. This can happen to you before you are aware of your legal rights and the ramifications of your decisions.

The role of the other party’s insurance company is not to protect your interests — it is to protect its own interests. Insurance companies routinely attempt to discourage accident victims from protecting their legal rights by seeking legal counsel.

Our Personal Injury Law Group can help make sure you get the compensation that is rightfully due you. If you have been involved in an accident and are seriously injured, you need attorneys who understand and can help you navigate through the claims and/or litigation process.

Many of Stein Sperling’s attorneys have over 25 years of experience in Personal Injury Law. Our Personal Injury attorneys and paralegals form a cohesive team who work together to maximize their ability to work on your behalf. Our experienced legal team will assist you every step of the way — from the moment your accident occurs to the time you are appropriately and justly compensated.

We know the “ins and outs” of claim management and can advise you as to when you should use your health insurance, collect workers compensation or use your Personal Injury Protection (PIP) or Medical Payment (MedPay) benefits. We know how to prepare your case to present a picture to the insurer as to how your life has been affected by your injuries. We know when the time is right to negotiate a settlement. We know how to achieve a just recovery for you.

Stein Sperling’s Personal Injury Group will help you assess the strength of your claim, the seriousness of your injuries and the amount of compensation to seek. Each person is different and so are their injuries—no two cases are exactly alike. However, our Personal Injury Group is unique in its approach in that cases are not evaluated for monetary value the moment a client walks into the office. Stein Sperling’s Personal Injury Group does not attempt to assess the real value of any case until treatment has been completed and the client has been found to have reached maximum medical improvement by the doctors who are most familiar with the client’s condition. We believe that proper legal representation requires your medical reports, lost wage documentation and other important case-evaluating materials be in the attorney’s hands before the case value can be finally assessed.

Stein Sperling’s attorneys and paralegals have many years of experience and knowledge about the claims and court climate, all of which could affect the value of your claim.

Going it alone, without an attorney, means that you are placing your trust in the insurance company to do the “right thing” when their interests lie in protecting themselves and the party who injured you

A personal injury claim generally begins when someone is injured as a result of someone else’s negligent conduct. Unlike some other jurisdictions, in order to have a successful case in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, the law requires that an injured party be 100% free from any contributory negligence in order to make a claim for personal injuries. “Contributory negligence” means that a claimant in some way contributed to the cause of an accident. Contributory negligence is the one theory that insurers often use to explain why an injured party should not be entitled to receive compensation for the injuries sustained in an accident.

Obtain an attorney immediately following an accident

Many times insurance companies attempt to obtain written and/or oral statements from persons immediately following an accident to have a record of what happened and to use it against you in an effort to diminish your claim or prevent a recovery.

The most efficient way to protect yourself, and to ensure that your interests are properly represented, is to obtain an attorney immediately following an accident—before you have spoken with the insurance company.

Effective representation from the very beginning may make the difference between being able to receive compensation for your injuries or not. In addition, as an insured party, there are certain steps that you must take with your own insurance company.
What most people do not realize is that, in certain cases, your own insurance company can become the opposing party. In these situations, an awkward relationship develops because the party you would most likely turn to for guidance, your own insurer, is the party which may later hold anything you say or do against you in an effort to prevent or minimize the payment of your claim.
Stein Sperling’s Personal Injury attorneys can help you navigate through this claims process from the moment the accident happens, ensuring that you receive proper advice and instruction at each important step of your case.

Our legal team is well versed in many areas of insurance law including:

• Automobile Accidents
• Medical Malpractice
• Negligence
• Product Liability
• Industrial Accidents
• Other Personal Injury

We will work with you from beginning to end in order to utilize all of your legal rights.

· Intake Assistance - Here you will be able to meet with our experienced attorneys and knowledgeable intake paralegals. We carefully explain the different parts of your claim and what you can expect at each step along the way.

· Claims Set Up and Processing

· Claims Management - Our paralegals and our on-staff nurse, if necessary, monitor and oversee your treatment and its proper duration.

· Assistance Documenting Lost Wages

· Personal Injury Protection (PIP)/MedPay or Other First Party Benefit Assistance

· Negotiation of Your Claim

· Advice and Assistance on Whether the Offer Provided by the Insurer is Appropriate

· Litigation of Claims in the Court System - Suing is not always the best option today — our attorneys will walk you through what is happening in the court climate to help you decide whether to litigate and, if so, where. The choice of court can greatly influence the final result of your claim.

· Settling Bills and Liens on Your Case - Many attorneys will not involve themselves in giving you assistance with the payment of your liens and bills before your case is closed.

D.C., Maryland and Virginia have different insurance laws affecting a person’s ability to use what is commonly D.C., Maryland and Virginia have different insurance laws . .

called First-Party Coverage. This includes Medical Payment or Medical Expense Benefits in Virginia, and Personal Injury Protection (PIP) in the District of Columbia and Maryland. The several jurisdictions have different rules affecting an injured party’s right or ability to use health insurance and when health insurance benefits, if used, must be reimbursed.
Knowledge of available insurance is extremely important in affecting an injured person’s net recovery. The interplay of first-party benefits and third-party benefits (the settlement offer from the liable party) can greatly enhance or reduce an injured person’s ability to receive just financial compensation at the conclusion of a personal injury claim.
We believe Stein Sperling’s efforts to maximize all legally available benefits result in our clients receiving the settlement dollars they deserve.

