On May 20, 2013, Mr. Waterman filed the lawsuit entitled Cynthia M. Ray v. Spencer M. Smith and India V. Parker, No. CL1302098T-01 in Circuit Court for the City of Newport News, Virginia. Defendants’ insurer, USAA, ignored repeated demands to tender its liability policy limits...
The May 2013 issue of Trial reported a half-dozen Verdicts & Settlements. Id. at 8-12. One is a medical malpractice lawsuit for negligent laparoscopy that settled for roughly $1,000,000.00 in California. Id. at 8-9. Another is a special case of product liability involving after-market modifications of...
Trial is the monthly magazine of the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”). Its May 2013 is its annual issue on “Medical Malpractice”. Five articles are featured: “Dangers of Electronic Medical Systems,” id. at 14-19; “The Pros and Cons of Practice Guidelines,” id. at 20-25; “EMERGENCY ROOM...
This week a lawsuit scheduled for Court–facilitated mediation was settled by Mr. Waterman. It arose out of a 3–car crash on I-64 East near Victoria Boulevard in Newport News, Virginia, involving residents of Hampton, Yorktown, and Newport News. Defendant offending motorist was cited and found guilty...
Eason v. Sentara Hospitals [and] Sentara Careplex Hospital, No. 12000470 is an alleged wrongful death or survival case pending in Circuit Court for the City of Hampton, Virginia. On January 19, 2013, Plaintiff obtained a written expert opinion that both Sentara Defendants deviated from the...
Some medical malpractice defense lawyers have resorted to questioning patients’ experts in deposition whether their litigation testimony supposedly violates membership standards of their professional societies. Query: if the subsequent professional discipline of the patient’s expert by the society can result in a lawsuit verdict against...
Trial is the monthly magazine of the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”), of which Mr. Waterman has been a member for decades. Trial’s April 2013 issue marquees “False Claims for Unrendered Nursing Home Care” under its Verdicts and Settlements. Id. at 8. The AAJ article reports...
On April 18, 2013, the Virginia Supreme Court issued The Doctors Company v. Women’s Healthcare Associates, Inc., No. 120702. That 7-2 decision found the medical malpractice insurer owed coverage for a breach of contract claim arising out of the healthcare provider’s failure to participate in...
The Trial Lawyer is the quarterly magazine of The National Trial Lawyers: TOP 100 TRIAL LAWYERS. Its first issue of 2013 features a couple of articles on vehicle accidents. “CREATING AND DEVELOPING THE LITIGATION PLAN AND STRATEGY In Interstate Truck Litigation Cases” among other things cautions...
On March 20, 2013, Mr. Waterman filed Lamont v. Striggles, No. CL1301322V-04 in Circuit Court for the City of Newport News, Virginia. It is a suit for serious personal injuries arising out of a two-car collision on Warwick Boulevard near Curtis Drive the prior month. According...
During April 5-6, 2013, Mr. Waterman attended “Reptile in Nursing Home Cases” at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. It was a 2-day legal seminar. This special medical malpractice program featured Don Keenan and other plaintiff lawyers. It was developed after countless hours in Keenan’s exclusive Florida...
During April 1-2, 2013, Mr. Waterman resolved a multi-car crash case arising in Portsmouth, Virginia. The “rear-ender” occurred on the Western Freeway near the Town Point Road Exit and involved motorists from Suffolk and Chesapeake and their insurers, USAA and State Farm. The car crash victim...
Hospitals and nursing homes decry and lobby against patient claims for medical malpractice. But Virginia Business’ 2013 “Big Book” shows 50 healthcare institution to be “big business” in Virginia - with at least a half-dozen healthcare systems and even stand-alones to have collected more...
“DANGEROUS DRINKS” is another feature article in AAJ’s Trial magazine in March, 2013. It exposes wrongful deaths and personal injuries caused by popular “energy drinks”. Id. at 28-34. “Energy drink warning labels lack the specificity that would allow consumers to make an informed choice whether to...
Trial magazine’s March 2013 issue publishes 5 vehicle accident matters. A $2,750,000.00 New Jersey settlement entitled “Port Worker Strikes Dockworker with Forklift” and a $2,000,000.00 Illinois settlement in another forklift case entitled “Company Settles Despite ‘Borrowed Servant’ Defense” are headlined under its “Verdicts and Settlements.”...
