Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog
Every experienced injury lawyer knows that one of the first things an insurer or trial judge looks at is whether the plaintiff was injured seriously enough to be transported by ambulance for emergency medical treatment.
In Baltimore injury cases, there are two reasons why this is important in terms of presenting your claim for damages.
First, Baltimore City is one of the few jurisdictions in Maryland that charges a fee for ambulance service. Currently, an ambulance ride costs $410.00. The bill can be obtained from the city’s Bureau of Treasury Management on Holliday Street. I look at damages the same way I look at savings accounts: every little bit helps.
Second, every ambulance trip causes the emergency medical personnel to create a report known as a “run sheet”. This is an excellent source of information for injury lawyers for a couple of reasons. It often contains information that can only be recorded at or near the time of the accident and is recorded by independent witnesses who have no stake in the case’s outcome.
They may contain a record of objective injuries like cuts, abrasions, and bruises that are healed and forgotten by the plaintiff by the time your case comes to trial. I handled a motorcycle injury case where the ambulance report contained the notation “Victim hit the car’s front fender and flew 25 feet through the air.” The plaintiff could never have testified to this fact because he was knocked unconscious and had no idea how far he flew on impact. Information like this is a great way to show a jury just how serious and violent a car or truck accident was.