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The Maryland Supreme Court today affirmed the denial of a Petition for Post-Conviction DNA Testing filed by a person convicted of several criminal offenses, including murder. The petitioner had requested DNA testing of scientific identification evidence related to their conviction, but the court found that the petitioner had not met the two conditions required by the Post-Conviction DNA Testing Statute.

Facts of Satterfield v. State

A man drove to Dundalk to pick up his daughter from her grandparents’ home. As he unlocked the back door to enter the home, he was attacked from behind by a person who grabbed him around the throat. The attacker had a shirt pulled over their face, but the victim described them as having big arms. Two other men wearing Yankees baseball caps and armed joined the attacker in the alley, where they demanded money from the victim, beat him, took $3,000 from him, and asked for more money.

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Financial difficulties can be overwhelming. Considering bankruptcy is a challenging decision. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the available bankruptcy options in Maryland, the processes involved, and the implications of each choice. Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge necessary to make an informed decision about your financial future to find a path to get back to where you should be.

Bankruptcy in Maryland

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A Jury Verdict Research study looked at jury verdicts. This data is old but still telling.  Oklahoma would at first glance appear to be an awful place for lawyers to try personal injury cases. The median compensation award in Oklahoma trials is $6,824 and plaintiffs receive a recovery in only 43% of personal injury cases that go to a jury. Compared to the national data, these figures are awful.

If you are an Oklahoma personal injury lawyer with a seriously injured client, does this mean you do not have a fair chance of getting a fair and meaningful recovery for your client’s injuries? I don’t think so. A full 10% of verdicts in personal injury cases in Oklahoma were for $500,000 or more. While to some extent this is comparing apples to oranges, only in 1% of motor vehicle accident cases in Maryland does the jury award more than $500,000.

This number of significant jury awards leads me to believe that Oklahoma juries might not award significant damages in soft tissue injury cases or other cases where the harm may be less significant, but they will often give fair compensation to the people that really need it the most: people whose lives have been forever changed because of the negligence of someone else.

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Separation and divorce signal the end of a marriage. Maryland law gives these terms very different meaning. These terms mean different things in every state but particularly in Maryland.  If you are considering a divorce, you want to understand the legal differences between the two.  Separation and divorce are two distinct legal processes, each with its own requirements and consequences. This article examines the differences between separation and divorce in Maryland and provide important information for those considering ending their marriage and why this distinction is important to you.

What is Separation in Maryland? (Limited Divorce)

While Maryland does not allow for legal separation, it does offer limited divorces.  So a limited divorce is what people call a separation.  If someone says, “I’m legally separated from my spouse,” they have a limited divorce.  You can also call it a “legal separation.”

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How much does a divorce cost in Maryland? This post aims to give you a better idea of the cost of a Maryland divorce lawyer.

First, is asking a lawyer how much a divorce will cost similar to asking a barber how often you should get a haircut?  Absolutely.  But the key difference here is we don’t cut your kind of hair.  We are not divorce lawyers and will not represent you in your Maryland divorce.

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This post will explain the applicable statute of limitations on the collection of debt under Maryland law. Throughout this post, we will refer to the person who borrowed money as the “debtor,” and the lender of that money will be the “creditor.” The statute of limitations is basically like a legal time limit or deadline. If the statute of limitations has expired, the creditor no longer has the legal right to enforce the debt against you in court.

The applicable statute of limitations in Maryland will depend on the type of debt involved. But you want to keep in mind that the most important statute of limitations question is often not just how many years apply, but when the clock starts running. For credit card debt, the limitations period generally begins when the account first becomes past due, usually after the first missed minimum payment. For medical debt, the clock usually starts on the date the treatment or service was provided. For car loan deficiency claims, the issue usually arises after repossession and sale of the vehicle. This matters because debt collectors often focus on the balance owed, while the legal fight more frequently turns on the date of default or the date the debt was incurred.

Why is all of this important to you? If the statute of limitations has expired on a debt in Maryland, a creditor generally cannot sue you to collect it in court. That does not mean the debt disappears, and it does not always stop credit reporting or collection attempts, but it does mean the creditor loses the legal right to obtain a court judgment on that debt after the deadline has passed and their threats become more empty. That is why determining the correct limitations period and the correct start date matters so much.

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Metro Verdicts Monthly looks at median settlements and verdicts in all civil rights cases in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia since 1987.  (This data is a bit older but I think it is still accurate.) The median civil rights award in Maryland is $90,000. The median in Washington DC is $100,000. Incredibly, and I have no explanation for this, the median in Virginia is $200,000, over 100% greater than the civil rights verdicts and settlement in Maryland.

We know for sure that post-George Floyd, we will see a lot more of these. Because juries will be more inclined to believe the victim. The world is changing. Not fast enough. But it is changing.

The following is a sampling of verdicts and settlements that involve the violation of civil rights:

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The Maryland Appellate Court issued a new opinion on security deposits in a landlord-tenant situation  This post discusses Maryland security deposit law and this new case.

Maryland Security Deposit Law

Maryland security deposit law is a set of rules and regulations that govern the handling of security deposits by landlords in the state of Maryland. It sets out the conditions under which a landlord may collect a security deposit from a tenant, how the deposit must be handled and maintained, and the conditions under which the deposit may be returned to the tenant at the end of the tenancy. This law also sets out the maximum amount that a landlord may charge for a security deposit, which is typically one or two months’ rent.

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A bill in the Maryland General Assembly, sponsored by state Del. Joe Vogel, D-Montgomery, aims to require hospitals to conduct a fentanyl test on patients suspected of a drug overdose, in response to the alarming number of overdose deaths caused by fentanyl in the state.

According to data from the Maryland Opioid Operational Command Center, fentanyl accounted for over twice as many overdose deaths as the substance with the second-highest number of deaths. Hospitals are the first line of defense, and testing for fentanyl would help inform opioid prevention strategies.

Fentanyl Problem in Maryland

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As a personal injury lawyer, I get questions from people wanting to know if they can sue in various situations.  All of our attorneys do.  One of the questions we get most often is, “can I sue if my dog gets attacked and injured by another dog?”

The emotional motivation is easy to understand, right? People love their dogs and view them as full family members. If your beloved dog gets viciously attacked and injured or even killed by another dog right in front of you, it’s only natural to want justice.

Our lawyers get this question so often because dog-on-dog attacks are widespread. According to the VCA, attacks by other dogs are the most common reason for emergency veterinarian care.

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