We are Baltimore, Maryland trial lawyers handling wrongful death and serious personal injury cases. The cases we handle involve medical malpractice, medication errors, premises injuries such as slip-and-falls and falling-object cases, construction accidents, motor vehicle collisions particularly those involving commercial vehicles – tractor trailers, buses, and dump trucks, and other incidents leading to death or serious injury. Our law firm has a regional practice, covering the MidAtlantic region of the United States. Our attorneys are admitted to practice in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.
We meet with co-counsel and clients on the Western Shore in our office in downtown Baltimore. We meet with co-counsel and clients on the Eastern Shore in our office in Salisbury. From our two Maryland satellite offices, we are able to provide legal services throughout the State of Maryland.
Plaintiff’s attorneys often seek our assistance in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases. We are often “instructed” by existing counsel, sort of in the way a solicitor would instruct a barrister. We take case on straight referral from outside counsel. We also serve alongside counsel, sharing the workload and costs of prosecuting cases. If you are considering “instructing” trial counsel, please contact us. We can provide experienced jury trial lawyers, expertise in developing the case for trial during the pre-filing and discovery phases, and the deep financial wherewithal necessary to present complex injury and death cases. If you are an attorney seeking assistance with an existing case, please read our page on how we work with outside counsel, and then contact us for a complimentary review of your client’s case.
The general public is also welcome to contact us directly about wrongful death and serious injury cases. We offer free consultations in wrongful death and serious personal injury cases. If we accept representation, we generally offer to represent you on a contingency fee basis. A contingency fee is an agreement where there are no attorney’s fees unless we win or settle your case. We do this because the cases we handle are often complex, requiring a lot of preparation before filing a lawsuit. For that reason, we want to encourage people to contact us as soon as possible after a serious injury or death occurs.
If you are an attorney considering getting an assist with your big case, if you have been seriously injured due to the careless conduct of another, or if you are a family member of someone who was killed due to the wrongful conduct of another person or company, please feel free to contact us directly to find out how we can help.
Referral and Co-counsel Arrangements in Baltimore Personal Injury and Death Cases
Many of our cases find their way to us through other attorneys and law firms. It is not uncommon for us to work together with other attorneys to evaluate tort cases, to litigate cases together, and to work together at trial. There are three ways we work with outside counsel:
Referrals
We take cases on referral from other attorneys. We pay referral fees as permitted by the applicable rule. For instance, in Baltimore, Maryland wrongful death and personal injury cases, Maryland Attorneys’ Rule of Professional Conduct 1.5(e) authorizes attorneys not in the same firm to divide a fee where the division of the fee is proportionate to the services rendered by each attorney, the client agrees in writing to the joint representation, and the total fee is reasonable.
In cases on referral, referring counsel does not bear responsibility for advancing the costs of prosecution. In fact, oftentimes we are able to reimburse referring counsel for any costs advanced prior to referring the case.
In these cases, referring counsel may elect to continue to participate in a meaningful way in the investigation, evaluation, or prosecution of the case. For example, where referring counsel has a relationship with the client, she or he may serve in an ongoing capacity as a conduit for communication with the client. In other cases, referring counsel may do other tasks such as assisting with legal research or coordinating depositions or mediation.
In referred cases, we maintain primary responsibility for the prosecution of the case to settlement or trial. It is our goal in Baltimore, Maryland area referral cases (and all Maryland referral cases for that matter) to strike a one-third: two-thirds balance between the relative services rendered. That way, a one-third: two-thirds fee split is reasonable.
This conforms with our practice in other jurisdictions where ethics rules do not impose a requirement that the fee split bear a reasonable relationship to services performed, and where our typical referral fee paid to referring counsel in a wrongful death or catastrophic injury case is one-third of our fee.
Co-counsel
We accept co-counsel assignments in Baltimore, Maryland area wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases.
Co-counsel relationships differ significantly from referral relationships. In these cases, counsel has usually invested a good deal of time and expense in the case before bringing us in. In co-counsel cases, the original attorney continues to participate in working the case up for trial and in advancing expenses. In our typical co-counsel case, we expect to roughly split the workload and expenses 50-50, and in return we generally split the fee 50-50 as well. Of course, each case is different.
