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

A fire, a scald, or an explosion burned you or your child. The bills are already showing up, and an adjuster wants a statement. You’re asking what your burn injury case is worth long before treatment is finished.

A Maryland burn injury settlement is the money you recover after someone else’s negligence causes a burn. It covers medical care, lost earnings, permanent scarring, and pain and suffering.

In truth, there’s no single number, and there’s no honest industry average. How much your burn injury claim is worth turns on how deep the burns go, how much skin they cover, and where they sit on your body. It also depends on how long reconstruction takes, whether liability holds up under Maryland’s contributory fault rule, and how much insurance we can actually reach.

Burn center admissions in the United States carry a 97.6% survival rate, according to the American Burn Association’s burn incidence fact sheet.1 These are cases about living with a permanent injury, not a short recovery. When you file a burn injury claim, it’s important to be patient and wait for a settlement that covers your losses in full. If you settle early, you risk leaving well-deserved compensation behind.

The best way to know what your case is worth is by working with an experienced Maryland burn injury attorney near you. Call WGK Personal Injury Lawyers at (410) 837-2144 for a free consultation.

What WGK Personal Injury Lawyers Does for Maryland Burn Injury Cases

When you’ve suffered a severe burn injury in a Maryland accident, you’ll have one shot at recovering compensation. Choosing an attorney experienced in investigating, building, and pursuing burn injury claims is essential. WGK Personal Injury Lawyers has been at it for nearly 50 years. Our attorneys bring nearly 100 years of combined attorney experience to client cases. We’ve recovered over $100 million for our clients.

The case results described on this website are specific to the facts and legal circumstances of each individual matter and should not be taken as a representation, promise, or guarantee that you will achieve a similar result. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Every case is different and must be evaluated on its own merits. The amounts shown reflect gross recoveries before the deduction of attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses. This website is attorney advertising.

Here’s what to expect when you hire our burn injury attorneys in Maryland for help.

Burn cases turn on physical evidence. That evidence gets cleaned up, repaired, or thrown out fast.

Our first moves are specific:

  • Send preservation letters to every party that might be responsible, so the appliance, the wiring, the water heater, the scene photos, and the maintenance file don’t disappear
  • Get the fire investigation report and the inspection history, instead of taking anyone’s word for the cause
  • Photograph and preserve the failed product when a product is involved, because the item is the case
  • Find every insurance policy that can be reached, not just the obvious one
  • Gather the full medical record, including the burn center chart and the operative reports
  • Work with the professionals who project your future surgeries and your lost earning capacity
  • Build a documented demand and negotiate it to obtain a fair settlement
  • File suit when the settlement offer doesn’t match the financial, social, and career struggles you’re experiencing

At the end of the day, the insurance company’s job is to close your claim for as little as it can. The adjuster is going to push for an early settlement so that the claim is over before you’ve finished healing, know what future treatment you might require, and genuinely understand how much money you’ll need to be made whole.

Want to know what your burn injury claim is worth? Call (410) 837-2144 for a free case review.

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When to Call a Maryland Burn Injury Lawyer

Call while you’re still in treatment. That feels early, and it isn’t. The scene gets cleaned up within days, and the insurance company is already working on putting an end to your claim. Every moment you wait to ask for help makes it more difficult for you to get the money you deserve.

Call sooner rather than later if: your burn injuries require a hospital admission, a child was burned, scarring is anywhere visible, or the fire happened somewhere you were renting. The sooner our burn injury lawyers get involved, the better your odds of obtaining the money you need to pay for expensive treatment, missed paychecks, and emotional trauma.

Timing matters on the medical side too. In Mary Finke’s experience, an insurance company starts discounting a case when initial treatment is delayed beyond 3 to 5 days. A gap of more than 10 to 14 days can put the whole claim at risk. If you’ve suffered severe burns, the amount of pain you’re in makes it unlikely that you’ll delay care. However, follow-up care is where things can also fall apart. Missed appointments during a long reconstruction are what adjusters will point to later on in an attempt to cut down your recovery.

This commentary reflects experience in past matters. It is marketing material, not legal advice, and past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

What Shapes a Maryland Burn Injury Settlement Amount

Clinician dressing an injured arm during treatment

Several factors play a part in determining how much money you might be able to recover in a burn injury claim.

Depth and Surface Area

Two factors matter more than anything else in a burn claim: a burn’s depth and its total body surface area. One involves how deep the burn penetrates, while the other focuses on how much of your body has been burned.

