2017 Virginia Traffic Crash Facts of Virginia Highway Safety Office show 127,375 vehicle crashes, 843 vehicle fatalities, and 65,306 vehicle injuries. Significantly, about 30% of vehicle accident fatalities are alcohol-related, about 40% of vehicle accident fatalities are speed-related, and about 35% of vehicle accident fatalities...
On December 20, 2018, the Virginia Supreme Court issued Shumate v. Mitchell, No. 180012. It upheld as admissible under Va. Code §8.01-397 – Virginia’s Dead Man’s Statute – deceased Defendant driver’s uncorroborated post-collision hearsay statements to his son away from the vehicle accident scene. Shumate...
On June 27, 2018, Circuit Court for Nelson County, Virginia issued its 16-page letter opinion in the nursing facility case of Stevens v. Medical Facilities of America XXXII (32) Limited Partnership, No. CL17000208-00, denying arbitration and venue change requested by the medical malpractice Defendant. Stevens...
On December 11, 2018, Circuit Court for Loudoun County, Virginia, granted Plaintiff medical malpractice victim’s motion to compel Defendants’ 6-year pre-incident online and reading histories in Trigg v. Loudoun OB/GYN, LLC, et al., No. CL00108164-00. Specifically, over defense Objections the Judge found relevant and ordered...
On December 13, 2018, Avery T. ‘Sandy” Waterman, Jr. received America’s Top 100 Attorneys “Lifetime Achievement Award” for Virginia. He also was honored as an America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigator in Virginia. His litigation practice focuses on vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, and other cases...
Trial is the monthly law journal of the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”), formerly American Trial Lawyers Association (“ATLA”). Its issue cover for December, 2018, is emblazoned “PRODUCTS LIABILITY”. This Trial’s “Spotlight” section is “Lack of Truck Driver Safety Program Leads to Deaths”. It details a...
Pre-trial, nursing facility defense counsel are wont to saber-rattle about the deceased resident patient being Do-Not-Resuscitate (“DNR”). This month, however, in the wrongful death medical malpractice case of Swift v. Regency Healthcare, Circuit Court for York County, Virginia, ruled such DNR status irrelevant and inadmissible,...
Mr. Waterman recently received a pair of Orders from Fairfax Circuit Court denying transfer to Prince William Circuit Court in companion medical malpractice cases for ostensible “substantial inconvenience,” pursuant to Va. Code § 8.01-265. The lawsuits are the personal injury claim in Perez v. Potomac...
By Order entered on November 30, 2018, Fairfax Circuit Court overruled Defendant doctor’s Demurrer inter alia to the “otherwise negligent” language of Plaintiff patient’s Complaint. Medical malpractice case is Bronley v. Tapazoglou, No. CL2017-2217....
On November 15, 2018, the Kentucky Supreme Court unanimously struck down as unconstitutional Kentucky’s 2017 Medical Review Panel Act, because of it conflicting impermissibly with entitlement to “open courts” by medical malpractice victims. The 27-page opinion is Commonwealth of Kentucky v. Claycomb, Nos. 2017-SC-000614-TG and...
On November 15, 2018, Mr. Waterman was selected as 2019 Super Lawyers for “Personal Injury – Malpractice: Plaintiff”. This is the 11th consecutive year that Mr. Waterman has been so honored. He is the ONLY lawyer on the Peninsula, and 1 of approximately 30 lawyers...
Trial is the monthly law journal of the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”), formerly the American Trial Lawyers Association (“ATLA”). Its issue for November, 2018, is emblazoned “ACCESS TO JUSTICE”. Trial’s current issue features a half-dozen vehicle accident cases in its “Verdicts & SETTLEMENTS” section. “Mishandling...
Mr. Waterman settled for $750,000.00 a medical malpractice case of alleged personal injuries and wrongful death of 88 year-old resident due to fall. All other settlement details are confidential. Mr. Waterman’s law practice focuses on medical malpractice (including nursing home resident and hospital patient falls), vehicle...
On November 1, 2018, the Virginia Supreme Court issued Parker v. Carilion Clinic, No. 170132. It delineated pleading presumptions, requirements, and limitations for vicarious liability, direct liability, and negligence per se of the medical malpractice defendant hospital. Parker held the corporate defendant admitting plaintiff’s allegation that...
By Order entered October 30, 2018, Circuit Court for the City of Richmond, Virginia, denied Defendant offending motorist’s Motion to Transfer Venue in Anderson v. Bagheri, No. CL17-4969. It found dual residency in Richmond and Fairfax where Defendant had a Virginia driver’s license showing the...
