On October 6, 2011, Defendants filed Motions in Limine and Memorandum in Support in Shirley Frazier Shakshober v. Riverside Hospital, Inc., et al., No. CL08-296 in Circuit Court for he City of Newport News, Virginia, toward keeping from the jury twelve (12) points of evidence...
On October 4, 2011, Mr. Waterman attended an ethics and professional program in Richmond, Virginia, presented by the Virginia State Bar and Attorney Liability Protection Society, Inc. (“ALPS”). The hot topic was “social media,” which surfaces with increasing frequency as key evidence in personal injury...
On September 30, 2011, Mr. Waterman filed Motion for Writ of Certiorari in the brain injury case of Gagnon v. Burns, No. 110767 in the Virginia Supreme Court. It seeks to have the record on appeal enlarged to include the Jury Special Interrogatory and the...
Like the rest of America, Virginia is exploding with “social media” – from YouTube to Facebook to Myspace to Twitter to LinkedIn to Lester v. Alliance Concrete to you-name-it! Most of the younger generation and increasing numbers of the older generation are expressing themselves online...
On September 28, 2011, Mr. Waterman settled a car accident claim arising in Newport News, Virginia. His client suffered personal injuries from a rear-ender on Interstate 664 in 2010. As a result of the two car collision, the victim was treated at Mary Immaculate Hospital in...
On September 24, 2011, Mr. Waterman settled a car accident claim against the six-figure insurance policy of an out-of-state motorist. His client is a long-time resident of Williamsburg, Virginia. The offending motorist allegedly ran a redlight on Airport Road and broadsided the victim on Richmond Road...
Social media burst onto the radar of most lawyers in 2011 with repeated headline news coverage of a notorious truck accident case, Lester v. Allied Concrete. But Mr. Waterman has been wrangling with it for years. In a confidential 2009 Williamsburg special case in Court, a...
In Evans v. Evans, 280 Va. 76 (2010), the Virginia Supreme Court upheld the right of a child to sue through one parent as next friend the other parent who injured the child by negligence in a vehicle crash. A father had put his 4...
On September 15, 2011, the Supreme Court of Virginia awarded appeals on the Petition filed and cross-errors assigned by Mr. Waterman’s client in Gagnon v. Burns, Record No. 110767; and on the Petition filed by the opposition in Burns v. Gagnon, Record No. 110754. The...
This month, Mr. Waterman attended “The Ethics of Negotiation in Mediation” in Richmond, Virginia, sponsored by the Virginia ADR Joint Committee of the Virginia Bar Association and the Virginia State Bar. Topics included mediating out-of-state, mediator background and “bad faith” disclosures, lawyer mediation conduct, and...
On September 13, 2011, Mr. Waterman settled without having to file suit a medical malpractice claim against a Wal-Mart Pharmacy in Williamsburg, Virginia. It was a clear case of liability for the pharmacist dispensing 10 times the strength of a medication prescribed by a neurologist...
On September 3, 2011, Mr. Waterman again was selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2012 18th Edition of The Best Lawyers in America. His legal recognition was for the practice areas of Medical Malpractice Law – Plaintiffs, Personal Injury Litigation, and Personal Injury...
On September 1, 2011, a 32-page Order was entered in a car accident suit pending in Circuit Court for Charlottesville, Virginia. The consolidated personal injury and wrongful death cases are Lester v. Allied Concrete Co., No. CL08-150 c/w CL09-223. The Lester auto accident litigation marquees the...
On August 31, 2011, Mr. Waterman and opposing counsel argue Gagnon v. Burns before a writ panel of the Virginia Supreme Court in Richmond, Virginia. Both parties have petitioned to appeal different aspects of the brain injury case in which Gloucester County jury awarded approximately...
Cabiness v. Medical Facilities of Am. VIII (8), L.P., 80 Va. Cir. 425 (Danville Jun. 21, 2010) is a medical malpractice action. It overruled the Demurrer to plaintiff’s claim for punitive damages. Cabiness found that the First Amended Complaint set forth sufficient facts supporting “willful and...
