Personal Injury | Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Nursing home fall nets $6.5M verdict

By Peter Vieth
Published: April 27, 2012
Tags: Judge Charles N. Dorsey, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Negligence, Personal Injury, Roanoke Circuit Court

A Roanoke City jury returned verdicts totaling $6.5 million for an 84-year-old woman injured in a fall at a nursing home.
With an award of $5 million in punitive damages, the jury evidently sought to punish the owner of the home for a policy that discouraged the use of bed alarms to signal when a [...]

UIM at issue in ODU student’s motorcycle crash – $150,000 Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: April 23, 2012
Tags: Personal Injury

Plaintiff was an ODU student in summer school. He was in his final year of ROTC and about to begin his Army career.
Defendant was an older woman who failed to yield the right of way and took a left turn in front of the plaintiff’s motorcycle. Although liability was contested, the accident was a classic [...]

Plaintiff fell from platform while attempting to extinguish fire – Confidential Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: April 16, 2012
Tags: Personal Injury, Products Liability, Wise County Circuit Court

Plaintiff was a 56-year-old heavy equipment operator. He had approximately 30 years of experience operating large bulldozers. On the night of the incident, plaintiff was pushing shot at a coal mine with a Caterpillar D10T bulldozer, when the bulldozer caught fire. Plaintiff trammed the machine to a level area and turned it off. Plaintiff went [...]

School bus pulled out in front of pick-up – $570,000 Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: April 16, 2012
Tags: Personal Injury

Plaintiff was traveling on Route 53 in Fluvanna County when an Albemarle County school bus for special needs students pulled out from a stop sign on Martin Kings Road and into his path. The collision occurred at approximately 7:30 a.m. on Sept. 21, 2010. The case was originally reported by the media as the plaintiff’s [...]

Jury finds police shooting wasn’t gross negligence – Defense Verdict

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: April 9, 2012
Tags: Personal Injury, Portsmouth Circuit Court

The Portsmouth Police Department received reliable information that Antujuan Marshall, a convicted felon with a record of violence, had been dealing heroin. They executed a planned roadblock “takedown” as he was driving to an anticipated drug sale. Marshall rammed his way out of the roadblock. After a brief high-speed chase, during which he threw a [...]

Court repudiates AG’s method of setting lien on settlements

By Peter Vieth
Published: April 5, 2012
Tags: Federal Courts, Judge Andre M. Davis, Personal Injury

The state’s share of a personal injury settlement with expenses paid by Medicaid must be based on evidence of those medical expenses and not on a commonly used one-third allocation, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.
The decision in a North Carolina case could change how the Virginia attorney general’s office determines the [...]

Structured settlement for child’s brain injury totals $21M – $5,500,000 Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: April 2, 2012
Tags: Million-Dollar Settlements, Norfolk Circuit Court, Personal Injury

Plaintiff was a 3-year-old child seated in the back of her family’s automobile at a stoplight on a four-lane highway in Virginia Beach. The family was stopped waiting for the light to turn green. The defendant was operating a tractor-trailer that failed to stop at the intersection and rear-ended the plaintiff’s vehicle traveling approximately 40 [...]

Head-on collision caused strokes, moderate TBI – $2,250,000 Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: April 2, 2012
Tags: Lancaster County Circuit Court, Million-Dollar Settlements, Personal Injury

This case grew out of a motor vehicle collision that occurred on June 10, 2009, in Lancaster County. The plaintiff was traveling eastbound on Route 3 and the defendant driver was traveling westbound. The defendant was distracted by his radio, did not see a vehicle ahead turning left, and when he appreciated the vehicle turning [...]

Defendant claimed medical emergency led to crash – $400,000 Settlement

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: April 2, 2012
Tags: Personal Injury

The plaintiff is a woman in her late 40s who was a passenger in a vehicle traveling eastbound and making a
left-hand turn. During the turn, the defendant traveled eastbound in the westbound lane and t-boned the turning vehicle.
The plaintiff was taken to the VCU Medical Center where she remained for two days. She was treated [...]

Alleghany jury awards record verdict in personal injury case – $1,959,171 Verdict

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: April 2, 2012
Tags: Alleghany County Circuit Court, Judge Malfourd W. "Bo" Trumbo, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Personal Injury

Plaintiff, Michael D. Boguess Sr., was helping his brother, Todd Boguess, pour concrete for a mutual friend on May 18, 2006, in Covington. The concrete was delivered by a concrete truck owned and operated by Construction Materials Company, based in Harrisonburg, with a local plant in Covington. After the concrete had been poured, the plaintiff [...]

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