Personal Injury Protection (PIP) is a benefit used in Maryland and the District of Columbia that affects an injured party’s right to be compensated regardless of fault in an automobile accident. PIP benefits can be used to pay medical expenses and/or lost wages. The laws affecting PIP in the District of Columbia and the laws affecting PIP in Maryland are extremely different.
Medical Expense (MEB) or Med Pay (MPB) Benefits are available to pay for medical bills of individuals involved in automobile accidents in Virginia, if their automobile policy is written in the State of Virginia. Such coverage must be purchased from your automobile insurance carrier. It is not automatically included in your policy or with full coverage. Unlike PIP, it cannot be used to pay any portion of lost wages. A Virginia policyholder may purchase Income Loss Benefits (ILB), which reimburses lost wages up to a stated maximum amount.
MPB benefits and PIP benefits are first party benefits not subject to subrogation. This means that a person has the right, if the policy provides for these benefits, to enjoy them without having to reimburse the carrier for these payments from the personal injury settlement.
Stein Sperling’s attorneys are well versed in dealing with claims in these local jurisdictions as well as out-of-state, no matter where your accident happened or where you live. In addition, because our attorneys are licensed in many states and are active in many bar and trial associations, if your case involves issues of out-of-state laws, we have the resources for getting the assistance your claim requires.

When you register a motor vehicle and purchase automobile insurance, your policy must provide at least for that jurisdiction’s minimum limits of liability coverage. Minimum liability coverage amounts differ among the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. Liability coverage protects other drivers in the event of your negligence. Liability coverage provides financial compensation to others who are injured by your negligence. In the event your liability coverage is insufficient, you could be liable for damages that exceed your coverage.

When you add coverage for payment of any damage to your car – called collision coverage - the automobile. Our attorneys would be happy to review with you your coverage limits.

insurers will often refer to that as “full coverage.” This term can be deceiving, however, because without specifically requesting PIP/Med Pay and rental reimbursement coverage, you are not really fully covered for an accident. Depending on your income level, the amount of property that you own and other factors, you should have more than just the required minimum coverage.

Our attorneys would be happy to review your coverage limits with you — simply call and bring your insurance policy to our office. We will review it with you to make sure that you have the protection you need.

Uninsured motorist (UM) coverage provides protection for you, your family and any other occupants of your motor vehicle in the event of an automobile accident caused by someone who does not carry auto insurance. Underinsured Motorist Coverage (UIM) provides coverage for you, your family, and other vehicle occupants in the event you have an accident with a driver whose liability insurance limits are less than you carry on your policy.

Rental reimbursement coverage is optional coverage that individuals can purchase in order to rent a vehicle in the event their car is damaged and not driveable.

Property damage/collision coverage covers reimbursement, repair or replacement of your car in the event it is damaged in an accident, regardless of who causes the accident.

Stein Sperling’s Litigation Department knows the “ins and outs” of the court system. Sometimes bringing a case to court isn’t always in the injured person’s best interest given the climate and conditions of the court system. Our Litigation Group is highly experienced in Personal Injury law and, as such, can give you the focused attention needed to determine whether going to court on a personal injury matter is the right way to go or not.

Many factors need to be considered in making the decision to take a personal injury matter to court. A number of these factors include the personal injury climate, recent court decisions, the jurisdiction in which the case needs to be tried and the severity of the injuries. What many injured plaintiffs do not realize is that the costs involved in trying a case properly, such as depositions and expert fees, could exceed the expected recovery. There are many different ways to bring a case to court today and many different courts in which cases can be brought. Our Litigation Group carefully analyzes each situation on an individual basis to determine whether bringing a case to court is in the injured person’s best interests or not. Every effort is made to settle a case out of court. As such, you can be assured that, if a recommendation for litigation is given to you by our Litigation Group, no other available means exist to settle your case.

Apart from litigation, our office vigorously explores the possibilities of mediation, arbitration or any other means necessary or available to settle a claim. Litigation is considered to be a last resort due to the climate that has surrounded personal injury suits in the courts, particularly in the Washington Metropolitan Area, over the past five years. Let us help you decide whether “just suing ‘em” is the right decision for you.

Do Not Wait

We invite you to bring in your automobile insurance policy to discuss with one of our attorneys. Do not wait until you have an accident and need your coverage to find out if you and your family are adequately protected!

Be proactive and protect yourself, your family and your assets. Let our professionals protect and guide you through the insurance maze.

In the event of an accident – and in advance of needing your accident coverage – there is no substitute for Stein Sperling’s guidance, expertise and experience!

Let our experience work for you.

For more information, please call us at (301) 340-2020, email us at  info@steinsperling.com, or contact one of our Injury Law attorneys directly: