Maryland Accident Law Blog

What Maryland’s Supreme Court Said About a Fall on a Just-Mopped Floor

October 28, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A business that mops its own floor is not entitled to judgment simply because its employee had not yet come back with a warning sign. The Supreme Court of Maryland so held in a reported opinion filed September 25, 2026. A customer who fell on a just-mopped floor at a Silver Spring car dealership, the court ruled, is entitled to have a jury decide whether the dealership acted reasonably.

A Maryland slip and fall on a wet floor usually turns on notice, meaning proof that the owner knew or should have known about the hazard. The court held that notice is not at issue when the owner’s own employee knowingly created the condition. Whether the owner took reasonable precautions is then ordinarily a question for the jury.

The ruling returns the case for trial. It does not decide that the dealership was negligent. Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers represents people hurt in slip and fall accidents across Maryland, and the line the court drew, between a hazard a business finds and one it makes, changes what an injured customer has to prove.

A Fall at a Cemetery and the Limits of Maryland’s Recreational Use Law

September 29, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Last updated September 29, 2026 · Reviewed by Vadim A. Mzhen

A woman visiting her son’s grave at a Prince George’s County cemetery stepped into a ditch hidden by poor upkeep and was seriously hurt. A trial court threw out her negligence case, reasoning that Maryland’s Recreational Use Statute relieved the cemetery’s owner of any duty to her because she had entered without paying. The Appellate Court of Maryland reversed that ruling in a reported opinion filed July 30, 2026, holding that the trial court had applied the wrong legal test.

Free entry alone does not trigger the Maryland recreational use statute. The court has to look at the area where the injury happened, ask what the owner intended that area to be used for, and ask what the injured person was doing there, not why she was there. A claim can go forward where the area was meant for commercial purposes and the person’s activity fit those purposes, even if the same activity could also be described as recreational.

How Long a Maryland Family Has to Bring a Birth Injury Claim

August 31, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Last updated August 21, 2026 · Reviewed by Vadim A. Mzhen

Birth injuries are often identified years after the delivery that caused them. A child misses developmental milestones, a school evaluation raises questions, and a records review eventually points back to what happened during labor. Maryland’s limitations statute for medical claims anticipates that delay, and it treats injuries to young children differently from injuries to adults.

The general rule for a claim against a health care provider is the earlier of five years from when the injury was committed or three years from when it was discovered. For a child who was under 11 when the injury occurred, those periods do not begin to run at all until the child turns 11. A delivery injury to a newborn therefore has a clock that starts on the child’s eleventh birthday rather than at birth.

Timing is the question families raise first about Maryland birth injury claims, and it is where Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers usually starts when a family calls about a delivery that went wrong.

How Jake’s Law Treats Distracted Driving

July 30, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Last updated July 13, 2026 · Reviewed by the attorneys at Lebowitz & Mzhen

A driver glancing at a phone for a few seconds at highway speed travels the length of a football field essentially blind. Maryland has treated that danger seriously enough to write a law around it. As the state’s Zero Deaths Maryland safety campaign documents, distracted driving remains a leading cause of crashes across the state, and the toll on Maryland roads has been climbing. “Jake’s Law” was the legislature’s answer to a gap in how the law punished it. Understanding what that law does, and what it does not do for an injured victim, helps explain the difference between a driver’s day in traffic court and a family’s path to recovery.

What Jake’s Law Actually Does

Before You Head Out on the Bay This Summer, Know the Risks of a Maryland Boating Accident

June 29, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Summer on the Chesapeake Bay is one of the best things about living in Maryland. Boats crowd the water from the upper Bay down to the coastal inlets, families spend long weekends at Deep Creek Lake, and the rivers fill with kayaks, jet skis, and fishing boats. With hundreds of thousands of vessels registered in the state, the water gets busy, and a day meant for relaxation can turn dangerous in seconds when an operator is careless.

The Mistakes Behind Most Maryland Boating Injuries

The same handful of failures show up again and again in serious boating crashes. Alcohol sits near the top of the list, and its effects are amplified on the water by sun, wind, and dehydration, which is why the Maryland Natural Resources Police run sobriety campaigns through the busy summer months. The state has also strengthened its response to impaired boating through Nick’s Law, which increased the penalties for operating a vessel while impaired. Beyond alcohol, boating injuries trace to operators going too fast for conditions, inexperienced drivers who do not understand right-of-way rules, reckless wakes thrown near smaller craft, and passengers without properly fitted life jackets. A collision, an ejection, or a fall overboard can put a person in the water in an instant, and drowning remains the leading cause of death in boating accidents.

