An injured longshoreman who managed to keep his case out of federal court has won a $5 million verdict from a Portsmouth jury. The Virginian-Pilot reports Sherman Whitaker was hurt when he fell through a shipyard catwalk in 2002.  His ...

Tagged with: Civil Procedure Million-Dollar Verdicts Personal Injury Supreme Court of Virginia

A Spotsylvania County Circuit Court jury awarded $7.5 million Friday to the family of a woman who died from breast cancer. William E. Artz of Arlington, the attorney for the family, contended that a family practitioner and a nurse practitioner ...

Tagged with: Medical Malpractice Personal Injury

A Senate bill that would force Virginia drivers to carry at least $100,000 in auto liability coverage faces stiff opposition from the insurance industry. Sen. W. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville, introduced Senate Bill 1360 at the request of the Carroll County ...

Tagged with: Personal Injury

A Newport News law firm contends House Bill 1762 could bring severe limits on recoveries for victims of asbestos exposure.  Lawyer Bobby Hatten calls it “an absolutely evil bill,” according to the Daily Press.

Tagged with: Personal Injury

The plaintiffs’ bar is the winner today in a case where the defense sought to force a plaintiff to elect between a personal injury claim and a wrongful death claim for the estate of a man who died after acquiring ...

Tagged with: Personal Injury Supreme Court of Virginia Wrongful Death

The Supreme Court of Virginia today outlawed the use of the “unavoidable accident” jury instruction in personal injury trials. Writing for a unanimous court in Hancock-Underwood v. Knight, Justice Donald W. Lemons said, “While in the past we have permitted ...

Tagged with: Personal Injury

Well, certainly not a Judicial Hellhole as defined by the American Tort Reform Association in its annual report on what it views as the worst places to try a case from the civil defendant’s point of view. West Virginia takes ...

Tagged with: Personal Injury

The Virginia Trial Lawyers Association was ready to fight for an increase in the cap on medical malpractice damages. The Medical Society of Virginia was girding for battle as well. Stay tuned until 2010. The 1999 agreement that gradually raised ...

Tagged with: Medical Malpractice Personal Injury

A lawyer who stole nearly $4 million by “settling” personal injury cases without the knowledge of his injured clients was sentenced today to 11 years in jail.  Stephen T. Conrad, 40, of Woodbridge, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Firms Lawyer Discipline Personal Injury

The Supreme Court of Virginia apparently believes it has said all that needs to be in Virginia Reports about inadequate verdicts. It issued an unpublished order today affirming an award of a new trial for a woman who said she ...

Tagged with: Personal Injury