Together, they set the length of the treatment course and the permanence of the scarring. Everything else scales that number.

When we talk about the depth of a burn, we’re talking about whether it’s a first-degree, second-degree, or third-degree burn.

  • A first-degree burn affects only the outer layer of skin.
  • A second-degree, or partial-thickness, burn reaches the layer beneath it.
  • A third-degree burn, also called a full-thickness burn, destroys both layers of skin. These often can’t heal without a graft, since there’s no skin left to work with.

Total body surface area (TBSA) is the share of your skin that a burn covers, written as a percentage. The more extensive a burn injury, the larger the number. Depth and TBSA tell a treating physician, a life care planner, and an insurance adjuster what the next several years look like.

The location of your burn injuries

The location of a burn can matter as much as its size.

A small full-thickness burn on the hands, the face, or a joint can do more lasting damage than a larger burn across the back, abdomen, or thigh. The smaller burn can affect function and appearance at the same time, thanks to contracture. Burn scar tissue tightens across a joint and pulls it out of its normal range. The resulting restriction can outlast every other part of the injury.

The scope of your burn injury treatment

Serious burn care is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time to heal and recover, especially when burns are deep and/or affect sensitive areas.

Burn injury treatment usually involves:

  • Emergency treatment, and often intensive care
  • Surgery to remove the dead tissue
  • Skin grafting
  • Staged reconstructive surgeries
  • Pressure garments and scar management
  • Physical and occupational therapy
  • Psychological care alongside all of it

Each stage generates documented economic damages, including emergency room bills, specialist consultation fees, medical devices and equipment, medication, surgery, and, in some cases, prosthetics.

When you’re pursuing a claim for damages, tomorrow’s costs matter as much as today’s. A treating physician’s written plan supports them, because a burn reconstruction can run for years after the fire.

There’s no reliable national cost table for burn injuries. Anyone quoting you an average burn treatment cost is guessing. Your bills, your surgical plan, and your wage records are the real numbers that dictate your potential financial recovery threshold.

Scarring and disfigurement

Permanent scarring, disfigurement, lost function, and the psychological weight of visible burns are non-economic damages under Maryland law. Their value depends on permanence, visibility, and how much the injury changes ordinary daily life.

Pain and suffering damages cover the physical pain and the limits the injury puts on daily life. For burn victims, that can involve regular wound cleanings and dressing changes. It can also include what you’ll want to avoid now: short sleeves, swimming, a job that puts you in front of people.

Your age at the time you suffered burn injuries

Age matters. The median adult burn injury victim is 49 years old, while the median pediatric burn injury victim is three. Adults tend to suffer flame and flash burns most often, and scald injuries are common amongst children.1

The younger you are when you suffer a burn injury, the more your personal injury claim might be worth. The same scar is worth more to a younger person, because they carry it longer. A burn on a 3-year-old means decades of growth through scar tissue, and often repeat surgery as the child grows. The longer you have to deal with the consequences of a burn injury, the more money you can potentially be able to recover to offset the costs and suffering.

Common Causes of Maryland Burn Injuries

Most burns happen where people live. In fact, about 61% of burn incidents occur at private residences.1 That’s why so many serious burn claims are really property claims.

The national scale is larger than most people assume. In a recent reporting year, the CDC recorded roughly 398,000 fire- or burn-related injuries.1 Another 252,000 injuries came from contact with hot objects or substances.1 About 29,165 burn injuries a year are serious enough to require a hospital admission.1 Around 3,800 people a year die in the United States from fire and smoke inhalation.1

House and apartment fires

Faulty wiring. An unmaintained heating system. A fire that spreads because required smoke alarms were missing or dead. These fact patterns are at the heart of most residential burn claims. When the home is a rental, the fire becomes a premises liability claim against a landlord rather than an accident nobody answers for.

Scalds

Most scald injuries trace back to a water heater set above a safe temperature, a hot-water line with no working mixing valve, or unmaintained kitchen equipment. Scalds are the burn most likely to injure a small child. They’re also the ones most likely to trace back to a setting somebody chose.

That’s what separates a scald from other burns. A water heater’s temperature isn’t dictated by the weather or chance. It’s a control point someone was responsible for. In a rental unit, that responsibility falls to the property owner or building operator. Who set the temperature, and why, is where the case starts.