Oftentimes, when we are asked to co-counsel on a case, the case has reached a certain point at which the plaintiff’s attorney realizes that the case isn’t going to settle, or the case is going to be too time-consuming or expensive. Bringing in co-counsel is an excellent way to reduce the burden and lay off risk attendant to trying a significant case for a solo practitioner or small law firm.
If you would like to discuss a referral of, or co-counsel relationship in, a Baltimore, Maryland personal injury or wrongful death claim or case, please contact us today.
Areas of Practice
We are Baltimore, Maryland personal injury and wrongful death lawyers. We handle a variety of injury and death claims. This page will review some of the more common types or causes of cases we accept. We limit the cases we handle through our Baltimore office to those involving the most serious injuries – for example TBI, spinal cord injuries resulting in paralysis, amputation, significant loss of function of organs, and death. To find out if we can handle your case, contact us for a free case review.
Medical Malpractice
Our trial attorneys handle Baltimore, MD medical malpractice cases. These cases oftentimes involve bad outcomes after surgeries or hospital stays, medication errors, birth injuries, failures to diagnose health conditions such as cancer, abuse or neglect in nursing homes or long-term care facilities, chiropractor malpractice, and other failures by medical and ancillary medical professionals. The cases we handle are limited to those involving death of a patient or catastrophic injury.
Tractor Trailer, Bus, and other Commercial Motor Vehicle Crashes
Our Baltimore, MD injury attorneys are experienced in prosecuting commercial motor vehicle collisions. Commercial vehicle crashes often differ significantly from private passenger motor vehicle accidents. In addition to the state rules of the road, federal law is often implicated in these types of crash cases. In addition, from an insurance claims investigation and handling perspective, these types of cases are usually given much more attention, particularly early on. It is important in a commercial trucking accident to secure legal representation as soon as possible. Otherwise, witnesses may go missing and evidence may be destroyed. Again, the Baltimore, Maryland area cases we accept are limited to those involving the most serious injuries or death.
Premises Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Cases
Our jury trial lawyers prosecute Baltimore, Maryland premises liability cases, including fall accidents, injuries occurring due to defective conditions arising from the construction, maintenance or use of buildings or grounds, falling merchandise cases in stores, child falls from unsecured windows, injuries resulting from mold exposure, and other accidents and injuries occurring on real property.
Dangerous Dog Attacks
Our wrongful death and personal injury attorneys handle Baltimore area dog attack cases against owners of dogs who permit their animals to injure or kill. Some of the saddest cases we have handled involve children, the elderly, and others who have sustained injury or who have been killed in dog maulings. We prosecute these cases to the fullest extent of the law.
Construction Accidents
We handle wrongful death and catastrophic injury liability cases resulting from construction accidents in Baltimore, Maryland and surrounding areas. The construction accident cases we handle involve electric shock incidents, trench collapse, accidents involving heavy machinery such as cranes or backhoes, roof-fall cases, equipment malfunction, and often involve inadequate safety precautions.
Other Incidents
Our Baltimore attorneys handle other types of cases as well. Just because we didn’t list it here doesn’t mean we have never done it. If you would like to know if we can assist you with your case or with your client’s case, please contact us for a free case review.
About Us
Schwartz & Schwartz is a regional trial law firm with a focus on wrongful death and catastrophic personal injury cases. Our attorneys are admitted to practice in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. We have offices in Baltimore, Salisbury, Dover, DE, Wilmington, DE, Philadelphia, PA, and Havertown, PA. Our Maryland attorneys are Ben Schwartz and Joe Stanley.
Ben Schwartz graduated Magna Cum Laude from New York Law School in 2001. He is the Managing Partner of the firm. Ben has tried more than thirty jury trial cases to verdict. Ben is admitted to practice in Maryland and Delaware. He is a former Chairman of the Delaware State Bar Association Health Law Section and currently serves as Chairman of the Delaware Supreme Court’s Lawyer’s Fund for Client Protection. In that capacity, he oversees sixty law firm books and records audits each year, supervises the investigation of claims relating to fraud committed by attorneys against their clients, and administers a $5M trust fund.
Joe Stanley was a double-major at University of Delaware in Political Science and Philosophy, earned a Master’s in Urban Affairs and Public Policy also from UD, and then went on to law school at Seton Hall in New Jersey where he earned his J.D. Joe clerked for Schwartz & Schwartz during law school and joined the firm once he was admitted to practice. Joe is admitted in three states – Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.
Both Ben and Joe are available for consultation in our Baltimore, MD office.
