Appendix: Legal Sources and Official Resources

This book is built from Frank Spector's own words about how Maryland medical malpractice and birth injury cases work. The sources below are the statutes and official resources the chapters cite. The statutes are the law and not my opinion, so where a chapter quotes one, read it as the law and check the current text before you rely on it.

• Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 3-2A-01 - the definitions of a medical injury, of the Director of the Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution Office, and of non-economic damages in personal injury and wrongful death claims. Chapters 1, 10 and 14. Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 3-2A-01
• Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 3-2A-02 - who counts as a qualified expert, including the requirement that the expert have clinical, consulting or teaching experience in the defendant's specialty or a related field within five years of the act, with stated exceptions. Chapter 10. Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 3-2A-02
• Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 3-2A-04 - the certificate of qualified expert, its 90-day clock, the limited extensions, and the dismissal without prejudice when it is not filed. Chapters 4, 6, 10 and 11. Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 3-2A-04
• Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 3-2A-09 - the limit on past medical expenses and the ceiling on non-economic damages in claims against health care providers. Chapter 14. Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 3-2A-09
• Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 5-109 - the filing limit for health care malpractice claims and the later start of the clock for a child. Chapters 3 and 11. Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 5-109
• Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 3-902 - the basic rule for a wrongful death action. Chapter 14. Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 3-902
• Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 3-904 - who the wrongful death action is for: the spouse, the parent and the child of the person who died, with a fallback to a relative by blood or marriage who was substantially dependent on the person who died. Chapter 14. Courts and Judicial Proceedings section 3-904
• Maryland Health-General section 4-309 - the time a provider has to release a medical record once it is requested. Chapters 5 and 8. Health-General section 4-309

• Kennedy Krieger Institute - the Baltimore institution that treats children with these types of injuries, whose records show the diagnosis and the therapies a child needs. Chapters 8 and 9. Kennedy Krieger Institute

The book comes from Frank Spector's recorded conversations about medical malpractice and birth injury. Where a chapter quotes him, the words are in quotation marks. Where a chapter states what the law says, the wording was checked against the Maryland General Assembly's published text of the statute. A statute is only as good as its current version, and the rules change, so a lawyer should confirm the exact deadlines and limits for your family before you act on any of them.