Hunter Duke, Attorney and Chief Operating Officer at WGK Personal Injury Lawyers

By Hunter Duke, Attorney | Chief Operating Officer

If you were attacked in Baltimore, you’re likely hurt, facing medical bills you never asked for, and unsure whether anyone will be held accountable. You may have the right to sue for your injuries and recover money for that harm, even if the police never made an arrest. A civil assault injury case lets a victim recover compensation for the harm an attacker caused. It’s separate from the criminal case, and it doesn’t depend on a conviction.

Most people don’t realize there’s often a second path to recovery beyond the attacker. We explain that below.

The Baltimore assault injury lawyers at WGK Personal Injury Lawyers can walk you through both. Call (410) 837-2144 for a free consultation. You pay nothing unless we win your case.

What WGK Personal Injury Lawyers Does for Assault Injury Cases

How Can Our Personal Injury Lawyers Help You?

After an attack, you’re dealing with pain and fear on top of bills you never asked for. Our job is to take the legal weight off your shoulders so you can focus on healing.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

  • We move fast to preserve evidence before it disappears. That includes surveillance footage from the bar, garage, or apartment complex that an owner may otherwise tape over.
  • We gather the police report, your medical records, and the property’s history of prior crime.
  • We identify every party who may owe you money, the attacker and any negligent property owner, and we track down the liability insurance that can actually pay.
  • We build the demand around the full cost of your injuries and negotiate with the insurer.
  • We file suit and take the case to trial when the offer doesn’t match the harm.

The property owner’s insurance company will assign an adjuster. That adjuster’s job is to close your claim for as little as possible. Often, they ask for a recorded statement early, while you’re still in shock. We handle that contact, so nothing you say is used to reduce what you are owed.

An assault claim is rarely as simple as suing the person who hit you. Two civil tracks often run at the same time. One is an intentional-tort claim against the attacker. The other is a negligent-security claim against a property owner or business that failed to address a known danger.

Running both well takes the kind of experience our firm has spent decades building.

Our firm has nearly 50 years behind it and nearly 100 years of combined attorney experience. That depth is what these two-track assault cases demand. We have recovered over $100 million for our clients, including numerous six- and seven-figure settlements for injury victims across Maryland. Hundreds of injured Marylanders turn to us every year.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is different. These figures represent aggregated data from cases handled by our firm and are provided for informational purposes only.

Injured, Hon? We can help.

Free consultation. You pay nothing unless we win.

Call (410) 837-2144Free consultation online

When to Call an Assault Injury Lawyer

Call as soon as you can after the attack. The deadline that catches victims off guard is much shorter than most people expect, and we explain it in full below. The short version: an assault claim can expire much faster than a typical injury claim. Waiting until the criminal case resolves before talking to a lawyer is often a mistake.

Speak with a lawyer if any of these apply:

  • You were hurt badly enough to need medical care.
  • The attack happened on someone else’s property.
  • You’re not sure who can be held responsible.

Call right away if an insurance company or the attacker’s representative reaches out to you. Anything you say can be used to reduce or deny your claim.

Calling before the criminal process plays out matters, because the two tracks are independent. A civil case doesn’t require a criminal charge or a guilty verdict. The civil burden of proof is lower.

You only have to show the attack was "more likely than not," not the criminal standard of "beyond a reasonable doubt." You can win a civil case even when the criminal system does nothing.1

Common Causes of Assault Injuries in Baltimore

Violent crime in Baltimore has fallen sharply in recent years. Assaults still happen every day, and the injuries can be life-altering.6 Many aggravated assaults in the city are cleared with an identified offender. That matters for a civil case, because a known attacker is someone you can name as a defendant.6

Assaults arise out of ordinary places and ordinary nights out. These are the settings we see most often.

Bars, Nightclubs, and Entertainment Venues

Crowded bars and clubs are a frequent source of assault injuries, especially late at night. Fights spill out of doorways, security ejects patrons into unsafe areas, and over-capacity rooms turn small disputes into serious ones. When a venue ignores a known history of violence, it can share responsibility for what happened to you.

Apartment Complexes and Rental Properties

A tenant or guest attacked in a poorly secured building is a common negligent-security scenario. Broken locks, dead security cameras, dark stairwells, and propped exterior doors all make an attack easier. A drop in the citywide assault rate does not relieve a landlord of its duty on a property with a history of crime.7

Parking Garages, Hotels, and Retail Stores

Isolated stairwells, unmonitored garages, and stores in higher-crime areas put visitors at risk. A property owner who invites the public in has a duty to take reasonable steps to keep common areas safe.