Defective products

Appliances that overheat. Lithium batteries that fail. Heaters and power tools that ignite. When the item itself caused the fire, the claim runs against the manufacturer and the distribution chain, not the person holding it.

What survives the fire matters as much as what caused it. The item, the packaging, and the model and lot number identify which production run failed. That’s often what separates a manufacturer’s admission from a manufacturer’s denial. Preserve the item before it’s thrown out or replaced. Once it’s gone, so is the case against the company that made it.

Workplace fires and electrical burns

Job site fires, chemical exposure, arc flash, and electrocution injuries hit trade workers hardest. They usually involve more than one company on site.

Vehicle fires

A fuel system that ruptures on impact turns a crash into a burn case. So does an engine fire after a collision. The vehicle is often destroyed or scrapped before anyone inspects it, so the inspection has to be done as soon as possible.

The at-fault driver’s insurance is the first place a vehicle fire claim looks. Maryland’s minimum auto liability policy is $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident.

That minimum was never built for a burn admission. A single stay in a burn unit can consume the full $30,000 before the first reconstructive surgery is scheduled. That’s why we pursue underinsured motorist coverage and any commercial or umbrella policy in reach from the first call.

Types of Burn Injury Cases We Handle

The cases we take share the same shape: a serious, lasting injury, a party we can hold responsible, and insurance that can actually pay.

In practice, that means:

  • Apartment and rental housing fires, where the building owner or the management company owed duties the fire proves they didn’t meet
  • Scald injuries to children in rental units, daycare settings, and commercial spaces
  • Defective product fires, from appliances to batteries, where the claim runs against the manufacturer
  • Construction and job site burns, including electrical and chemical injuries, where a workers’ compensation claim and a separate third-party case often run at the same time
  • Vehicle fires arising out of car accidents and truck collisions

Serious burn injuries are rarely the only trauma accident victims suffer. Smoke inhalation, a traumatic brain injury (TBI), an amputation, or a spinal cord injury can happen in the same event. Each must be documented and valued on its own terms within a single catastrophic injury claim.

When a fire kills someone, the claim becomes a Maryland wrongful death case with its own rules about who can file.

Whatever your situation, our Baltimore burn injury lawyers can help you understand your rights, figure out a strategy to move forward, and help you fight for the kind of compensation you need to get your life back on track.

Who Can Be Held Liable for a Maryland Burn Injury

The party who started the fire is the first defendant, and often not the last. Finding the second and third defendant is usually what separates a recovery capped by one thin policy from a full one.

Depending on how and why you suffered a burn injury, potentially liable parties might include:

  • A landlord or property owner. Since January 2018, Maryland has required sealed 10-year lithium-battery smoke detector alarms with a hush feature in place of battery-only units. Any alarm more than 10 years past its manufacture date has to be replaced. In rentals, the owner is responsible for installing, repairing, and replacing them.2 A fire in a unit with missing or dead alarms is a premises liability claim, not bad luck.
  • A property management company. The company paid to maintain the building often carries its own policy, separate from the owner’s.
  • A manufacturer, distributor, or retailer. In a Maryland product liability case, everyone in the chain that put a defective product in a consumer’s hands can answer for it.
  • A contractor or subcontractor. Bad wiring, an improperly installed appliance, or an unsafe job site puts the company that did the work in the claim.
  • An at-fault driver and their employer. A vehicle fire claim reaches the driver’s liability policy. It also reaches a commercial policy when the driver was working.
  • A government entity. Fires inside public housing units and government buildings can turn into government tort claims, which are subject to accelerated timetables. Missing an early notice deadline can end a burn injury case before it starts.

We determine liability in premises cases by taking prompt action. We send an immediate preservation letter for video and camera footage. We inspect the site. We identify every layer of insurance, including the owner, the management company, and any tenant or business involved.

Damages You Can Recover in a Maryland Burn Injury Case

When you’ve suffered a burn in an accident in Maryland, you can pursue a claim for two types of damages: economic and non-economic. In a serious burn case, both sides of the ledger run high.

Economic damages are the measurable costs the burn created:

  • Emergency treatment, intensive care, and your hospital admission
  • Surgery to remove dead tissue, skin grafting, and staged reconstructive surgery
  • Future surgeries, scar-revision procedures, pressure garments, and scar management
  • Physical and occupational therapy, and psychological treatment
  • Lost wages, and lost earning capacity when the injury changes what you can do for work

Non-economic damages cover the human side of the burn injury. They include the pain of treatment, permanent scarring and disfigurement, lost function, and the daily limits the injury leaves behind. Maryland also recognizes pre-impact fright as its own category. That’s the awareness that an unavoidable event is about to happen with no way to stop it.

