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October 29, 2020

Maryland Workers’ Compensation Claims and COVID-19

The Workers Compensation Insurance Organizations (WCIO) now lists COVID-19 among its reporting codes for Occupational Disease or Cumulative Injury, describing it as “respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus.” The Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission (WCC) began accepting these codes on April 1, 2020, to be used for reporting any claim effective December 2019 or later.

Filing a successful Maryland Workers’ Compensation claim proving employer liability for injury or illness can be very challenging. Proving employer liability for a worker becoming ill in Maryland from COVID-19 — in the middle of a pandemic in a state with community spread — is not necessarily an open-and-shut case.

August 13, 2020

Maryland Lawyers Cope with Continued Court Restrictions During COVID-19 Crisis

by Jeff Butschky

The last few months have been difficult and challenging for all of us, to say the least. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, our Maryland law firm has remained open as an essential service. We’ve continued to communicate with and advocate for our personal injury clients. After all, it’s our job to keep their cases and claims moving forward in the courts, despite court building closures that started in March and other severe restrictions.

As we blogged about back in May, the Maryland Judiciary proposed a phased reopening plan for the state courts system, with limited services and safety measures in place to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Phase 2 of the plan began June 5, with courts remaining closed to the public except for those whose cases needed to be heard.

Most recently, on July 20, the courts entered Phase 3 of the reopening plan, making a few more services available to the public with many restrictions still in place. Here’s how it breaks down for our Maryland accident injury clients and anyone else in Maryland needing the services provided by our courts system.

March 27, 2020

Maryland Court Closures Due to COVID-19 and Your Personal Injury Lawsuit

by Jeff Butschky

We’d like to reach out to our Maryland clients and the greater community to provide some guidance on personal injury lawsuits and claims during the COVID-19 emergency. On March 25, Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera issued a new order extending the length of statewide restricted judiciary operations.

Due to the extended order, all Maryland courts and court offices have been restricted to emergency operations and are closed with limited exceptions from March 17, 2020 through April 3, 2020; in addition, the courts are closed to the public with limited exceptions through May 1, 2020. As with other court systems in states around the country, this decision was made to limit exposure to and spread of the COVID-19 virus among members of the public as well as court personnel and law enforcement.

So what does this mean for your Maryland personal injury claim, whether related to an auto accident, a work accident or Worker’s Compensation claim, a slip and fall accident, or some other cause of injury?