Excessive Force and Other Intentional Attacks

Some assaults involve mugging, road-rage attacks, or excessive force. These cases can involve a single attacker or multiple defendants when a third party failed to provide reasonable safety.

Types of Assault Injury Cases We Handle

We represent two kinds of clients: people hurt by physical assault and battery, and people hurt because a property owner failed to provide reasonable security. A viable case usually turns on two things. You need a serious injury and a defendant who can actually be held accountable.

This page focuses on physical assault and battery. Two related categories sit on separate pages, because they involve different statutes and different defendants. Sexual assault cases go to our Baltimore sexual assault lawyers. Attacks involving police misconduct fall under our civil rights and police brutality work.

The cases we take cover the full range of injuries, from soft-tissue harm and broken bones through traumatic brain injury, internal bleeding, and permanent disfigurement. These are the settings where they tend to happen:

  • Attacks at bars, nightclubs, concerts, and sporting events
  • Assaults in apartment complexes and rental housing common areas
  • Attacks in parking garages, lots, hotels, and retail stores
  • Mugging and street-level attacks where a negligent property owner shares fault
  • Excessive force and other intentional attacks

Who Can Be Held Liable

Beyond the attacker, the property owner or business where the attack happened may also be liable. In many cases, this avenue is more viable than going after the attacker alone. Attackers frequently have no money or insurance to pay a judgment. The reason their insurance doesn’t respond ties back to the nature of an assault itself.

Civil assault is the threat of imminent harm that puts a victim in reasonable fear of being hurt. No contact is required. Civil battery is the actual harmful or offensive contact. Both are intentional torts.

Most homeowner and liability policies exclude intentional acts, so an attacker’s insurance will rarely cover what they did to you. That coverage gap is the main reason a negligent-security claim against the property owner can carry the case.1

Negligent security claims

Negligent security is a property owner’s failure to take reasonable safety measures against a foreseeable risk of crime. Maryland’s landmark decision in Scott v. Watson set the rule. A property owner who knows or should know of criminal activity in the common areas it controls has a duty to take reasonable measures to address it.3

That duty arises from prior crimes on the owner’s property, not from crimes in the surrounding neighborhood. A security failure creates liability only when it made the attack more likely.3

A property owner isn’t an insurer of your safety. A random attack with no warning signs, on a property with a clean history, is a weak case. A serious attack where the owner ignored a known, repeated danger is a strong one. The way that duty plays out at bars and clubs deserves one clarification, because Maryland law differs from many states on this question.

Claims involving bars and clubs

Maryland doesn’t recognize dram shop liability. The state’s highest court set that rule in Warr v. JMGM Group.4 A bar that serves a visibly drunk patron owes no duty to a person that patron later harms.

You generally can’t sue a bar for over-serving the person who attacked you. The viable claim against a bar is inadequate security, not the act of pouring a drink.4

Damages You Can Recover in an Assault Injury Case

An assault can cause physical, emotional, and financial harm. Maryland law lets you recover for all three. The exact value depends on your injuries, your treatment, and the facts of the attack. You may be entitled to recover the following.

  • Medical bills, including emergency, surgical, and follow-up care
  • Lost wages and lost earning capacity
  • Pain and suffering, including both the physical pain and the limits the injury places on daily life

Pain and suffering damages cover more than the pain itself. They account for the activities you can no longer do and the routine tasks that have become hard.5 They also cover the reduced enjoyment of your life.

Maryland also recognizes pre-impact fright, the awareness that an unavoidable attack is about to happen, as its own category of harm. Maryland’s highest court recognized those damages in Beynon v. Montgomery Cablevision, 351 Md. 460 (1998).10

Punitive damages are different. Maryland reserves them for intentional misconduct. It requires proof of actual malice by clear and convincing evidence, meaning an evil motive or an intent to injure. In a routine car crash, those damages are nearly impossible to win.

An intentional assault is exactly the kind of conduct that can qualify, though it’s never guaranteed and hard to prove.9 Maryland doesn’t cap punitive damages, and they aren’t subject to the non-economic damages cap either.9

Our resource pages break down punitive damages and when they are awarded and how pain and suffering is calculated.

