On November 24, 2009, Avery T. “Sandy” Waterman, Jr., Esq. settled a Virginia wrongful death suit arising out of a vehicular accident. The compromise was reached through mediation in Suffolk Circuit Court.
The wrongful death case is Burr v. R.C. Paving, No. CL08-947. Plaintiff’s deceased was a guest in an uninspected passenger vehicle rear-ended by a dump truck when traffic slowed because of a short-bed pickup truck spilling its unsecured load onto the undivided state highway.
As all wrongful death cases in Virginia, the Court in Burr must approve the dollar amount of the compromise settlement and its apportionment among statutory beneficiaries. Also by Virginia statute, a Committee must be appointed for one of the surviving siblings, because he is incarcerated; and there must be newspaper publication for another surviving sibling, because his whereabouts are unknown.
