Lead Paint Poisoning Lawyers in Maryland

Have you or any members of your family been exposed to lead paint?

You should strongly consider contacting a Maryland lead paint poisoning lawyer for a free consultation to determine your legal options. Lead paint is a highly toxic substance that can cause lifelong injuries and cognitive issues, particularly in children and pregnant women. An attorney may be able to pursue compensation for the physical, financial and emotional effects of lead paint poisoning, including medical expenses, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering.

The Law Offices of Peter T. Nicholl have one of the most experienced groups of lead paint poisoning attorneys in Maryland. We have obtained more than $100 million in settlements and verdicts on behalf of clients who were harmed by lead paint poisoning. This includes a $1.6 million verdict for a 19-year-old who was exposed to lead paint in a rental property and a $3 million verdict for a 19-year-old who did not know she had been exposed as a child.

Your consultation with our reputable attorneys is absolutely free and you will not have any fees or costs unless we obtain the compensation you deserve.

Fill out a Free Case Evaluation form or call 410-244-7005.

How Can You be Exposed to Lead Paint in Maryland?

Baltimore and other cities in Maryland are full of old houses, townhouses and apartments that were built more than four decades ago. While these structures may look beautiful, many of them also contain lead paint, which is a serious threat to your long-term health.

Before it was made illegal in 1978, lead-based paint was popular with paint manufacturers and home contractors because it was durable and dried faster than other types of paint. This means that houses or residential properties built before 1978 may have this type of paint somewhere on the structure. The chances of a house having lead-based paint are particularly high if the home was built before 1950.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are at least four million households with children who are exposed to high levels of lead. In some cases, the lead-based paint is hiding under a few layers of non-toxic paint. However, occupants of the house are still at risk of exposure.

When the lead-based paint on these structures chips away, it can cause dust to be released into the air that can be breathed in by occupants of the property, leading to lead paint poisoning. People who renovate these homes are also at risk for breathing in this dust, particularly if they have to sand surfaces that were previously covered with lead paint. Children often suffer lead poisoning after picking at or playing with chipping lead paint.

While many victims of lead paint poisoning were exposed in a home or apartment, some were exposed from old toys, jewelry, imported candy and stain glass.

Even a small amount of exposure to lead can cause a variety of injuries. However, lead poisoning is usually the result of months of exposure.

If you or a loved one suffered an injury due to lead exposure, contact a lead paint poisoning lawyer in Maryland for a free legal consultation. We use highly regarded psychological, vocational and economic experts to try to build the best case possible. We are prepared to guide you through every step of the legal process, fighting for the compensation you are entitled.

Call The Law Offices of Peter T. Nicholl today at 410-244-7005.

Common Injuries from Lead Paint Poisoning

If you are exposed to lead paint, you could suffer a variety of health issues, including:

Dangers for Children and Pregnant Women

While anyone can suffer health problems from exposure to lead paint, children and pregnant women are particularly susceptible to severe injury. Lead paint exposure can increase the risk of a miscarriage, stillbirth or premature birth.

Pregnant women who think they may have been exposed to lead paint should look for any signs of lead poisoning in their child after he or she is born, including:

As the child gets older, keep an eye out for other signs that he or she suffered lead poisoning while in the womb or as an infant or toddler. These signs include:

The physical and mental difficulties from lead paint poisoning can affect victims for the rest of their lives. These issues can be very expensive to treat, requiring prescription medications, medical procedures, psychological therapy and other medical interventions.

If the poisoning damages your child’s IQ, or results in mental retardation, your child may never be able to achieve independence. This would mean that he or she would require daily care with a variety of tasks that many people take for granted.

Our Maryland lead paint poisoning lawyers understand how damaging lead paint poisoning can be to someone’s physical and emotional health, and the financial damage this can cause. We are committed to pursuing compensation for all of the effects of lead paint poisoning to try to help you move forward with your life.

Fill out a Free Case Evaluation form today to schedule a free legal consultation.

Compensation for Lead Paint Poisoning

One of the main forms of compensation in any personal injury lawsuit, including a lead paint poisoning claim, is medical expenses. This includes the cost of all past, current and future treatment of medical issues caused by lead paint exposure.

However, there are many other forms of compensation our Maryland lead paint poisoning lawyers may be able to pursue in your case. This could include compensation for the following damages:

• Physical pain and suffering caused by your medical issues
• Emotional pain and suffering, such as depression, anxiety and sleeplessness
• Discomfort caused by your injuries
• Permanent disability or disfigurement
• Attorneys’ fees
• Lost earning capacity if your injuries cause you to have to change careers or change what you do at work, which results in earning less money
• Loss of companionship for the physical and emotional damage to your relationship with your spouse

The lead paint poisoning attorneys in Maryland at our law firm are committed to thoroughly investigating your case to determine all of the damages you have suffered. We want you to have all of the compensation you deserve because it can help you and your family as you attempt to move forward with your lives.