Maryland Law: Deadlines, Damages Caps, and Negligence

The single most important fact in an assault injury case is the deadline. Assault claims can expire faster than almost any other injury claim. Knowing which clock applies to your case can be the difference between a recovery and a dismissal.

Three different clocks can apply to a single attack, and getting the wrong one can end your case before it starts:

  • A civil assault claim must be filed within one year of the attack. That is the shortest limitations period in Maryland tort law, far shorter than the three years most people expect.1
  • A battery claim (based on the physical contact) and a negligent-security claim against a property owner both fall under Maryland’s general three-year deadline.2
  • If a city, county, or other government body owns the property, you must give written notice within one year of the injury. Waiting longer can bar your claim entirely.

Because the lines between assault and battery can blur, treat your case as if the one-year deadline controls, and call a lawyer right away. We explain these timelines in more detail on our Maryland personal injury hub.

Deadlines are only one layer of how Maryland law shapes the case. Maryland follows pure contributory negligence. A person who is even one percent at fault is generally barred from any recovery. Only a small group of jurisdictions still applies this rule, along with the District of Columbia and Virginia.

It lives on the negligence track, so it matters most in a negligent-security claim. There, a property owner might argue you provoked the fight. The claim against the attacker instead turns on defenses such as self-defense or consent.

Maryland also caps non-economic damages in every personal injury case, including assault claims, not just in medical malpractice cases. For causes of action arising on or after October 1, 2025, the cap is $965,000 per injured person. It rises to $1,447,500 in wrongful death cases with two or more beneficiaries. The cap climbs about $15,000 each October.

The version that governs your case is set by the date of the attack, not the date you file. It limits non-economic damages only. Economic damages have no statutory limit, and punitive damages aren’t capped at all.5

This is marketing material and is not legal advice. Every case is unique and laws change frequently. Please contact our office to speak with an attorney about your specific situation before making any legal decisions.

How Recovery Works When Your Attacker Has No Money

A common fear is real: many attackers can’t pay a judgment, and their insurance won’t cover an intentional act. That doesn’t mean you’re out of options. It means the strategy shifts.

The first option is the negligent-security claim. A property owner or business carries liability insurance. Unlike the attacker’s homeowner policy, it can respond to a security failure. When the owner was on notice of a foreseeable danger and did nothing, that policy may be the real source of recovery.

The second option is the attacker’s own assets, where they exist. A judgment can sometimes be collected against property or future earnings, though collecting on it is often hard.

The third option is the Maryland Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. This state fund can reimburse violent-crime victims for costs like medical and counseling bills, lost wages, and funeral expenses.8 The program has strict rules.

One of the Maryland Criminal Injuries Compensation Board’s rules is that the crime generally must be reported to authorities within 48 hours.8 That makes the fund a supplement to a civil claim, not a replacement. Pursuing every available path at once, rather than betting the whole case on a single defendant, is usually the strongest approach.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sue my attacker if he was never charged or was found not guilty?

Yes. A civil case stands on its own, and it only has to show the attack was more likely than not, not guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. A prosecutor declining to charge or a jury acquitting doesn’t decide your civil case. Many victims recover even when the criminal system does nothing.

Can I sue a property owner instead of just my attacker?

Often, yes, and it’s frequently the path that actually pays. The question is whether prior crime on that owner’s own property put them on notice and whether weak security made the attack more likely. A documented history of violence at the same bar, garage, or apartment complex tends to support a claim. A first-of-its-kind attack on a property with a clean record usually doesn’t.

Can I sue a bar for serving the person who attacked me?

No, not for the act of serving alcohol. Maryland doesn’t recognize dram shop liability, so a bar generally owes no duty for over-serving a patron who later harms someone. If you were attacked at a bar, the realistic claim is inadequate or absent security. Think too few guards, or a known history of fights at the bar that the owner or operator ignored.

What if my attacker has no money or insurance?

You still have options. A negligent property owner’s liability insurance, the attacker’s own assets where they exist, and the Maryland Criminal Injuries Compensation Board can each contribute to a recovery.

One warning: the compensation board generally requires the crime to be reported to police within 48 hours. If no report was made in that window, the board’s help may already be gone. That makes the claim against the property owner all the more important.

Can I recover punitive damages against my attacker?