This month Mr. Waterman settled a pending but unserved vehicle accident lawsuit. The two-car crash occurred in York County and involved residents of Yorktown and Newport News, Virginia. The victim was traveling on State Route 622 (Brick Church Road) with the right-of-way through its intersection with...
Gibson v. Medical Facilities of America, Inc., 80 Va. Cir. 56 (Norfolk Jan. 22, 2010) is a medical malpractice case. It resolved issues of venue and an arbitration clause in favor of the nursing home resident, a victim of sexual molestation. First, Gibson held there was...
Mr. Waterman’s Gloucester County brain injury case, Gagnon v. Burns, Record Nos. 110754 and 110767, has been scheduled for oral arguments before a writ panel of the Virginia Supreme Court on August 31, 2011. Both parties have been granted 10 minutes on their respective Petitions...
Kudos to the Honorable Ronald E. Wilson, Judge of the 1st Judicial Circuit, sitting as temporary Justice on the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia! On July 21, 2011, he authored a most courageous cogent dissent in the medical malpractice case of MacDonald v....
Mr. Waterman now is slated to speak on February 15, 2012, in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Annual Convention of the Southern Trial Lawyers Association (“STLA”). His personal injury topic is “Cameos for Neutralizing the Defense Expert” within the theme of “Tactics, Techniques or Strategies...
On August 2, 2011, Mr. Waterman was invited by the Honorable Stephen C. Moore to join as a Master member of the I’Anson-Hoffman American Inn of Court XXVII. Membership is extended only to a select few within the Hampton Roads legal community. I’Anson-Hoffman is our region’s...
In O’Brien v. Glenn, 80 Va. Cir. 188 (Rockingham Feb. 17, 2010), Rockingham Circuit Court opined on the tort of “negligent entrustment” in a car accident case. Defendant relied on the Virginia Supreme Court’s test in Denby v. Davis, 212 Va. 836, 838 (1972)(emphasis in...
In Lagumen v. Richardson, 80 Va. Cir. 51 (Chesapeake Jan. 21, 2010), Chesapeake Circuit Court adjudicated the degree of certainty or probability required for a medical expert opinion to be admissible. In that medical malpractice case, the treating physician equated the legal touchstone of “reasonable...
In Lents v. Vetter, 80 Va. Cir. 268 (Fairfax Apr. 2, 2010); Fairfax County Circuit Court applied Va. Code Ann. §8.01-20.1 in a medical malpractice action. Section 8.01-20.1 requires plaintiffs to have medical expert certification of a prima facie case before requesting service of process. In...
In Salzman v. Kanchev, 80 Va. Cir. 139 (Chesapeake Feb. 4, 2010), Chesapeake Circuit Court addressed stacking of uninsured and underinsured liability insurance coverage. The declaratory judgment action involved a car crash on Military Highway in Chesapeake, Virginia. “When a disputed policy term is unambiguous, a...
Christine M. Tigges of Hamilton, Virginia, was covered by United States Automobile Association (“USAA”) for $300,000.00 of personal injury damages under an automobile liability insurance policy. She then also apparently was covered by USAA for car accident under an umbrella insurance policy for an additional...
On July 15, 2011, Mr. Waterman settled the car accident claim of a Williamsburg resident. The victim was a guest passenger in Fairfax County, Virginia, when an inattentive offending motorist from Great Falls rear-ended the vehicle from Annandale in which he was riding. The Williamsburg victim...
In Government Employees Insurance Co. v. United Services Automobile Association, No. 100332 (Apr. 21, 2011), the Virginia Supreme Court found no insurance coverage in a declaratory judgment action for a car accident in Hampton, Virginia; based on the offending driver not being a permissive user....
House Bill 1605 passed during the General Assembly’s 2011 Session, and became effective July 1, 2011. It made fraudulent falsification of patient records a class 1 versus a class 3 misdemeanor; but does not alter any commonlaw jurisprudence about fraudulent falsification in civil medical malpractice...
During its 2011 Session, Virginia’s General Assembly passed companion House Bill 1746 and Senate Bill 1145. They extend from 2 to 20 years the limitation period within which an infant or incapacitated victim of sexual abuse can file a civil personal injury lawsuit. This statutory amendment...