When I first started my family, I worried about renting a place near the right daycare and in a good school district. I wanted my son to have a big room filled with toys and a backyard to run and play as he grew. I focused on having things in place to give him a great start in life. I did a visual inspection of each place I considered renting. I looked for cheap repair work and places where people cut corners. I budgeted and found what I thought was the best quality in my price range. I demanded that any potential new home be clean and sanitized. I wanted to make sure my home was safe. My son loved the place we made our first home home and all was well. I can only imagine that every parent preparing for a move or to start a family goes through some version of what I did during that first move. I know that every move after that seemed just as important and I went through the same process. I think my son has grown up enough to think that I am too demanding.

I cringe to think of how many parents did all the same things that I did with very different results. It seems horrible to know that the place they made a home hurt their children. I can only imagine the feeling of guilt that a parent would have knowing that their decision hurt the child they love so much. Many parents did not realize that the homes they lived in or rented were painted with hazardous lead paint. Having lead pain around children can be dangerous, especially if that paint chips, peels, cracks, or otherwise winds up ingested by the child. Lead has difficulty leaving the human body, so it builds up in the system. This build up is especially dangerous for children because their small size means that the concentration is higher in the body and can more easily become damaging.

High levels or concentrations of lead in a person's system can lead to lead poisoning and children are especially vulnerable to the symptoms and impacts of lead poisoning. Lead poisoning can cause many physical ailments. Some of the signs include: tiredness, headaches, short attention span, restlessness, constipation, hyperactivity, and vomiting. Worse than the physical ailments which can be treated immediately are the mental and behavioral ailments that are not as obvious. Lead poisoning has also been linked to behavioral and learning disabilities especially in young children.

No amount of money can every really compensate a family for the lifetime of care that they will have to provide the child that suffers from this sort of ailment. A skilled attorney can assist in gathering the proof you need to protect your child's interest. A skilled attorney can also explain the critical time lines and restrictions in these types of cases. A Price Benowitz attorney can help you understand Maryland's legal precedents and apply them to your specific situation.

This post was written by Washington DC and Maryland Accident Attorney Rabihah Scott. Price Benowitz LLP is a Washington DC based law firm with additional locations in Maryland, Virginia, and New York. If you have been injured and would like more information about the firm's Virginia Personal Injury attorney, please visit our website.

After you have been involved in a motor vehicle accident or after you have sustained injuries as a result of someone else's negligence, navigating the claims or litigation process can be quite daunting. In almost every case, the first thing to do is to seek medical treatment. First and foremost, you want to seek out medical treatment so that your injuries can be assessed, evaluated and diagnosed, and a treatment plan can be established. Additionally, you want to seek out medical treatment so that your injuries can be documented close in time to the actual date of your accident. A delay in seeking medical treatment could hurt any claim you may have for damages, although some injuries do take time to manifest and only become apparent once things have calmed down.

It is important that you are open and honest with your doctors, physical therapists, chiropractors or any other medical professionals regarding your injury and any pain you may be experiencing. No matter how minor the pain or injury, each ailment needs to be appropriately treated and adequately documented. Furthermore, if you are experiencing pain or an injury do not tell your physician that you're "fine" or you're "ok", especially if you are really not. It is important for any potential personal injury claim or lawsuit that you inform your physician of activities that cause discomfort or pain, as well as which activities you were able to perform prior to your accident that you are now completely unable to perform or are limited in performing. Any tasks that are difficult to perform should also be fully discussed. You should do your best to keep all of your scheduled appointments with your medical provider so that you do not have missed appointments throughout the course of your treatment.

Your medical records are a good source of the history of your condition following the accident and, when submitted to the insurance companies or the court, provide a complete and accurate picture of your injury. Medical records are one of the most important documents in a personal injury case in that they provide a running tally of your treatment, your progress and your health following an accident and are the basis by which insurance companies determine your injuries and how much you should be compensated when your injuries were caused by someone else's negligence.

This blog post was written by Chamille Kittles. Chamille is a personal injury lawyer with the law firm Price Benowitz LLP. In addition to Chamille, the law firm also has a Virginia personal injury lawyer and DC personal injury lawyer to assist clients in those jurisdictions.