Sometimes. Maryland allows punitive damages for an intentional attack, but only with clear and convincing proof of actual malice, an evil motive, or an intent to injure. The real hurdle is proving the attacker’s state of mind with admissible evidence. When that bar is met, those damages aren’t capped.

How much does a Baltimore assault injury lawyer cost?

Nothing upfront. We work on a contingency fee, which means our fee is a percentage of what we recover and you owe nothing if we don’t win. The standard fee is 33.3% if the case settles before a lawsuit is filed, and 40% if we file suit. We advance the case costs like records and reports.

How long will my assault injury case take?

It depends on your injuries and whether a lawsuit is needed. In our experience, many injury cases that resolve before suit take several months, from the end of treatment through demand and negotiation. A case that requires filing in Baltimore court can take a year or more. We move as fast as the facts and your recovery allow.

Should I talk to the insurance company after I was assaulted?

Be careful. Insurance companies and defense representatives often ask for recorded statements, and a few words said in shock can be twisted to reduce your claim later. You’re not required to give a recorded statement before you have a lawyer. Let your attorney handle that contact so nothing you say is used against you.

Do I have to come into your office to start an assault case?

No. You’re welcome at our Baltimore office, but you don’t have to come in. We handle most of a case by phone, including intake and document signing, and when the case resolves, your settlement payment comes straight to you.

What should I do right after an assault to protect a civil claim?

Get to safety and call 911, then seek medical care even if you feel okay, because some injuries may not surface for a day or two. Filing a police report and photographing your injuries creates important early evidence. Then call a lawyer quickly, since the deadline for an assault claim can be as short as one year.

Schedule a Free Consultation With a Baltimore Assault Injury Lawyer

You don’t have to face your attacker or the property owner who failed you alone. The Baltimore assault injury lawyers at WGK Personal Injury Lawyers will stand with you and fight for the compensation you are owed.

Your first consultation is free, and we work on a contingency fee, so you pay nothing unless we win your case. Because an assault claim can expire in as little as one year, the time to act is now. Call (410) 837-2144 or reach us through our contact page to get your free case review started.

Sources

  1. Maryland General Assembly, Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-105 (2025). One-year limitations period for assault; basis for the civil assault and battery distinction and civil/criminal independence. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=5-105
  2. Maryland General Assembly, Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-101 (2025). General three-year civil limitations period applying to battery and negligent-security claims. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=5-101
  3. Scott v. Watson, 278 Md. 160 (1976), Court of Appeals of Maryland. Landlord/property-owner duty to take reasonable measures against foreseeable crime in controlled common areas (negligent security). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1923737/scott-v-watson/
  4. Warr v. JMGM Group, LLC, 433 Md. 170 (2013), Court of Appeals of Maryland. Maryland does not recognize dram shop liability; a tavern owes no duty to third parties harmed by an intoxicated patron. https://www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/coa/2013/57a12.pdf
  5. Maryland General Assembly, Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 11-108 (2025). Non-economic damages cap applying to all personal injury cases; cap set by accident date and rising each October 1. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=11-108
  6. Baltimore Police Department, 2024 Year-End Crime Report and Key Highlights. Aggravated-assault clearance and year-over-year violent-crime decline. https://www.baltimorepolice.org/news/baltimore-police-department-releases-2024-year-end-crime-report-and-key-highlights
  7. Council on Criminal Justice, Crime in Baltimore: What You Need to Know (Mid-Year 2025 Crime Trends). Aggravated-assault rate decline from recent peak. https://counciloncj.org/crime-in-baltimore-what-you-need-to-know/
  8. Maryland Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention and Policy, Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. Victim reimbursement program, eligibility, and 48-hour reporting requirement. https://gocpp.maryland.gov/victim-services/cicb/
  9. WGK Personal Injury Lawyers, "What Are Punitive Damages and When Are They Awarded?" Actual-malice standard, clear-and-convincing proof, and no cap on punitive damages. https://wgk-law.com/baltimore-personal-injury-resources/what-are-punitive-damages-and-when-are-they-awarded/
  10. Beynon v. Montgomery Cablevision Limited Partnership, 351 Md. 460 (1998), Court of Appeals of Maryland. Recognized damages for pre-impact fright, the fear and apprehension of imminent harm before impact, where capable of objective determination. https://www.mdcourts.gov/data/opinions/coa/1998/86a97.pdf