It is the question every parent asks within a week of the injury, usually right after an adjuster calls with a large number. What is this actually worth? The honest answer is that nobody can responsibly quote a figure early, and anyone who does is guessing. 

A child's case is different from an adult's in a structural way: the losses that matter most have not happened yet. The Maryland child injury lawyers at Meyers, Rodbell & Rosenbaum have spent five decades valuing claims for injured children. Here is how the math actually works.

What Damages Can a Child Recover in Maryland?Child With A Head Injury and Head Bandage On

Economic Damages

These are the measurable financial losses, and Maryland places no statutory cap on them. They include past and future medical treatment, surgeries that will not happen until a child stops growing, physical and occupational therapy, assistive equipment that must be replaced as a child grows, home or vehicle modifications, special education and tutoring, and lost earning capacity.

Lost earning capacity is the one thing families overlook. A child has no wage history, so the loss is proven through vocational and economic experts who project what the child's working life would likely have looked like without the injury. In a severe case, that single element can exceed the combined total of everything else. Our discussion of the long-term costs of catastrophic childhood injuries shows how quickly those projections compound.

Non-Economic Damages

These cover pain, suffering, disfigurement, physical impairment, and loss of enjoyment of life. For a child, the time horizon is enormous: a facial scar or a permanent limp is something the child will carry for 70 years, and that duration is a legitimate part of the valuation.

The Parents' Separate Claim

Parents have their own cause of action for the medical expenses they are legally obligated to pay while the child is a minor. It is a distinct claim with its own deadline, and it has to be preserved alongside the child's.

Does Maryland Cap What a Child Can Recover?

Economic damages are not capped. Non-economic damages are, under § 11-108 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article. The cap increases by $15,000 on October 1 each year, and the applicable figure is the one in effect on the date the cause of action arose, not on the date the case is filed or tried. For personal injury claims arising on or after October 1, 2026, the general cap is $980,000.

Two practical points follow. Juries are not told the cap exists; the court applies it after the verdict. And medical malpractice claims, including birth injury cases, operate under a separate and lower cap with its own schedule. If a local government is the defendant, a different limit applies entirely: $400,000 per individual claim under the Local Government Tort Claims Act.

What Factors Actually Drive the Value of a Child's Case?

Case value is a function of several variables working together:

  • Permanence. A fracture that heals cleanly is a different case from one that damages a growth plate and causes a limb-length discrepancy.

  • Visibility of the injury. Scarring on a face or hands is valued differently than scarring that clothing covers.

  • Cognitive and developmental effects. A traumatic brain injury in a developing brain may not reveal its full impact until the academic demands of middle school.

  • Liability strength. Maryland's contributory negligence rule means a case with a plausible fault argument against the child is worth meaningfully less in negotiation, even when the defense is weak.

  • Available insurance. A claim is only collectible up to the coverage and assets behind it, which is why our Maryland auto accident and catastrophic injury team works to identify every potentially liable party.

  • Quality of documentation. Consistent treatment records, school records, and expert support convert a story into a number.

This is also why our firm prepares cases for trial rather than for a quick resolution. Insurers price claims partly on whether the firm across the table actually tries cases, and our trial attorneys have built a 50-year record that other lawyers refer their hardest cases to.

Who Controls the Money When a Child's Case Settles?

Maryland protects a minor's recovery, and parents do not simply receive and spend the funds.

Under § 13-403 of the Estates and Trusts Article, when a minor recovers a net sum of $5,000 or more in a tort claim, payment must be made to a statutory trustee or, if the court has appointed one, to a guardian of the property of the minor. Those funds are restricted and are generally preserved for the child until the age of majority, with withdrawals for things like medical care or education requiring court involvement. The Maryland Judiciary publishes guidance for guardians of a minor's property, explaining their obligations.

Court approval of the settlement itself is a narrower question. Under § 6-405 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article and Maryland Rule 2-202, the child's only living parent generally may settle without court approval; where there is more than one living parent, the other parent's approval is required; and where there are no living parents, a court must approve. For larger recoveries, structured settlements and special needs planning are often worth considering to prevent a lump sum from disrupting benefits eligibility.

Why Early Settlement Offers Are Usually Too Low

An adjuster who calls within weeks is working from the bills that exist today. For a child, those bills are the smallest part of the picture. The surgeries that wait for skeletal maturity, the revisions to a scar, the tutoring, the career that narrows—none of it is on the ledger yet.

A release signed early is final. If a concussion turns into a lasting learning disability two years later, there is no going back. The right sequence is to let treatment reach a point where physicians can speak credibly about the permanent picture, then value the claim against that. Our guide to Maryland personal injury claims walks through the process.

How Long Does a Family Have to Decide?

A minor's own claim is tolled under § 5-201 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article and generally remains available until three years after the child turns 18. That extra time is useful when the permanence of an injury is still unclear.

It is not a reason to wait, though. The parents' claim for medical expenses runs on the ordinary three-year clock. Claims against a local government require notice within one year. And the proof that establishes liability—video, maintenance records, witnesses—has a far shorter shelf life than the filing deadline. Families generally get the best outcome by having the claim investigated early and the valuation finished late.