By Order entered October 30, 2018, Norfolk Circuit Court found that Defendant Sentara’s policies and procedures were “not privileged,” i.e., were discoverable, and granted Plaintiff’s Motion to Compel. The medical malpractice case is Traina v. Sentara Healthcare, No. CL18-113. Traina ordered production of the following policies...
By Order entered September 21, 2018, in Adams v. Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters, No. CL2018-2656 in Circuit Court for the City of Norfolk, Virginia, Judge Lannetti overruled in pertinent part the dilatory Demurrer of Defendant CHKD. Adams found that a Complaint stated claims...
In the wrongful death case of Scruggs v. Williamsburg Landing, Inc., No. CL18001644-00 in Circuit Court for the City of Williamsburg and James City County, Virginia, nursing home Defendant, Williamsburg Landing, Inc. (“WLI”), “accepts responsibility and liability for the April 15, 2016 fall,” see, 9/24/16...
At hearing and by Order entered on October 19, 2018, Judge Rupe of the Circuit Court for the City of Richmond, Virginia, upheld as timely the enhanced Complaint refiled outside the statute of limitations yet within 6 months of nonsuit; applied the same “conduct, transaction,...
By Order entered September 28, 2018, Circuit Court for Northampton County, Virginia, “finds that Plaintiff’s designations with regard to three different experts in two different specialties [two nurse experts and Dr. Chesler] to testify as to standard of care with respect to that required of...
On October 11, 2018, the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed that an employer owes “a duty of care to an employee’s family member who alleges exposure to asbestos from work clothes of an employee, where the family member alleges the employer’s negligence allowed asbestos fibers to...
The Trial Lawyer is the quarterly law journal of The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers. Its issue for Fall 2018 is titled “HUMAN TRAFFICKING” and features the article “HELP STOP HUMAN TRAFFICKING THROUGH CIVIL LITIGATION”. Id. at 52-57. Fall 2018 Trial Lawyer also features...
Trial is the monthly law journal of the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”), formerly the American Trial Lawyers Association (“ATLA”). The October 2018 issue of Trial is dedicated to “Cutting Through SECRECY”. October 2018 Trial features 3 articles against secrecy in litigation: “BREAK THROUGH PROTECTIVE ORDERS,”...
On May 8, 2018, Circuit Court for City of Lynchburg, Virginia, granted the medical malpractice Plaintiff’s Motions to Compel, found multiple key materials to be discoverable, and ordered Defendants to produce them. The case is Carwile v. Centra Health, Inc., No. CL16-823. Carwile ruled that Plaintiff...
By unpublished Order on July 26, 2018, the Virginia Supreme Court affirmed dismissal of a legal malpractice suit by Fairfax Circuit Court. The case is Sere v. Trapeni, No. 170842. Sere declared that “the circuit court’s rulings in the underlying personal injury action have no preclusive...
On September 21, 2018, a Fairfax jury awarded $2,500,000.00 plus pre-judgment interest from the time of medical malpractice to the victim patient who was not treated properly in the Emergency Room after sustaining a stroke. Key evidence at trial was metadata from the hospital’s electronic...
On September 13, 2018, the Virginia Supreme Court rejected the appeal Shaun Brown, upholding Richmond Circuit Court’s finding that election fraud by Republican Scott Taylor’s staff precluded Brown (an Independent) as an intended “spoiler” candidate against his Democratic rival, Elaine Luria, for Virginia’s U.S. Congressional...
On April 27, 2016, the Medical Director of Williamsburg Landing, Inc. (“WLI”) certified to Virginia’s Department of Health by official Certificate of Death that a WLI resident patient’s cause of death was the fall suffered in Hoyer lift transfer by a WLI nurse’s aide. The...
On April 15, 2016, a resident patient of Woodhaven Hall at Williamsburg Landing, Inc. (“WLI”) was dropped 4 feet from a hoyer lift onto her hard nursing home bedroom floor by WLI’s nurse’s aide, and died from her fall-related injuries there 8 days later. In...
Trial is the monthly law journal of the American Association for Justice (“AAJ”), formerly American Trial Lawyers Association (“ATLA”). Its issue for September, 2018, is entitled “An Assault on WORKERS’ RIGHTS”. September 2018 Trial’s “Verdicts & SETTLEMENTS” reports 3 motor vehicle accident cases. “Texting while driving”...