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. It allows the at fault driver to simply say, “Sorry, it was just an accident.” There is even a jury instruction that says the happening of an accident does not mean that the defendant is automatically responsible. This all feeds right into the “stuff happens” type defense.
I prefer to use the words crash, wreck or collision. Each of these words has a lot more impact than accident. Crash is the technical term used by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), which makes reports about crashes on the nation’s highways. Collision is a more accurate description of what happens when two vehicles meet. Wreck is probably the most ordinary, everyday word to describe the situation. This is especially true when a train is involved, as in many of the cases that we handle. A train wreck means something and implies the kind of huge property damage that comes when a railroad car engine weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds hits some other vehicle or person. I try to never use the word accident in my cases, and force myself to always say collision, wreck or crash in front of the jury.
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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