What Maryland Law Expects on the Water

Maryland requires every recreational boat to carry a wearable life jacket for each person aboard, and children under 13 must wear an approved life jacket on smaller recreational vessels while underway. Operators are responsible for the safety of their passengers and for the wake their vessel throws, and they must follow the rules of navigation that keep boats from colliding. When an operator ignores those duties, drinks before taking the helm, or overloads a boat with too few life jackets, the law treats the resulting harm as something the operator may have to answer for.

Maryland’s New Tiered Speed Camera Law and What It Can Add to a Pedestrian Injury Case

April 30, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

For years, Maryland speed camera tickets all looked the same. Twelve miles per hour over the limit in a school zone or residential street triggered a $40 civil citation. Whether a driver was barely past the threshold or roaring through a school zone, the fine on the envelope said the same thing.

That changed on October 1, 2025. Amendments to Maryland Transportation Article § 21-809 replaced the flat fine with a tiered penalty structure that scales with how far over the speed limit a vehicle was traveling. Anne Arundel County, Montgomery County, and a number of municipalities have already updated their public guidance to reflect the new law. Recent reporting indicates Montgomery County is also expanding its automated speed enforcement program under its Vision Zero initiative, placing cameras in additional “high-risk corridors” — roads identified by data as having a higher frequency of serious crashes, injuries, or fatalities.

For drivers, the headline is straightforward: tickets at higher speeds will cost more. For people injured in Maryland crashes — and for the lawyers who represent them — the more interesting story is what the tiered system, and the data behind Vision Zero placement, can add to a civil case.

Maryland’s Proposed MTA Liability Cap Could Change Transit Injury Cases

March 28, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A current Maryland transit reform proposal has drawn attention because it would cap damages in certain Maryland Transit Administration negligence claims at $400,000 per claimant. The Daily Record reported on March 23, 2026 that the provision would apply to bus and train crash claims, and Maryland legislative materials tied to HB 1081 and SB 947 discuss the same proposed cap as part of the broader Maryland Transit Administration Reform Act.

For injured people, that is a meaningful development. A transit crash can cause catastrophic injury, permanent disability, or death. When legislation proposes a hard ceiling on what a claimant may recover from a public transit agency, the discussion moves beyond transportation governance and into the real-world consequences for riders, pedestrians, workers, and families harmed in serious incidents.

Why a Damages Cap Matters So Much in a Serious Injury Case

Maryland Premises Liability Law and How to Pursue a Claim for Compensation

February 24, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A slip and fall on a wet floor in a Prince George’s County grocery store, a trip over a broken sidewalk in Hyattsville, or a fall on an icy parking lot in Bowie can produce injuries that are far more serious than most people expect — fractured hips, traumatic brain injuries, herniated discs, and torn ligaments. Maryland premises liability law allows injured people to pursue compensation from the property owner or business that failed to maintain safe conditions, but these cases carry specific legal requirements that make early legal guidance important. Lebowitz & Mzhen Personal Injury Lawyers handles slip and fall and premises liability claims throughout Prince George’s County and Maryland, with over $90 million recovered for injured clients since 1996.

What Is Premises Liability in Maryland?

Premises liability is the legal principle that holds property owners and occupiers responsible for injuries caused by dangerous conditions on their property. In Maryland, the duty of care a property owner owes depends on the legal status of the person who was injured: invitee, licensee, or trespasser. Most slip and fall accident victims — customers in stores, visitors in office buildings, tenants in apartment complexes — are classified as invitees, to whom the property owner owes the highest duty of care.

Leonardtown Crash With Tractor-Trailer Leaves Car Overturned And One Person Hospitalized

February 2, 2026 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A crash with a tractor-trailer can leave you shaken even if the hospital visit ends quickly. The size difference alone can turn an ordinary drive into a terrifying moment, and an overturned car adds another layer of fear for the person inside and the family getting the call. A report out of Leonardtown says a collision with a tractor-trailer ended with a car overturned and one person taken to the hospital.

In Maryland, the practical questions start right away. People want to know who caused it, what insurance will cover, and whether a normal mistake gets treated like “your fault” in a way that blocks help with bills and missed pay. A steady look at how these claims usually work can make the next steps feel less confusing.

What This Type Of Crash Often Means For Injuries And Recovery

When A Grocery Store Slip And Fall Becomes A Serious Injury In Maryland

December 30, 2025 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A fall inside a grocery store often gets dismissed as an accident, something unfortunate but unavoidable. For many Maryland families, that assumption changes quickly once injuries turn out to be serious. Wet floors, spilled products, and poorly maintained aisles can cause lasting harm, especially for older shoppers or anyone with existing health conditions. In many cases, these falls were preventable with reasonable care.

The question families usually ask early is whether the store should be responsible. Under Maryland law, the answer depends on what the store knew or should have known about the hazard and how it responded.

Why Grocery Store Falls Are So Common