Virginia Injury Attorney Blog

On November 9, 2011, Mr. Waterman served a car collision suit pending in Circuit Court for the City of Newport News, Virginia. The case is Reynolds v. Adair, No. CL1101523V-04.

Prior to having the Reynolds motor vehicle accident lawsuit served on the Defendant, Mr. Waterman made seven (7) amicable demands for settlement on the offending motorist’s automobile liability insurer, Trustguard Insurance Company, a member of the Grange Mutual Casualty Group, doing business in Virginia under Grange Mutual Casualty Company. Six (6) of his amicable demands were made even before he filed suit.

Significantly, Trustguard/Grange has only $50,000.00 in liability insurance coverage for its insured and the Reynolds lawsuit ad damnum is $1,000,000.00, which represents substantial uninsured exposure in excess of policy limits. The personal injury Plaintiff claims at least $218,211.50 in medical expenses due to the two-car vehicle accident, including without limitation for medical treatment and care with Newport News Emergency Medical Service, Mary Immaculate Hospital, Hampton Roads Radiology Associates, Commonwealth Family Practice, Riverside Regional Medical Center, Rebound Chiropractic, Peninsula Radiology Associates, Hampton Roads Neurosurgical & Spine Specialists, Orthopaedic & Spine Center, and Cardiovascular Center of Hampton Roads on the Peninsula.

On October 14, 2011, Mr. Waterman filed a motor vehicle accident lawsuit for personal injury damages in Circuit Court for the City of Newport News, Virginia. The defendant was cited by Summons for failure to yield the right-of-way on Richneck Road in violation of Va. Code Ann. §46.2-825.

The vehicle crash caused several thousand dollars of damage to each party’s car. Since the collision, the victim has incurred more than $200,000.00 in healthcare expenses.

Despite apparent liability and substantial damages, the defendant’s liability insurance company repeatedly had refused the victim’s demands to tender its policy limits, forcing Mr. Waterman to proceed with suit. By failing to offer its $50,000.00 policy, Trustgard Insurance Company, a member of the Grange Mutual Casualty Group, doing business in Virginia under Grange Mutual Casualty Company, is exposing its insured, a Newport News resident, to ruinous liability in excess of its policy limits and, thereby, itself to a potential claim for insurance “bad faith.

The victim, another Newport News resident, has underinsured motorist (“UIM”) coverage with State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. But unfortunately, even her UIM policy limits atop the offending motorist’s liability policy limits probably would not cover the jury damages award expected for her magnitude of car collision personal injuries.

On December 10, 2010, when the insurance company representatives failed to recommend paying policy limits to the vehicle accident victim by the deadline given, Mr. Waterman sent the case to suit. The next business day, December 13th, the insurer belatedly tendered its policy limits.

Its policy limits for the vehicle accident was $100,000.00. That was approaching twice the maximum it had low-balled previously.

On December 2, 2010, another insurance company re-victimized a vehicle accident victim of its insured. In a clear case of liability and significant damages in York County, the offender’s insurer low-balled the Virginia victim motorist.

For years, insurance companies and other defense interests have massaged public thinking with advertizing campaigns, legislative agendas, political contributions, etc. Their deep-pocket tactics have conditioned citizens to view vehicle accident victims and other personal injury claimants as greedy, unsavory, and frivolous – despite most victims having legitimate claims.

Having predisposed people negatively toward claimants, many insurers play hardball against personal injury victims. They make subpar settlement offers to genuine vehicle accident victims, confident that they have poisoned the jury pool sufficiently in case the claimant does not knuckle under and instead files suit for fair compensation.

Mr. Waterman recounts a current vehicle accident case of lowballing. On February 4, 2010, a Yorktown motorist failed to yield the right of way while turning on State Route 17, cutting in front of an oncoming Gloucester motorist and causing a serious collision.

That vehicle accident victim sustained closed head and other injuries; required medical treatment and care and was disabled from work for more than 4 months; and 10 months after-the-fact still suffers some residual limitations. His past medical bills are more than $20,000.00 and his past lost wages are almost $25,000.00, totaling approximately $45,000.00 in fully-documented undeniable special damages alone!

Continue reading "Virginia: Insurers Re-Victimizing the Victim - a Lawyer’s Example" »

Pre-trial mediation has enjoyed such success and popularity that increasingly Virginia circuit courts are requiring litigants to submit to it shortly before trial. In Newport News, Hampton, York County and other venues in Hampton Roads, parties must mediate vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, and many other cases.

The format of court-facilitated mediation is the same as that of private mediation. The main difference is that the court provides the mediator, who always is a retired Virginia circuit court judge, at its own expense – a real saving to the parties.

Across Virginia, the success rate of court-facilitated mediation apparently is around 70%. On the Peninsula, some of the more popular mediators boast success rates of 85%+.

Federal courts in Virginia also are mandating mediation in personal injury, employment, and other civil cases. Federal magistrates, current and senior, routinely serve as mediators there.

Circuit court mediators tend not to be as successful in resolving vehicle accident, medical malpractice, and other personal injury or wrongful death cases involving substantial injuries and damages; which the parties themselves commonly take to private mediation, except in “no offer” cases. But court-facilitated mediation shines in resolving the small and moderate size vehicle accident cases, with them usually settling within an hour or two (or not at all).

Continue reading "Virginia Mediation: Court-Facilitated – a Lawyer’s Requirement " »

You do not have to rely on the good word of patient trial lawyers alone. Read about medical malpractice causing wrongful deaths in To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System from the Institute of Medicine, which was established by the National Academy of Sciences.

First published by the National Academy Press in June 2000 and in its sixth printing by May 2007, To Err is Human exposes the actual high incidence of deadly medical error that prevails throughout the United States. It reveals too how the general public misperceives what really is going on.

Experts estimate that as many as 98,000 wrongful deaths occur in any given year from medical errors that occur in hospitals. That’s more deaths than from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS – three causes that receive far more public attention. Indeed, more people die annually from medication errors alone than from workplace injuries.

Despite would-be “tort reformers” railing about so-called frivolous lawsuits, the fact is that medical errors remain underreported. The Institute of Medicine prefaces that medical errors are “a serious concern in health care that, if discussed at all, is discussed behind closed doors.” That is the “conspiracy of silence” about which patient attorneys have complained for years.

Do not be misled by the propaganda and hysteria of insurance companies, healthcare providers, and other conspirators. Get the true facts from an impartial non-profit leading authority, the Institute of Medicine.

Order, read and share your own copy now. Although its list price is $34.95, To Err is Human has been available from amazon.com for as little as $27.96, shipping and handling included.

On December 2, 2008, Suffolk Circuit Court ordered Progressive Specialty Insurance Company and its insured Defendants to provide auto accident statements to a wrongful death Plaintiff. The victim was the guest passenger of an auto rear-ended by a dumptruck driver. Unconscious at the scene, he soon was brain dead and had life support terminated. Two Progressive claims adjusters recorded a half-dozen statements of their insured drivers and an independent eyewitness within one to six days of the accident.

But Suffolk Circuit Court rejected the Progressive claim of special privilege. It considered “possible impeachment” and the “possible suppression of relevant evidence which could relate to witness credibility,” as well as Plaintiff’s need. The pending wrongful death vehicle accident case is Burr v. R.C. Paving and should be tried later this year.