One factor cuts the other way. Maryland expects you to take reasonable steps to limit your own losses. Missed appointments and abandoned therapy give the insurance company an argument that part of your condition was avoidable. Keeping the treatment your doctor ordered protects your health first, and your claim second.

Some damages are within your control, others aren’t

Most burn clients never get told this. Maryland caps non-economic damages in all personal injury cases, including those filed by burn victims. On the flip side, there’s no limit on economic damages. The scarring side of your claim runs into a ceiling. The treatment side does not.

That has a practical consequence. Document every stage of care, every future procedure your surgeon plans, and every dollar of earning capacity the burn took. That’s the one lever you control, because no statute limits it.

Settling before the surgical plan exists means settling on the insurance company’s guess about your future, instead of your doctor’s.

Maryland Law: The Damages Cap, Fault, and Deadlines

Three Maryland rules shape what you can recover in a burn injury case: the cap on non-economic damages, contributory negligence, and the statute of limitations.

Maryland caps non-economic damages in burn injury cases

Maryland caps non-economic damages in every personal injury case, not only medical malpractice. Under Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 11-108, the cap is $965,000 per injured person. That figure covers causes of action arising between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026, and the cap is $980,000 for causes of action arising October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027.3 In wrongful death cases with two or more beneficiaries, the non-economic cap rises to $1,447,500 ($1,470,000 for October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027).3 The date of the accident sets the cap, not the date the lawsuit is filed. The cap increases by $15,000 each year on October 1.3

Economic damages have no statutory limit. In a burn case, that matters more than almost anywhere else. Scarring and disfigurement can only generate so much in compensation. Surgeries and lost earning capacity don’t have those same constraints.

Sharing even a little bit of fault can end your burn injury claim

Maryland follows pure contributory negligence.

In burn cases, the defense focuses on how you handled the hazard. Did you leave the pot on the stove? Did you use the space heater the wrong way? Did you ignore a warning label?

However, being negligent isn’t the same as being contributorily negligent. Under Maryland case law, your own negligence has to have actually contributed to causing the injury to bar your claim. Proving that takes fire investigation findings, inspection records, and photographs taken before the scene changed. If you’re being blamed for the fire, that fight starts now, not at trial.

Filing and notice deadlines are shorter than you might think

You generally have three years from the date of injury to file a Maryland personal injury lawsuit under Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-101.4 If a local government entity is responsible, written notice is due within 1 year of the injury under Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-304.4 That’s far sooner than the three-year deadline, and waiting can bar the claim entirely.

Burned children get more time. Maryland tolls the limitations period for minors under § 5-201.4 A parent who assumes the deadline has passed is often wrong.

How Insurance Works After a Maryland Burn Injury

The practical ceiling on a burn settlement usually isn’t due to Maryland law. It’s how much insurance can be reached. That’s why we chase coverage as hard as we chase liability.

  • Homeowners, renters, and commercial general liability coverage. A residential fire claim usually runs against the property owner’s liability coverage. A rental building often carries a commercial policy, plus a separate policy held by the management company.
  • Product liability coverage. A manufacturer’s coverage is often the deepest pocket in a burn case. That’s one more reason preserving the failed item matters.
  • Workers’ compensation, plus a third-party case. A work injury claim covers medical treatment and part of your wages. It does not pay for pain and suffering. The third-party case is where the rest of the recovery lives.
  • Auto liability and underinsured motorist coverage. Maryland’s minimum auto policy is $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident. Maryland generally requires matching uninsured and underinsured limits unless lower limits are selected through a valid written waiver under Md. Code, Ins. § 19-510.5 The at-fault driver’s policy has to be exhausted first. Enhanced underinsured coverage stacks on top of that policy instead of offsetting against it.
  • Umbrella coverage. Individual and business umbrella policies sit above the primary policy. They’re easy to miss if nobody asks for them.

Run the math on a vehicle fire, and the problem is obvious. A $30,000 minimum policy can be used up by one burn center admission, long before the first reconstructive surgery.

Some injured people have no household auto policy at all. For a passenger or pedestrian hurt by an uninsured driver, Maryland’s Unsatisfied Claim and Judgment Fund can provide a maximum of $30,000 per person. It does not cover the uninsured driver.

