Let’s be honest, personal injury lawyers don’t have a great reputation. As a practicing Virginia personal injury attorney for over 20 years, I’ve learned that the best way to overcome inaccurate stereotypes about personal injury attorneys in this field is to simply focus on representing my clients ethically and professionally so my track record speaks for itself.
I’m proud of my reputation in the legal community and I see how ethical and professional personal injury representation has paid dividends in my legal career. Medical professionals, other attorneys, military service members, and law enforcement officers have reached out to me and attorneys with my firm when they’ve encountered a serious car or truck accident, medical malpractice or wrongful death.
In the medical community, I had the honor of representing a medical doctor who survived a medical malpractice injury and sought legal action against the at-fault doctor or surgeon. I also have represented Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) who were seriously injured in accidents.
In the legal community, I’ve had the opportunity to represent a fellow attorney’s in a medical malpractice wrongful death case. In a memorable case, I represented a lawyer and her family where her husband lost his life as a result of a anesthesiology related hypoxic brain injury caused by an intubation error. To learn more about this case, take a moment to review the case analysis:
In the military community, I would be remiss not to discuss the myriad of Virginia military men and women I’ve had the honor to represent in many types of injury cases. Our firm is based in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia with offices in Virginia Beach and Norfolk. This region is home to the world’s largest naval base and largest concentration of military service members. I’ve represented many Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard members who were hurt in serious car accidents. I also represented a former military police officer – who then took a second career in the railroad industry – and lost his life due to a horrible rail yard injury. The surviving spouse (also a former military police officer) contacted our firm and I represented the estate for the wrongful death claim against the railroad, along with another former law firm attorney.
In the law enforcement community, I have had the privilege of representing family members of an FBI agent who were seriously injured in a car accident. In addition to clients I’ve represented in the law enforcement community, my law partner Jim Lewis represented the family a police academy recruit who died as a result of head trauma after being hit repeatedly by a police academy instructor. Below is an article discussing this tragic case:
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What do these clients illustrate? That having a strong reputation for ethical and professional representation is important, and perhaps the company you keep rubs off on you in important intangible ways. Medical professionals, other attorneys and law enforcement officers understand the importance of researching and hiring a top-notch, ethical, attorney to handle their personal injury claims, and importantly, our track record supports their decisions.
About Our Firm: We have offices in Virginia Beach, Hampton, and Norfolk, VA along with an office in Elizabeth City, NC. Our team of personal injury attorneys publish and edit articles on three Legal Examiner sites as a pro bono service to the general public.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
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