Losing a loved one is a traumatic, heartbreaking event. No amount of money will ever be able to bring your spouse, sibling, or other relative back. Nevertheless, under the law, the mechanism designed to bring some semblance of justice to a grieving loved one who…
The first sentence of a 2015 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety factsheet on teens and distracted driving highlights the need to reduce all causes of car crashes involving drivers younger than 20: “963,000 drivers ages 16-19 were involved in police-reported motor vehicle crashes in 2013, which result
A survey of teenaged drivers in the Pacific Northwest revealed that while warnings about the dangers of texting and driving have largely gotten through, much work remains to curb distracted driving among the group most prone to causing, getting injured in and dying from car…
An Amtrak train collided with a commercial tractor-trailer in Halifax County, North Carolina (NC)recently. Over 40 people suffered injuries in this horrific collision. The impact was so severe that it caused a portion of the Amtrak train to derail. This terrible railroad accident highlights just…
A few days after a California commuter train rammed a truck whose driver had abandoned it at a railroad crossing outside Oxnard, California (CA), on February 24, 2015, Insurance Journal published an analysis titled “Replacing Unsafe Train Crossings Deemed too Expensive.” The headline writer exaggera
The latest federal report on measures being taken to ensure the safety of natural gas pipelines across the United States raises serious concerns. While acknowledging that catastrophic, and fatal, failures such as the 2010 explosion of a Pacific Gas & Electric gas transmission line in…
A February 2015 report from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration should give pause to anyone who believes that the proverbial “just two glasses of wine with dinner” leaves them safe to drive. My Virginia Beach-based attorney colleague Randy Appleton has already highlighted other
Breath and blood sobriety tests, thousands of which were conducted in Virginia Beach, VA, indicate that drunk drivers have become less of a threat on American streets and highways. The same studies conducted for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration also revealed the potentially
A worker at Colonna’s Shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia (VA), suffered injuries requiring hospital treatment when the backhoe he was driving got hit by a small Norfolk Southern locomotive. According to WAVY-TV 10, the collision occurred at a marked but uncontrolled grade crossing inside the work…
In the simplest of terms, “statute of limitation” refers to a deadline for filing a lawsuit. These limits vary based on several factors including the state and the nature of the claim. Since Virginia and North Carolina are neighbors, they are a prime example of…
The statute of limitations for a personal injury claim is two years from the date of the accident in Virginia. See Va. Code § 8.01-243. However, there is a little-known law that can actually be used to bar legitimate claims of injured folks from being filed…
Interview of Richard N. Shapiro Regarding the $2.5 Million Defective Ryobi Ride-on Mower Jury Verdict After a five-day Norfolk, Virginia federal jury trial, the jury returned a $2.5 million verdict in favor of the widow of an 88-year-old man who burned to death after his…