Want to know what coverage your case can actually reach? Call (410) 837-2144.

Where Serious Burns Are Treated in Maryland

The Johns Hopkins Burn Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore is verified by the American Burn Association.6 The facility specializes in burn care, so many Maryland burn victims are treated in Baltimore no matter where they live.

That matters for your claim, not just your calendar. Families from outside the area travel for treatment, sometimes for years of follow-up care and appointments. Distance makes consistent treatment harder, and gaps in treatment are one of the first things an insurance company uses to discount a claim. Tell us early if getting to appointments is a problem, and our burn injury attorneys can help you figure out how to make things more feasible.

How Burn Injury Cases Reach Full Value

There is no published table of burn injury settlement amounts for Maryland. Any website handing you one is selling something rather than reporting something. Every “average burn settlement” figure online traces back to law firm marketing, not to a dataset.

What we can tell you is how these cases reach full value.

The recoveries that land where they should share the same traits:

  • The cause of the fire documented before the scene changed
  • The failed product preserved
  • Burn depth and TBSA established by treating physicians
  • A written plan for the surgeries still ahead
  • An earning-capacity analysis where the injury changed what the client can do
  • Every layer of insurance identified before anyone talks numbers

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is different and is decided on its own facts.

Your case is worth what your facts and your coverage support. The fastest way to find out is to call (410) 837-2144 and tell us what happened.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average burn injury settlement in Maryland?

No authoritative average exists. Government and hospital data track burn injuries and treatment, not settlements. The “average burn settlement” numbers online come from law firm marketing. A grounded estimate starts with your burn depth and TBSA, your surgical plan, the permanence of your scarring, and the insurance available. A free consultation is where that gets worked out.

Is there a standard third degree burn settlement amount?

No. A third-degree burn destroys both layers of skin and usually needs a graft, so these cases are serious. But no published table sets a value. The number comes from your own facts: how much of your body is burned, where the burns sit, and how many surgeries are still ahead. It also depends on what work you can still do and how much insurance you can reach.

Does Maryland’s damages cap limit my burn settlement?

Only half of it. Scarring, disfigurement, and pain and suffering are subject to strict limits under Maryland law. For claims arising between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026, the cap is $965,000 per injured person. For claims arising October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, it is $980,000. 3 Your surgeries, future procedures, and lost earning capacity are economic damages with no statutory limit. That’s why documenting them thoroughly matters so much.

Are visible scars worth more than scars I can cover?

Generally, yes. Non-economic damages turn on permanence, visibility, and daily impact. Burns to the face, neck, and hands are valued differently from burns on areas clothing covers. Function counts too. A scar that tightens across a joint and limits movement carries both a cosmetic loss and a functional one.

Who is liable if I was burned in a rental home fire?

It could be the landlord, the property management company, or both. Maryland requires sealed 10-year smoke alarms in place of old battery-only units. It also requires replacement of any alarm more than 10 years past manufacture. In rentals, the owner is responsible for installing, repairing, and replacing them.2 A fire in a unit with missing or dead alarms points straight at that duty.

What if a defective product caused my burns?

The claim runs against the manufacturer and the businesses that sold or distributed the product, not just whoever was using it. The most important thing you can do is preserve the item, the packaging, and any manual or receipt. Do not return it. Do not let anyone replace it. Take pictures of it where it sits.

Can I sue if I was burned at work?

You may have two claims running at once. Workers’ compensation covers your medical treatment and part of your lost wages, but it does not pay for pain and suffering. A separate third-party case against a contractor, a property owner, or a product manufacturer is where the rest of the recovery lives. Both need to be handled together by an experienced Maryland personal injury attorney.

What if the insurance company says the fire was partly my fault?

Expect that argument. Maryland’s contributory negligence rule makes it the cheapest defense available. Being negligent is not the same as being contributorily negligent. Your conduct has to have actually contributed to causing the injury. Fire investigation findings, inspection records, maintenance history, and photographs taken before the scene changed are what defeat the argument.

My child suffered a burn injury. Is it too late to file?

Probably not. Maryland tolls the limitations period for minors, so a claim for a burned child usually stays open well past the point most parents assume it closed.4 Use that extra time rather than spend it. Evidence about how the fire started degrades on its own schedule, no matter how long the deadline runs.