AAJ’s March 2013 Trial issue also reports 2 medical malpractice topics. One is under “Verdicts and Settlements,” the other a feature article. “Oxycodone Overdose” details a Florida jury verdict for $5,330,000.00 for wrongful death. The victim patient had been prescribed hundred of Oxycodone pills before dying...
The March 2013 issue of Trial, the monthly magazine of the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”), formerly the American Trial Lawyers Association (“ATLA”), is entitled “Protect the Innocent”. It marquees 3 crime victim writings, the first being “BULLYING BASICS,” which addresses school-related bullying of students...
On March 4, 2013, the United States Supreme Court decided the medical malpractice case of Levin v. United States, No. 11-1351. It upheld a military veteran’s suit for intentional tort against the United States for a Navy surgeon allegedly operating on a patient without consent...
On February 28, 2013, the Virginia Supreme Court issued Tharpe v. Saunders, No. 120985, an appeal from the Circuit Court of Halifax County. In that special case, the Court held that the allegedly false attribution of a statement constituted defamation regardless whether the statement was...
On February 28, 2013, the Virginia Supreme Court handed down Osman v. Osman, No. 120291, and appeal of a case involving wrongful death from the Circuit Court of Virginia Beach. It construed Virginia’s “slayer” statute, Va. Code Ann. §55-401, to preclude a son from inheriting...
During March 8-9, 2013, Mr. Waterman was a speaker and a panelist at the national “Winning Medical Negligence Cases” seminar in Scottsdale, Arizona. The 2-day seminar was presented by the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”), the nation’s largest association of plaintiff trial lawyers. Mr. Waterman’s topic...
On February 28, 2013, a divided Virginia Supreme Court opined in Hunter v. Virginia State Bar, No. 121472, an appeal from the Circuit Court for the City of Richmond. It addressed a special case of blogging by a lawyer in which “[n]owhere in these [trademarked...
On March 6, 2013, Mr. Waterman filed Plaintiff’s Motion to Enforce 1/23/13 Hearing Order in William M. Snovell, Executor of the Estate of Bernadette Teresa Connelly Snovell, Deceased v. Williamsburg Facility Operations, LLC, et al., No. CL12-4966 in Circuit Court for York County, Virginia. It...
Healthcare providers, insurers and so-called “tort-reformers” are wont to attribute high rising healthcare costs to medical malpractice claims. However, such self-serving cries belie statistics that put medical negligence claims at less than 1% - possibly less than ½ of 1% - of all healthcare costs. TIME’s...
On February 26, 2013, Mr. Waterman concluded a car accident case arising in James City County, Virginia. An out-of-state driver insured by State Farm and cited for “unsafe lane change” under Va. Code Ann. §46.2-804 allegedly forced a Newport News resident off of State Route...
During February 22-23, 2012, Mr. Waterman attended the Wrongful Death Retreat of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association (“VTLA”) entitled “Understanding and Proving Intangible Losses”. Its site was Kingsmill in Williamsburg, Virginia, his neighborhood. VTLA’s Wrongful Death Retreat featured an innovative roundtable discussion format. Its small group...
Trial magazine of the American Association of Justice reported a half-dozen notable “Verdicts and Settlements” in its February 2013 issue. Three were variants of medical negligence. Id. at 8-11. A Georgia jury awarded $3,400,000.00 for medical malpractice against a clinic physician’s assistant using a dirty syringe...
The February 2013 issue of Trial, a monthly magazine of the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”), is titled “DANGER ON THE ROAD”. Its focus is on vehicle accidents. There are five major articles: (1) “Discovery Issues in Distracted Driving Cases,” id. at 14-20; (2) “SMALL TRUCKS,...
On February 1, 2013, the corporate Defendant in the medical malpractice lawsuit of William M. Snovell, Executor of the Estate of Bernadette Teresa Connelly Snovell, Deceased v. Williamsburg Facility Operations, LLC, D/B/A Consulate Health Care of Williamsburg, and “Jane Roe/John Doe,” No. CL12-4966 in Circuit...
On January 10, 2013, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld 4 separate jury awards totaling $10,577,000.00 in a two-vehicle accident trial in Circuit Court for the City of Charlottesville, Virginia. The case is Allied Concrete Co. v. Lester, Record No. 120074. First, Allied Concrete held the trial...