Confidential
“When I was referred to you, I was told you need a “kick ass” lawyer and the case was like in the book/movie The Rainmaker.”
- 3 Offices:
- Hampton
- Newport News
- Williamsburg
Waterman Law Centers, PLLC has worked for decades serving clients who have been harmed by negligence. The fight for justice is important to us, and Waterman Law Centers is dedicated to obtaining the financial compensation our clients deserve. Our personal injury lawyer cares about your situation and wants to help.
Waterman Law Centers, PLLC has dedicated years to serving clients who have been harmed by negligence. The fight for justice is important to us, and Waterman Law Centers is dedicated to obtaining the financial compensation our clients deserve. Our personal injury lawyers care about your situation and want to help.
Waterman Law Centers, PLLC is proud to be honored for the superlative work we do for our clients.
Waterman Law Centers earned a “Metropolitan Tier 1 Ranking” in the 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 Editions of the U.S. News and Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” Rankings for “Plaintiff Medical Malpractice” and for “Plaintiff Personal Injury” (Auto Accidents). That is because it delivers award-winning big-city/big-firm results for its personal injury and wrongful death clients like you!
Do you want your case handled by an award-winning name partner with 40 years of valuable legal experience – or by a young partner, an associate, or even a law clerk “cutting their teeth” and “learning to practice law”? Experience and proven results make a difference!
I have obtained numerous settlements and verdicts for deserving families, bringing them healing and closure; and am ready to serve your case needs, to fight for you. Let me help you get justice!
No need to travel to Richmond, Norfolk, or Virginia Beach for a “Metropolitan Tier 1” lawyer. Just use one of our convenient offices in Williamsburg, Newport News, or Hampton.
Thank you,
Avery T. “Sandy” Waterman, Jr. Esq.
Our top priority is the outcomes we achieve for our clients, and we are proud to have helped so many throughout the years. Here are just some of our glowing testimonials.
“When I was referred to you, I was told you need a “kick ass” lawyer and the case was like in the book/movie The Rainmaker.”
“Great job! Congratulations, you hit it ‘out of the park’!”
“Bravo! I’m so glad we stuck it out with you. YOU ARE THE MAN! And please tell Jeanne she is the woman! Wow!”
“You are truly one awesome trial attorney. I have been very impressed . . . . Thank you for being born and doing what you
“We were so thrilled Monday to be in the Supreme Court of Virginia. Your Brief was a work of art — it was also the
“Congratulations and thanks for your hard work in winning this case for the maximum award amount.”
For 2022, I was voted “Lawyer of the Year” by my fellow lawyers in Best Lawyers in America – the premier legal honorary in the United States – for “Plaintiff Personal Injury” for the Norfolk (Southeast) Region of Virginia. In fact, for 19 consecutive years from 2007 to 2025, I have been named in Best Lawyers in America for “Plaintiff Personal Injury”. Those recognitions are for my handling of auto accident cases on behalf of crash victims.
For 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2023, I was voted “Lawyer of the Year” by my legal colleagues in Best Lawyers in America – the premier law practice honorary in the United States – for “Plaintiff Medical Malpractice” for the Norfolk (Southeast) Region of Virginia. In fact, for 19 consecutive years from 2007 to 2025, I have been named in Best Lawyers in America for “Plaintiff Medical Malpractice”. Those recognitions are for my handling of medical malpractice cases on behalf of victim patients.
Passenger vehicles include a wide variety of motor vehicles. While they tend to exhibit safety precautions, they open us to the possibility of injury.
Commercial vehicles can be especially dangerous due to their size, which is why Waterman Law Centers works to help victims of commercial vehicle accidents.
Bicyclists and pedestrians lack the protection of airbags or seatbelts, resulting in serious injury in the event of an accident.
Falls by hospital patients and nursing facility residents are daily occurrences that usually are the fault of healthcare providers. I successfully have pioneered patient/resident falls as a viable genre of medical malpractice for decades.
The two most common types of medical malpractice in hospitals are medication errors and patient falls. I handle both regularly, plus cases of patients receiving inadequate anesthesia and thereby being awake and feeling pain during surgery, and other errors.
I have been very successful with wrong site surgery cases, e.g., removing the wrong organ or operating on the wrong body part. I also handle cases of surgeons leaving foreign objects in patients, e.g., surgical needle or surgical gauze. There are other surgery errors too.
I employed cutting-edge 3.0 Tesla MRI – most MRIs still are the less-revealing 1.5 Tesla – to neutralize defense expert claims that my brain injury client simply was exaggerating and malingering, obtaining a $6,000,000.00 jury verdict in Gloucester. I reportedly was the first lawyer in any Virginia Circuit Court to introduce brilliant Diffusion Tensor Imaging (“DTI”) into evidence at trial to prove brain injury, obtaining a $3,500,000.00 jury verdict in Newport News…
I established the right of medical malpractice victims to obtain healthcare incident (accident) reports and staff educational/training materials and to use them as evidence at trial. My landmark opinion from the Virginia Supreme Court still stands today and, moreover, continues to be controlling legal authority for patients obtaining and using other types of records about them that healthcare providers inappropriately segregate, withhold, and claim…
For 20+ years, Mr. Waterman has spearheaded the legal battle to obtain for accident victims the recorded statements, reports, etc. of parties and witnesses taken by auto liability insurers and Defendant companies. His tenacity has shifted the weight of Court rulings from being defense-oriented to favoring Plaintiff victims of motor vehicle accidents (“MVA”) and other incidents.
Obviously, being able to hold Defendants and other witnesses to their original candid contemporaneous…
For 25+ years, Mr. Waterman has championed the legal fight for the discovery and the admissibility of policies and procedures (“P&P”) of hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare facilities. His advocacy for victim patients has produced a sea-change in judicial thinking and rulings.
Before 1997, healthcare providers (“HCPs”) strenuously opposed all P&P discovery, uniformly claiming “privilege” against discovery under Va. Code §8.01-581.17 and inadmissibility under the…
Mr. Waterman has pioneered discovery of hospital “pilot programs” for Plaintiff victim patients in medical malpractice cases. His trilogy of favorable published opinions are the first reported ones in Virginia and are believed to be some of the earliest ones nationwide. See, Rauchfuss v. Schultz, 2016 Va. Cir. LEXIS 24 (Newport News Mar. 15, 2016), 2015 Va. Cir. LEXIS 186 (Newport News Dec. 15, 2015), and 2015 Va. Cir. LEXIS 69 (Newport News May 26, 2015)…
Progressively, Mr. Waterman uses medical “learned treatises” in motor vehicle accident (“MVA”) cases, not only in medical malpractice cases. He also authored a prevailing legal brief in the leading “learned treatise” case before the Virginia Supreme Court. Medical “learned treatises” – typically referred to as the “medical literature” by medical malpractice practitioners – is a statutory hearsay exception in Virginia. Under Va. Code §8.01-401.1, experts can rely upon and…
Progressively, Mr. Waterman uses Virginia’s “Table of Life Expectancy” not only in wrongful death cases, but also in personal injury cases! Va. Code §8.01-419 embodies Virginia’s “Table of Life Expectancy”. It is an actuarial table of life expectancy for males and of females from ages 0 to 100. By that statute, that Table legally is the presumptive life expectancy for individuals to be received in evidence in Court, subject to “other evidence as to the…
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Williamsburg Office:
217 McLaws Circle
Suite 3
Williamsburg, VA 23185
Call: (757) 881-9881
Fax: (888) 886-5352
Avery@WatermanLawCenters.com
Newport News Office:
780 Pilot House Drive
Suite 300-C
Newport News, VA 23606