Contact an attorney today by calling 410-244-7005.

How Much Time do I Have to File a Lawsuit?

A Maryland lead paint poisoning lawsuit is a type of personal injury lawsuit, which means it is governed by Maryland’s personal injury statute of limitations.

Under this statute, all personal injury claims must be filed within three years of the date they accrue. This means that a claim must be filed within three years of when you were exposed to lead. If you fail to file a claim before the three years are up, you will lose the right to do so.

However, there is an exception to this statute for minors and it often comes up in lead paint poisoning cases, because the victims are often children. The exception is that the statute of limitations does not begin until a child reaches his or her 18th birthday. Once a child reaches this point, he or she has until his or her 21st birthday to file a claim.

Our Maryland lead paint poisoning attorneys recommend contacting us as soon as possible about filing your claim. It can take a long time to thoroughly investigate these situations and gather the evidence we need to have a chance of obtaining compensation. Giving us more time to work on your case not only helps ensure your claim is filed on time, but also could help us build a stronger case.

This is particularly true if your exposure to lead paint occurred in a place where you no longer live. Your former residence could have been repaired or repainted, which means an x-ray fluorescence XRF test may not reveal lead paint. In these situations, we may have to collect statements and documentation to prove that there was lead paint in the residence. It can take a lot of time to gather this information.

Contact a Maryland lead paint poisoning lawyer right now by completing a Free Case Evaluation form.

Maryland Laws on Lead Paint

One of the main advantages of working with an experienced attorney, like those at The Law Offices of Peter T. Nicholl, is that he or she has extensive knowledge of laws that apply to your claim.

One of the ways we may be able to prove your lead paint exposure was caused by negligence is by citing violations of Maryland laws on this issue, such as the Maryland Reduction of Lead Risk in Housing Law. This law often comes up in cases where a person who is renting an apartment suffers lead paint exposure

This law imposes numerous compliance requirements on the owners of any residential rental dwelling units built before 1978, including:

Registration with the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE)

Owners of affected property must register all rental dwelling units within 30 days of acquiring them. Registration must be renewed on or before Dec. 31 of each year.

Provide Tenants with Educational Information

Property owners must provide all of their tenants with a Notice of Tenant Rights and Protect Your Family from Lead in Your Home brochure, along with a copy of the current inspection certificate when tenancy starts and every two years thereafter.

Comply with the Risk Reduction Standard

Owners must have their properties inspected for lead by a MDE-accredited lead paint inspector before any change in occupancy or within 30 days of a triggering event. The law says there are two types of triggering events:

• A tenant sending a notice of a defect telling the property owner about peeling, chipping or flaking paint
• The owner receiving a notice from the local health department that one of the residents is a pregnant woman or child under six years old who has an elevated level of lead in his or her blood.

If one of these events happens, the property owner has to do one of two things:

• Permanently relocate tenants to a property that has been certified as lead free or that complies with the full risk reduction standard
• Temporarily relocate all residents while work is performed and obtain a modified risk reduction certificate before letting people move back onto the property

Properties do not pass inspection unless they are found to be free of lead-based paint on the interior and exterior.

Use Properly Accredited Workers to Fix the Property

Any work to comply with the risk reduction standard must be done by trained workers and accredited supervisors and contractors. They must be trained or accredited by the MDE.

The risk reduction standard has several requirements, such as:

• Visually inspecting all painted surfaces on the interior and exterior
• Removing or repainting any chipping, peeling or flaking paint
• Fixing structural defects that cause paint to chip, peel or flake if the owner knows about them or there is a reasonable expectation that he or she should know by exercising reasonable care
• Repainting, replacing or encapsulating any lead-based paint with vinyl, aluminum or other materials approved by the MDE
• Using caps made of vinyl, aluminum or other MDE-approved materials in all window wells containing lead-based paint or untested paint to make wells smooth and able to be cleaned
• Rehanging doors to prevent lead-painted surfaces from rubbing together

Our lead paint poisoning lawyers in Maryland will carefully review your situation to determine if there were any violations of Maryland laws on lead paint. We will review the history of the property to determine if the previous owner did not carry out his or her duties to ensure occupants were not exposed to lead paint.

Fill out a Free Case Evaluation form right now.

Contact a Lead Paint Poisoning Attorney in Maryland Today

Lead paint can cause lifelong health problems that are very expensive to manage. The physical and emotional effects of these problems cannot be overstated either.

If you or anyone in your family has been exposed to this toxic substance, you should contact a Maryland lead paint poisoning lawyer for a free legal consultation. We may be able to pursue fair compensation for all of the damages you have suffered and hold negligent parties accountable.

Your consultation is completely free and you will not be charged legal fees or costs unless we obtain the fair compensation you deserve.

Schedule a free legal consultation today by calling 410-244-7005.