We have all heard a similar joke, even from health care providers, that the last place you want to be if you are sick is the hospital.Hospitals are dangerous places. In addition to infections, there are many other dangers of injury and death posed by hospitals that are preventable. An independent ag
If your personal injury case involves more than one state, it is more complex and requires an attorney familar with handling such cases.Lots of personal injury cases involve more than one state. For example, if you are from North Carolina and you have a car crash just across the border in Virginia,
Not long ago, we saw a huge verdict of $3,000,000.00 in a mild brain injury case in Hampton, VA.A 41 year old woman was driving when a dump truck took a left turn in front of her. In addition to orthopedic injuries, the woman suffered symptoms of brain injury like memory loss, anxiety and loss of ba
My partner, Rick Shapiro, edits the Virginia Beach IB blog and has been practicing mostly injury law for over 20 years, but is also an inventor of new “fold flat” products with patented folding wheel axles. He recently posted a blog article called seeing “Both Sides” which discusses being in the str
Trial lawyers representing injured people have in recent years gained a huge advantage by sharing information over the internet with fellow plaintiff’s side lawyers through listserves or groups of lawyers with a common interest.For years, defense lawyers have shared information with other lawyers re
A book is about to be published, over Allstate Insurance Company’s objections, entitled “From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves – How Allstate Changed Casualty Insurance in America.” This new book criticizing the insurance carrier is written by author David Berardinelli of New Mexico, who is a plaintiff’s
Medical payments (“med pay” for short) coverage, an option on automobile insurance, is extremely important to getting a good result in a personal injury case arising out of a car crash.Many people forget about med pay. Because it is an optional coverage on your automobile insurance, people do not al
John M. Cooper has prepared written materials on the topic of powerful medical evidence presentation at trial to be used at a seminar for other lawyers in Norfolk, VA on October 26, 2006. I will also present live at the class to teach other lawyers about use of medical evidence as a continuing legal
Many insurance companies, including Allstate, State Farm and Farmers, use a computer program to determine the value of injury claims. Some companies, such as Allstate, take the number that their computer program called Colossus spits out as the value of the claim giving no discretion to the claims r
A Virginia Beach jury recently awarded a family $1.5 million for the death of a 51 year old caused by the failure to diagnose cancer.The cancer started as a raw spot on a finger. The doctors treated it as just an infection. Only with a second biopsy did the doctors figure out that this was a melanom
Personal injury lawyers are trained to use words to persuade. One key word that comes up in personal injury litigation again and again is the word “accident.” People are very used to talking about automobile accidents or car accidents. The problem is that accident implies that it is nobody’s fault.
The use of black box or event data recorder in late model cars is becoming a hot topic in criminal and civil litigation. More police are using black boxes to help solve traffic crimes. In Virginia, police officers are routinely downloading this information, when necessary to help figure out what hap