How long does a Maryland burn injury case take?

Longer than a routine injury claim, for a good reason. A burn case shouldn’t be valued until the scarring matures and your surgeon can say what reconstruction is still ahead. A straightforward claim can resolve within months of the end of treatment. If the settlement offer doesn’t match the harm and we file suit, add court time on top.

What does a burn injury lawyer cost?

WGK Personal Injury Lawyers works on a contingency fee basis. The fee is 33.3% of the gross settlement before a lawsuit is filed. The fee increases to 40% once a lawsuit is filed, whether or not the case goes to trial. There are no upfront costs. When there is a recovery, the case costs we advanced are reimbursed to us out of the gross settlement. If there is no recovery, you owe no fee and no costs.

Should I accept the first offer after a burn injury?

Almost never. Burn scars keep changing while you heal, and revision surgery can change them even more. An offer made mid-treatment is priced on incomplete information. Signing a release generally ends the claim, even if the reconstruction ahead of you costs several times the offer. If you signed a release within 30 days of your injury without a lawyer, Maryland law lets you void it within 60 days by written notice and return of any money paid.

Do I have to be treated in Baltimore for my burn injury case to be strong?

No. The fact that you’re getting treatment matters much more than where you’re getting treatment. You want consistency and documentation. However, many burn injury cases are transferred to specialized burn centers in Baltimore, so there’s a good chance that you could end up there. This can mean a lot of travel, which can make it difficult for you to be consistent with treatment.6 Long trips make missed appointments more likely. Tell us early if getting to follow-up care is difficult, because gaps in treatment are what insurance companies use to discount a claim.

Schedule a Free Consultation With a Maryland Burn Injury Lawyer

If a burn injury has changed your life or your child’s, the next step is a conversation, not a decision. Call WGK Personal Injury Lawyers at (410) 837-2144 for a free consultation. You’ll talk with someone who handles serious injury cases and can tell you where you stand.

You pay nothing unless we recover compensation for you. We work on a contingency fee and get paid only when you do. Most of a case can be handled by phone while you’re still in treatment.

Get your free case review today. Call (410) 837-2144 or reach us through our contact page.

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.

Sources

  1. American Burn Association, Burn Incidence Fact Sheet, 2024 (compiling CDC National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey 2021, HCUP National Inpatient Sample 2020, National Fire Protection Association 2021, and ABA registry data 2020-2024). Survival rate for burn center admissions (97.6%); 398,000 fire or burn-related injuries and 252,000 hot object or substance contact injuries; approximately 29,165 annual burn hospital admissions at 88.5 admissions per million people, with 795 inpatient deaths; approximately 3,800 annual fire and smoke inhalation deaths; 61% of burn incidents at private residences; median burn center patient age of 40, median adult age 49, median pediatric age 3. https://ameriburn.org/resources/burn-incidence-fact-sheet/
  2. Office of the Maryland State Fire Marshal, New Smoke Alarm Law Explanation, 2018 (Md. Code, Public Safety § 9-104 et seq.). Requirement since January 2018 that battery-only smoke alarms be replaced with sealed 10-year lithium-battery units with a hush feature; requirement to replace any alarm more than 10 years past its manufacture date; property owner responsibility for installation, repair, and replacement of required smoke alarms in rental properties. https://www.dllr.state.md.us/labor/build/smokealarmlawfiremarshall.pdf
  3. Maryland General Assembly, Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 11-108. Non-economic damages cap of $965,000 per injured person for causes of action arising between October 1, 2025 and September 30, 2026, and $980,000 for causes of action arising October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027; 150% ($1,447,500, or $1,470,000 for October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027) in wrongful death actions with two or more beneficiaries; the cap steps up $15,000 each October 1 and is set by the date the cause of action arises. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=11-108
  4. Maryland General Assembly, Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. §§ 5-101, 5-201, 5-304. Three-year general limitations period for civil actions, tolling of the limitations period for minors, and Local Government Tort Claims Act written notice within 1 year after the injury. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gcj&section=5-101
  5. Md. Code, Ins. §§ 19-509 and 19-510. UM/UIM equal to bodily injury limits unless the first named insured elects lower limits in writing, not below the statutory minimum. https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gin&section=19-509 https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/laws/StatuteText?article=gin&section=19-510
  6. Johns Hopkins Medicine, Johns Hopkins Burn Center. Burn center verified by the American Burn Association, located at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/burn/